Vote for the 2018 All-Playoffs Team

[Ken D]

Summary of the 2018 Playoffs

Vote on the 2019 All-Playoffs Team

My votes:

1st Team
C- Anthony Davis, New Orleans
F- LeBron James, Cleveland
F- Kevin Durant, Golden State
G- James Harden, Houston
G- Stephen Curry, Golden State

2nd Team
C- Al Horford, Boston
F- Draymond Green, Golden State
F- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee
G- Chris Paul, Houston
G- John Wall, Washington

3rd Team
C- Clint Capela, Houston
F- Jayson Tatum, Boston
F- Khris Middleton, Milwaukee
G- Victor Oladipo, Indiana
G- Klay Thompson, Golden State

Others Considered:
Terry Rozier, Boston
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia
Kevin Love, Cleveland
Kyle Lowry, Toronto
Jrue Holiday, New Orleans
Donovan Mitchell, Utah
Jaylen Brown, Boston
Rudy Gobert, Utah
Paul George, Oklahoma City

- I found this one more challenging than the 2019 team. In 2019 there were enough quality options that made it to the 2nd round and beyond and really no players that lost in the 1st round that warranted serious consideration. Exact opposite in 2018 playoffs.

- Every series in the 2nd round was either a sweep or 5 games, and Cleveland was swept in the Finals, which made the players on those losing teams less attractive options.

- Giannis, Wall & Oladipo were spectacular in close 1st round losses. I know some people are adamant about not voting for a player that lost in the 1st round, but I found it really difficult to overlook some of them in this playoffs with a lack of quality alternatives.

- I actually gave serious consideration to Terry Rozier. He had a nice run for a Boston team that took Cleveland to 7 games in the Conference Finals.

- I wanted to give Cleveland a 2nd player since they went to the Finals but this version of Cleveland was pretty much a total one man show. I looked hard at Kevin Love but he had a subpar playoffs, played almost exclusively Center this season, and I thought Horford and Capela were better choices.

- The options at guard were better than the options at forward. I very reluctantly went with Khris Middleton for the last 3rd team spot. There were a couple of guys I would have voted for ahead of him but they were guards.

- The 1st team selections were pretty easy choices I thought.

[70sFan]

Reminder - I don't include 1 round exits.

1st Team

G: Stephen Curry
G: James Harden
F: Kevin Durant
F: LeBron James
C: Al Horford

- I thought strongly about Paul over Curry - he outplayed him h2h and was probably the playoffs MVP for Rockets. He played less games though and his injury hurt his case,
- Harden was an easy choice to me, he wasn't perfect in the playoffs but no other guard came close to him in my opinion. I have him over Paul due to injury.
- James and Durant are locks, no need to explain that,
- I went with Horford over Davis because of how impressive his play was in conference finalists. I know he didn't have Davis stats, but watching him play then made me appreciate him more than ever before.

2nd team:

G: Chris Paul
G: Klay Thompson
F: Jason Tatum
F: Draymond Green
C: Anthony Davis

- Paul is a lock, as I said I considered him in 1st team,
- I couldn't find a better option than Klay at guard position, there wasn't much depth here,
- Tatum was fantastic and he deserved all praise then, clear choice to me,
- Green was Green, he did his things extremely well as usual,
- Davis is a clear choice to me here.

3rd team:

G: Jrue Holiday
G: Jalen Brown
F: Andre Iguodala
F: PJ Tucker
C: Clint Capela

- Holiday was very good in playoffs, usually underrated player,
- I'm not a fan of Brown, but he was quite impressive these playoffs,
- Iggy was still very important for Warriors, have to include him,
- Tucker was fantastic, he has to be included somewhere and I couldn't take him over Green (maybe I'm wrong here?),
- I'm not sold on Capela, but he was important part of Rockets success. I may exchange him for Love.

It's ridiculous that I didn't include any Cavs players other than LeBron. Maybe I underrate his supporting cast a bit? What do you think about Love vs Capela?

[Ken D]

It's ridiculous that I didn't include any Cavs players other than LeBron. Maybe I underrate his supporting cast a bit? What do you think about Love vs Capela?

I felt the same. This Cavs team might be the only Finals team ever that I would only vote for one player on the team. It's amazing that LeBron took this team to the Finals. They ranked 29th in defensive efficiency in the regular season. The previous years they were in the Finals he had plenty of help from Kyrie and Love. This was the 4th straight year they were in the Finals and I think they were running on fumes by this point.

