Feature Presentation: 2015-16 All-BDL Team
We at Ball Don’t Lie enjoy healthy debate about basketball and its strange cast of characters, from Oscar Robertson’s “get off my lawn” diatribe on Stephen Curry to D’Angelo Russell’s sting operation on a self-dubbed dude named Swaggy P and his Australian hip hop artist fiancé. (Yup, those things happened.) It’s NBA with a twist here at the BDL, so we wanted to stir the pot and shake up the league’s annual awards.
BDL ALL-BDL TEAM
The late ’90s/early 2000s Kings were my favorite basketball team ever to watch. I was obsessed with the Fab Five, so Chris Webber was the foundation for a love of all things White Chocolate and Vlade Divac.
I appreciated that Divac liked playing as much as I did watching. “I play basketball with joy, and I just want to play basketball,” he sad then. “I don’t feel like it’s a job. It’s a game, so I really want to have fun.”
With that in mind, think of the All-BDL Team not as a trio of misguided All-NBA Teams, but the 15 guys we most enjoyed following throughout 2015-16. For basketball reasons and beyond, they were just fun.
AND THE WINNERS ARE …
FIRST TEAM
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (unanimous): He couldn’t stop making half-court buzzer beaters, and by the end of the year, you just started to expect even the most ridiculous of shots to go down easy.
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder (unanimous): We covered the eccentricity and electricity that was Westbrook in our BDL Second-Most Valuable Player summary, but we’ll add this as further evidence:
Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors: If Curry was the flash in Golden State’s glorious season, Green was the substance, acting as a Swiss Army knife cutting up opponents in a furious ball of energy.
DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings: As Sacramento’s neverending coaching carousel and persistent trade rumors swirled around him, Cousins boogied on, either posting monster stat lines or “playing like bleep, man,” on a given night. It was appointment viewing, even if at times he just made you go, “Huh?”
Kristaps Porzingis, New York Knicks: This didn’t count, but he’s 7-foot-3 and good God he’s got range:
SECOND TEAM
Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota Timberwolves
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Damian Lillard, Portland Trailblazers
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder
LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers
THIRD TEAM
Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio Spurs
Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
Pau Gasol, Chicago Bulls
Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors
Isaiah Thomas, Boston Celtics
AND THE NOMINEES WERE …
| 2015-16 ALL-BDL TEAM RESULTS | |||||
| PLAYER | TEAM | 1ST (5 PTS) | 2ND (3 PTS) | 3RD (1 PT) | TOTAL |
| First Team | |||||
| Stephen Curry | Golden State | 4 | — | — | 20 |
| Russell Westbrook | Oklahoma City | 4 | — | — | 20 |
| Draymond Green | Golden State | 2 | 2 | — | 16 |
| DeMarcus Cousins | Sacramento | 2 | 1 | — | 13 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | New York | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| Second Team | |||||
| Karl-Anthony Towns | Minnesota | 1 | 2 | — | 11 |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | Milwaukee | 2 | — | — | 10 |
| Damian Lillard | Portland | — | 3 | — | 9 |
| Kevin Durant | Oklahoma City | 1 | 1 | — | 8 |
| LeBron James | Cleveland | 1 | 1 | — | 8 |
| Third Team | |||||
| Kawhi Leonard | San Antonio | — | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Kobe Bryant | L.A. Lakers | 1 | — | — | 5 |
| Pau Gasol | Chicago | 1 | — | — | 5 |
| Chris Bosh | Miami | — | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Isaiah Thomas | Boston | — | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Others Receiving Votes | |||||
| Nic Batum | Charlotte | — | 1 | — | 3 |
| Chris Paul | L.A. Clippers | — | 1 | — | 3 |
| Lance Stephenson | L.A. Clippers/Memphis | — | 1 | — | 3 |
| Hassan Whiteside | Miami | — | 1 | — | 3 |
| Kyle Lowry | Toronto | — | — | 2 | 2 |
| Kemba Walker | Charlotte | — | — | 2 | 2 |
| Tony Allen | Memphis | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Jae Crowder | Boston | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Boris Diaw | San Antonio | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Danilo Gallinari | Denver | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Paul George | Indiana | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Paul Millsap | Atlanta | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Dirk Nowitzki | Dallas | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| Zach Randolph | Memphis | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| D’Angelo Russell | L.A. Lakers | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| John Wall | Washington | — | — | 1 | 1 |
AND NOW A WORD FROM THE ACADEMY …
We understand some of the fun comes with picking apart the voting panel and publicly shaming their misfires, so we’ll do our best to explain ourselves before you folks let us have it in the comment section.
Actually, you know what? Screw it. These teams are totally subjective, so if you’ve got a problem with them, maybe your therapist or cat or imaginary friend will be willing to hear you out about why Lance Stephenson shouldn’t have gotten as many votes as Chris Paul?!?! Maybe we’re entertained by weirder players than you are. Relax. It’s cool. We like watching more players than the ones on this list, but we narrowed a list of hundreds of NBA players down to the 15 we most enjoyed this season. Get over it.
CUE THE AUDIENCE REACTION …
2015-16 BDL AWARDS
IN THEATERS NOW: Bench of the Year • Coach(ing Change) of the Year • Defensive Unit of the Year • (Non-Lottery) Rookie of the Year • Executive (Decision) of the Year • (2nd) Most Valuable Player • Most (Random) Improved Player • Comeback Player of the Year • All-Potential Team • All-Defensive* Team • All-BDL Team
WE REALLY, REALLY LIKE YOU
First and foremost, we’d like to thank Yahoo Sports Photos and Multimedia Manager Amber Matsumoto for her tireless work on graphics. None of this would’ve been possible without her. And special thanks to Basketball Reference and NBA.com/stats for statistics, SportsCenter for the Vine and tweet, Reddit for the AMA and Streamable for the gifs. And thanks to everyone who read BDL during the 2015-16 NBA regular season; now, stay tuned for the playoffs, because they’re sure to provide more fun fodder for all of us.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
