How All-NBA Teams Signify Team Success

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Yesterday, the NBA released the results of its All-NBA Team voting, sparking another flurry of debate about who should truly be among the top-15 players in the league.

All-NBA teams announced: pic.twitter.com/1zmKZUedCu

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) May 21, 2015

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Now, I could quibble about some of the selections (*cough* DeAndre Jordan *cough*), but that’s already being hashed out on plenty of platforms. Besides, arguing over whether someone is really the 6th or 8th best guard in the league generally comes down to a matter of personal opinion anyway. Instead, let’s take a look at the presence of All-NBA team players on recent NBA champions, and thus, how vital that is to a franchise’s success.

Title Year – Champion – # of All-NBA Players – Players – Which Team

2014: San Antonio Spurs (1: Tony Parker [2nd])

2013: Miami Heat (2: LeBron James [1st], Dwyane Wade [3rd])

2012: Miami Heat (2: LeBron James [1st], Dwyane Wade [3rd])

2011: Dallas Mavericks (1: Dirk Nowitzki [2nd])

2010: Los Angeles Lakers (2: Kobe Bryant [1st], Pau Gasol [3rd])

2009: Los Angeles Lakers (2: Kobe Bryant [1st], Pau Gasol [3rd])

2008: Boston Celtics (2: Kevin Garnett [1st], Paul Pierce [3rd])

2007: San Antonio Spurs (1: Tim Duncan [1st])

2006: Miami Heat (2: Shaquille O’Neal [1st], Dwyane Wade [2nd])

2005: San Antonio Spurs (1: Tim Duncan [1st])

Extending the exercise to this season, the two presumptive favorites to reach the finals, Golden State and Cleveland, each had 2 players apiece receive honors. So over the last decade, every champion had, at the very least, one player on 2nd-team All-NBA. In fact, the last time this wasn’t the case was all the way back in 1995, when the Houston Rockets had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler on the 3rd team. 1989 was the last time the champion had no one on the teams at all, when the Pistons were left on the lists entirely. Looking back, it’s definitively clear that you need a top-10 player to win a title.

Circling back to the Sixers, that’s the entire point of Sam Hinkie’s rebuild. He’s said from the very beginning that you need at least one superstar player to be a major factor in this league. A team comprised of Jrue Holiday, Thad Young, and other parts could potentially have become very good, but it likely was never going to be great. That’s why Hinkie hordes draft picks like Smaug does Elvish gold; he wants as many chances as possible to get some lottery luck and find that next superstar. Or, as Houston did, perhaps he can package a slew of those assets to pounce when a superstar is available in the market for whatever reason. When you look at the results over history, who can really blame him for having such a philosophy?

Could Nerlens Noel become that type of player? If DeAndre Jordan can, why not? There’s already an argument to be made Noel is a better defender and he’s not a liability in late-game situations at the foul line. A more likely scenario is Joel Embiid, who has always rated as the better prospect than Noel, and if he can avoid injuries (not an insignificant if), projects as a dominant player on both ends. Or maybe it’s whoever they acquire with the 3rd pick this year, or the Lakers pick next year, or the Heat pick sometime down the road.

The point is that Hinkie isn’t cornering himself into one strategy. Michael Carter-Williams doesn’t appear to be the guy, ok, on to the next one. He’s going to keep shifting gears and making moves until the Sixers have that top-10 player, because by all available evidence, that’s what you need to be an NBA champion.