All Aboard The All-NBA Train

Sun Apr 6 10:35:14 CDT 2008

All Aboard The All-NBA Train

(http://x.go.com/cgi/x.pl?goto=http://search.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=marc_stein&name=SEARCH_m_archive&srvc=sz)   
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Season-ending award ballots  arrived from the league office this week, but 
we're sticking to the usual  schedule. The choices made at Stein Line HQ will be 
revealed on the final Friday  of the regular season.  
Except for one category. 
We usually run out of real estate in the season's final Weekend Dime,  
expansive as it is, for a detailed breakdown of our All-NBA selections. So we're  
going to start going through the process now, with two reminders: 
1. This is a preview of where I'm strongly leaning with 13 days to go in the  
regular season. I reserve the right to tweak any of these three teams before  
actually submitting my ballots -- changes to the current Dallas-Denver-Golden 
 State order would undoubtedly necessitate a rethink, for example -- but you 
will  be notified of any changes. 
2. The league instructs us to vote for five players on each of the three  
All-NBA teams at the position they play regularly and with no ties. Five  points 
are awarded for every first-place vote, three for every second-team vote  and 
one for every third-team vote.  
First Team
F -- _Kevin Garnett_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3007)  (Boston)
F -- _LeBron James_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3704)  (Cleveland)
C -- _Amare Stoudemire_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3607)  (Phoenix)
G -- _Kobe Bryant_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3118)  (Los Angeles Lakers)
G -- _Chris Paul_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3930)  (New Orleans) 
The rationale: Four names on the first team were automatics because  Bryant, 
Paul, Garnett and James are everybody's top four in the MVP race in some  
order. The only contestable item here, I suppose, is that I'm favoring  Stoudemire 
as my first-team center, knowing very well that he only plays center  now 
when _Shaquille O'Neal_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=847)  is off the floor. 
Here's the deal: He's played more center than power forward overall this  
season, which technically addresses those aforementioned league instructions to  
"please vote for the player at the position he plays regularly." It's a fact  
that Stoudemire has played more regularly this season at the five, and that 
fact  is a huge help in a season where we're at least one worthy center short 
because  _Yao Ming_ (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3599) 
 played only 55 games before getting hurt. 
Then there's this: Amare has also been one of the five best players in the  
league in the second half of the season, which motivates me even more to find  
room for Stoudemire on the first team. 
Shaq's arrival is widely credited as the spark for Amare's latest dramatic  
spike, which is something we've all been watching for since Shaq said on his  
first day as a Sun that one of his most important jobs in the desert would be  
overseeing the "Amare Stoudemire Project." Yet we tend to agree with Suns 
coach  Mike D'Antoni, who pointed out recently that Stoudemire's numbers "started 
to go  off the charts" even before the O'Neal deal, with Phoenix running more 
plays  than ever before for the 25-year-old. 
Turning my ballot in this way would thus bump _Dwight Howard_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3818)  to the second team, which will 
enrage my  oldest son Alexander The Greatest, who's been doing Superman dunks 
on the  mini-hoop upstairs pretty much nonstop since All-Star Weekend. Howard, 
however,  played his best ball in the first half and has been a touch less 
ferocious  since, dunk contest aside. Factor in the whispers coming out of 
Orlando that _Hedo Turkoglu_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3415)  is the Magic's greater source of  consistency and the case for Amare 
grows. 

____________________________________
Second Team
F -- _Tim Duncan_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3173)  (San Antonio)
F -- _Carlos Boozer_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3632)  (Utah)
C -- _Dwight Howard_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3818)  (Orlando)
G -- _Manu Ginobili_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3380)  (San Antonio)
G -- _Steve Nash_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3103)  (Phoenix) 
The rationale: Team success, as usual, bosses my thinking here. 
Ginobili is having his best season and has essentially been Duncan's equal  
for the first time, which has the defending champs vying yet again for the best 
 record in the West and should leave little doubt why there are two Spurs on 
the  second team. 
I fully expect Howard to appear on most ballots as a first-teamer -- and I'm  
not ruling out reverting to such thinking when ballots are due April 17 -- 
while  Boozer has only enhanced his status as one of the game's most fearsome 
down-low  operators for the team with the best home record in the league. So 
they're  no-brainers, too. 
As for Nash … 
If you're planning to write in claiming that the two-time MVP has slipped at  
34, don't bother. You'll never convince me. Check out the numbers; Nash's  
statistical production remains highly efficient and spectacular. His role in  
helping to quickly assimilate Shaq in one of the most dramatic midseason changes 
 of all time, furthermore, can't be underestimated. 

____________________________________
Third Team
F -- _Dirk Nowitzki_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3252)  (Dallas)
F -- _Paul Pierce_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3253)  (Boston)
C -- _Marcus Camby_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3084)  (Denver)
G -- _Allen Iverson_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3094)  (Denver)
G -- _Tracy McGrady_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3179)  (Houston) 
The rationale: Figuring out the third-team forwards is fairly easy by  
comparison because Pierce has raised his ferocity to KG's level for the team  with 
the most wins in the league and thanks to Nowitzki's second-half return to  his 
MVP form. Denver's _Carmelo Anthony_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3706)  isn't far behind, but misses out  because the Nuggets 
aren't putting three players on a 15-man squad. Not even  Boston can do that. 
Injuries were an unavoidable variable at center. Yao will wind up missing  
more than a third of the season when you include the playoffs, leaving us to  
choose between Toronto's _Chris Bosh_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3707)  and Camby. This is subject to change if the  Nuggets 
squander their current playoff-bound status, but Camby's nightly attempt  to make 
up for the defense multiple teammates don't play and his newfound  durability 
-- he hasn't missed a game yet this season at 34 -- broke the  deadlock. 
(Although we should add that _Rasheed Wallace_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3006)  was also a consideration here, in spite  of what the 
stats say, given Sheed's overall team contribution to the mighty  Pistons and 
his better-than-ever relationship with the refs.) 
That brings us to the crowded nightmare at third-team guard. Everyone keeps  
waiting for Iverson to break down, now that he's 32, but do you see any  
slippage? Not us. T-Mac's Rockets, meanwhile, were supposed to collapse without  
Yao and wound up stretching a 12-game winning streak into a 22-gamer, which is  
only the second-longest unbeaten run in NBA history. 
The problem with choosing those two, though, is that you're then forced to  
leave out _Deron Williams_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3929) , _Baron Davis_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3326)  and _Chauncey Billups_ 
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3174) . Which makes you feel very bad about  yourself. 
Yet you conclude, in the end, that Houston has to have one All-NBA  
representative, even more than a Detroit team that makes it almost impossible to  pick 
out a standout. Davis will come back into consideration on my official  ballot 
if the Warriors manage to reclaim their playoff spot -- D-Will and  Billups 
deserve the same reconsideration at season's end, frankly -- but it  looks as 
though Baron's still-alive run at playing all 82 games will be  bittersweet 
unless the Mavs and Nuggets slip up. 
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for  ESPN.com

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