Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry was named to the 2014 All-NBA Second Team, as announced by the league today.
You can see the full breakdown of all three teams here, but since we're probably most concerned about how the guard situation played out here's how that voting went:
2013-14 ALL-NBA FIRST TEAM |
|
|
Position |
Player, Team (1st Team Votes) |
Points |
Guard |
James Harden, Houston (73) |
502 |
Guard |
Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers (86) |
540 |
2013-14 ALL-NBA SECOND TEAM |
|
|
Position |
Player, Team (1st Team Votes) |
Points |
Guard |
Stephen Curry, Golden State (65) |
489 |
Guard |
Tony Parker, San Antonio (14) |
210 |
2013-14 ALL-NBA THIRD TEAM |
|
|
Position |
Player, Team (1st Team Votes) |
Points |
Guard |
Goran Dragic, Phoenix (1) |
115 |
Guard |
Damian Lillard, Portland (2) |
115 |
The 2014 All-NBA guards.
Basketball Twitter has responded by suggesting that Curry was snubbed and, personally, I would've had Curry on the first team for any of the following reasons.
Can’t defend Harden over Curry myself, not when Harden was actively terrible defensively.
— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) June 4, 2014
Curry should have been first team. CP missed too much time IMO
— Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) June 4, 2014
1st team (WARP): Durant (25.6), LeBron (22.11), Harden (20.9), Curry (19.8), Love (18.4).
— EvanZ (@thecity2) June 4, 2014
I think you could even go a step further and say that Curry was just a more dynamic threat at the guard position than Harden with his ability to distribute the ball so much more efficiently, which made him a far more valuable player to have on the floor just in terms of how you scheme against the Warriors - I'll admit that's a bit more of a "MVP argument", which is why I was a bit more surprised that Harden edged Curry in that vote.
Stephen Curry, an All-NBA Second Team member, is the 1st player in Warriors history to average at least 24 points and 8 assists in a season
— GSWStats (@gswstats) June 4, 2014
Anyway, as Grantland's Zach Lowe said when he addressed this dilemma of choosing All-NBA guards back in April, maybe a lot of the debate over Curry vs Harden/Paul is splitting hairs - Paul is great when healthy and there's no question about Harden being talented (even if he can't be bothered with playing one end of the floor).
Ultimately, it was a great season for Curry with his (belated) first All-Star selection and now his (belated) first All-NBA honor. As EvanZ said on Twitter, these are the baby steps people have to take with Curry, for some reason.
Also, I'd love to hear Steve Kerr's explanation for voting Curry to the second team.
What do you think? Vote in the poll below and sound off in the comments.