Lakers News: See Which Future LA Hall Of Famer Makes Expert's All-NBA Ballot
ESPN senior writer Zach Lowe, one of yours truly's favorite current basketball writers (I can give you a full top 10 one of these days if there's enough interest), recently unveiled his All-NBA player selections for the 2022-23 season, and made a somewhat surprising inclusion from your Los Angeles Lakers.
Although Anthony Davis actually played one more game than LeBron James (56 to LBJ's 55) and was a far more impactful defender, Lowe opted to include the 38-year-old one-way superstar scorer over the two-way low post behemoth.
The other surprising element of the James inclusion is that it supersedes other, healthier All-Star talents. I'm not saying James, as the best or second-best player on a 43-39 club isn't important, but part of me wonders if this is more of a legacy inclusion than anything else.
For Lowe, James made the cut over New York Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle, All-Star Memphis Grizzlies power forward/center Jaren Jackson Jr. (currently beasting against James' Lakers in a hotly contested first round playoff series), Davis, and fellow injury-prone all-time forwards Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns and Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers. I'll let him explain his thinking here.
"Playmaking is why James beats out Randle despite logging 18 fewer games and 800 fewer minutes," Lowe writes. "I'd have no qualms with Randle and one of Siakam and Markkanen making it over James -- and with James being excluded. It's all splitting hairs. If you multiplied production times minutes played, Randle probably comes out a bit ahead of James in that (hypothetical) cumulative score."
"But that it would be way closer than an 800-minute gap suggests is why James lands here. Perhaps the greatest player of all time averaged 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists -- and he remains one of the game's half-dozen scariest chess masters. There are zero teams that would be more frightened game-planning against Randle than James. James slipped on defense, but Randle was only so-so there -- with a bad habit of whiffing on boxouts."
"There is a minutes threshold somewhere. Kevin Durant was a first-team-level player but appeared in only 47 games. Not enough. James played 200 more minutes than Kawhi Leonard. All three would have made All-NBA teams had they appeared in 60-ish games, but if you have to choose one -- and you don't -- it should be James."
"Other potential solves at third-team forward: Jaren Jackson Jr. and Davis. Davis played at an MVP level in, what, 30 of his 56 games? If you are in the MVP conversation for 30 games, you have a place in the All-NBA discussion. But Davis doesn't play forward, and the NBA asks voters to consider players at the positions they play most. Davis was the league's third-best center on a per-minute basis, but Sabonis gutted through a busted thumb to play in 23 more games and 830 more minutes on a better team. His brilliance as the whirring hub of Sacramento's league-best offense -- 19 points, 12 rebounds, 7 dimes, 61.5% shooting -- merits a spot."
For the year, James averaged 28.9 points on 50% shooting from the floor, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists, insane numbers for anyone, but especially for a 38-year-old playing in his 20th NBA season. Davis averaged 25.9 points on 56.3% shooting from the floor (though he took way more shots inside the three-point arc than did James), 12.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.1 steals.
The whole article is well worth reading in full, though it is behind an ESPN Insider paywall.
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