When I started this one I assumed I would vote for Love but when I dug into it I actually chose Capela over him fairly easily. Love missed game 7 of the conference finals with a concussion so I thought that may have affected him but even before that he was struggling. Here is the statistical comparison between them for the 2018 playoffs:

Boxscore Stats
Capela 12.7 Pts, 11.6 Reb, 1.3 Ast, 0.8 Stl, 2.1 Blk, 0.0 3PM, .660 FG%
Love 14.9 Pts, 10.2 Reb, 1.6 Ast, 0.7 Stl, 0.4 Blk, 1.7 3PM, .392 FG%

Advanced Stats
Capela .642 TS%, 24.1 PER, .238 WS/48, 5.5 BPM
Love .511 TS%, 15.5 PER, .073 WS/48, -0.9 BPM

Love played 4 more games than Capela, but Cleveland was swept by Golden State and Houston took them to 7 games. Cleveland also barely escaped the Celtics to get to the Finals.

[RCM88x]

IMO Korver would deserve more consideration than Love, but he still doesn't deserve any for this type of list. That might have been one of the 5 worst supporting casts in the league, perhaps even worse, but they ended up in the Finals. I still don't understand how that happened. If you remove the Toronto series from the teams playoff box scores it legitimately gets kind of sad.

[Doctor MJ]

1st Team
C Anthony Davis
F Kevin Durant
F LeBron James
G Steph Curry
G James Harden

Clear cut choices for me.

2nd Team
C Al Horford
F Giannis Antetokounmpo
F Draymond Green
G Chris Paul
G Ben Simmons

Horford's play against Philly was iconic.
Giannis put an awful scare into his ECF-reaching opponent.
Green is Green and Golden State won again.
Paul clearly the #3 guard of the playoffs.
Simmons run to end the season and through the first round was epic stuff, amazing to think that was his rookie year, and that is still his highlight.

3rd Team
C Rudy Gobert
F PJ Tucker
F Jason Tatum
G Jrue Holiday
G Klay Thompson

I debated between Gobert and Capela, but when everyone knows Player X is better but plays on a worse team, and the two teams play without changing any minds about that, it's hard for me to go against Player X unless there's a several round difference between their respective teams.

Tucker's been the Rockets 3rd most essential piece in the recent Rocket years behind Harden and his back court co-star. It's worth honoring. He's a perfect puzzle piece to fit along side Harden.

Tatum. A 2nd rookie makes the playoff team.

Klay is Klay and Golden State won again.

[Ken D]

Results so far:

1st Team
C- Anthony Davis, New Orleans 13
F- LeBron James, Cleveland 15
F- Kevin Durant, Golden State 15
G- James Harden, Houston 15
G- Stephen Curry, Golden State 15

2nd Team
C- Al Horford, Boston 11
F- Draymond Green, Golden State 9
F- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee 6
G- Chris Paul, Houston 9
G- Klay Thompson, Golden State 5

3rd Team
C- Clint Capela, Houston 2
F- Jayson Tatum, Boston 5
F- PJ Tucker, Houston 2
G- John Wall, Washington 3
G- Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 3

Others Receiving Votes:
Jrue Holiday, New Orleans 2; Jaylen Brown, Boston 1; Andre Iguodala, Golden State 1; Khris Middleton, Milwaukee 1; Victor Oladipo, Indiana 1; Rudy Gobert, Utah 1

Ballots Counted: Ken D, 70s Fan, Doctor MJ

Four players unanimous on the first team so far, but a lot of different players getting votes for the second and third team. Let's see if we can get a couple more people's votes in.

[homecourtloss]

It's ridiculous that I didn't include any Cavs players other than LeBron. Maybe I underrate his supporting cast a bit? What do you think about Love vs Capela?

I felt the same. This Cavs team might be the only Finals team ever that I would only vote for one player on the team. It's amazing that LeBron took this team to the Finals. They ranked 29th in defensive efficiency in the regular season. The previous years they were in the Finals he had plenty of help from Kyrie and Love. This was the 4th straight year they were in the Finals and I think they were running on fumes by this point.

When I started this one I assumed I would vote for Love but when I dug into it I actually chose Capela over him fairly easily. Love missed game 7 of the conference finals with a concussion so I thought that may have affected him but even before that he was struggling. Here is the statistical comparison between them for the 2018 playoffs:

Boxscore Stats
Capela 12.7 Pts, 11.6 Reb, 1.3 Ast, 0.8 Stl, 2.1 Blk, 0.0 3PM, .660 FG%
Love 14.9 Pts, 10.2 Reb, 1.6 Ast, 0.7 Stl, 0.4 Blk, 1.7 3PM, .392 FG%

Advanced Stats
Capela .642 TS%, 24.1 PER, .238 WS/48, 5.5 BPM
Love .511 TS%, 15.5 PER, .073 WS/48, -0.9 BPM

Love played 4 more games than Capela, but Cleveland was swept by Golden State and Houston took them to 7 games. Cleveland also barely escaped the Celtics to get to the Finals.

.4 VORP for all Cavs players sans LeBron. It was 0 before the BKREF formula change in BPM.

Nance, Korver, and Thompson were all better than Love.

I will say, though, that Love played well in the Toronto series and lo and behold, the Cavs won 4-0 and created one of the highest playoffs series ORtg in playoffs history (raw and relative).

The other series:

Love vs. IND: 11.4 ppg on 46% TS
Love vs. BOS: 12.5 ppg on 48% TS, 26% usage

[eminence]

1st Team:
Stephen Curry
James Harden
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
Draymond Green

2nd Team:
Chris Paul
Victor Oladipo
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Al Horford
Anthony Davis

3rd Team:
John Wall
Jrue Holiday
Jayson Tatum
PJ Tucker
Rudy Gobert

Plenty of very strong HMs this season as well.

[GSP]

- I thought strongly about Paul over Curry - he outplayed him h2h and was probably the playoffs MVP for Rockets. He played less games though and his injury hurt his case,
-

Cp3 and Steph both played 15 playoff games.....and Steph came off the bench in game 2 against Pelicans. Are we just ignoring how dominant the Warriors were without Steph?

Steph over Cp3 is crazy to me. I'm not sure he was clearly better than Jrue TBH. Victor only had 1 round but it was arguably more impressive than any from Steph. Indiana got unlucky but without homecourt took Cavs to 7 and outscored them by 40 for the series. Victor's defense was phenomenal and they mostly won when he showed up on offense. He was the best player on the floor in a couple games of that series and this was one of Lebron's Goat postseasons too

[Ken D]

Results so far:

1st Team
C - Anthony Davis, New Orleans 16
F - LeBron James, Cleveland 20
F - Kevin Durant, Golden State 20
G - James Harden, Houston 20
G - Stephen Curry, Golden State 20

2nd Team
C - Al Horford, Boston 14
F - Draymond Green, Golden State 14
F - Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee 9
G - Chris Paul, Houston 12
G - Klay Thompson, Golden State 5

3rd Team
C - Rudy Gobert, Utah 2
F - Jayson Tatum, Boston 6
F - PJ Tucker, Houston 3
G - John Wall, Washington 4
G - Victor Oladipo, Indiana 4

Others Receiving Votes:
Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 3; Jrue Holiday, New Orleans 3; Clint Capela, Houston 2; Jaylen Brown, Boston 1; Andre Iguodala, Golden State 1; Khris Middleton, Milwaukee 1

Ballots Counted: Ken D, 70s Fan, Doctor MJ, eminence

[ardee]

1st Team

Curry
Harden
Durant
LeBron
Davis

2nd Team

CP3
Jrue
Giannis
Draymond
Horford

3rd Team

Simmons
Klay
Tatum
Iggy
Gobert

Jrue was very underrated

[Ken D]

Results so far:

1st Team
C - Anthony Davis, New Orleans 21
F - LeBron James, Cleveland 25
F - Kevin Durant, Golden State 25
G - James Harden, Houston 25
G - Stephen Curry, Golden State 25

2nd Team
C - Al Horford, Boston 17
F - Draymond Green, Golden State 17
F - Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee 12
G - Chris Paul, Houston 15
G - Jrue Holiday, New Orleans 6

3rd Team
C - Rudy Gobert, Utah 3
F - Jayson Tatum, Boston 7
F - PJ Tucker, Houston 3
G - Klay Thompson, Golden State 6
G - Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 4

Others Receiving Votes:
Victor Oladipo, Indiana 4; John Wall, Washington 4; Clint Capela, Houston 2; Andre Iguodala, Golden State 2; Jaylen Brown, Boston 1; Khris Middleton, Milwaukee 1

Ballots Counted: Ken D, 70s Fan, Doctor MJ, eminence, ardee