With the NBA in the final full week of the regular season, the\u00a0Most Valuable Player race has been too close to call. The Rookie of the Year may be all but settled. Lately, there’s been discussion about the rightful contenders for Defensive Player of the Year. Pretty soon, there will be more focus placed upon those player awards, impassioned fans and media members making their cases and votes.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, it’s a perfect time to make predictions about who’ll make the all-league teams (All-NBA, All-Rookie, All-Defensive) as well. The focus of this article will be on the former.<\/p>\n
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic<\/a> \u2014are frontrunners for the 2025 Most Valuable Player award<\/a>. Thus, they should both be considered near-locks to make the All-NBA First Team. With that in mind, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> is putting MVP numbers while doing all he can to keep his team in playoff contention. Though the recent arrival of Luka Doncic<\/a> (who won’t reach the 65-game minimum) has taken pressure off of LeBron James<\/a>, he’s played at an elite level for much of the season. Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham<\/a>‘s appearance may be a surprise, but his numbers and ability to lead his team to a postseason appearance say otherwise.<\/p>\n Though their teams are in far different places, separated by the outcome of the Jimmy Butler<\/a> trade saga, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry<\/a> (37) and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant<\/a> (36) are proving that King James isn’t the only member of NBA royalty who can still dominate on the court at an advanced age. Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum<\/a> clearly entered the season with a chip on his shoulder after his humbling Paris Olympics experience<\/a>. Like the Celtics, their division rivals, the New York Knicks rely on far more than their stars. Nevertheless, Knicks teammates Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> and Jalen Brunson<\/a> have arguably been the franchise’s best 1-2 punch since their championship duo<\/a>.<\/p>\n In one group are the players that specialize as scorers and facilitators. Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden<\/a>, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton<\/a>, and Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young<\/a> are all in this category of offensive engines. Harden is the most seasoned. Haliburton is the most efficient. Young is the most prolific. In the second group are the players that stand out as scorers, facilitators, and rebounders. Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis<\/a> and Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun<\/a> belong in this category, their dynamic skillets their team’s secret ingredient.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the NBA in the final full week of the regular season, the\u00a0Most Valuable Player race has been too close to call. The Rookie of the Year may be all but settled. Lately, there’s been discussion about the rightful contenders for Defensive Player of the Year. Pretty soon, there will be more focus placed upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":133175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,4,1608,20,10,25,31,11,27,26,15,12,22,28,29],"tags":[1946,3965,306,444,798,69,38,72,1489,48],"class_list":["post-133163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-pistons","category-warriors","category-rockets","category-pacers","category-clippers","category-lakers","category-bucks","category-knicks","category-thunder","category-suns","category-kings","tag-all-nba","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-james-harden","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133177,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133163\/revisions\/133177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}All-NBA Second Team<\/h3>\n
Stephen Curry (GSW), Kevin Durant (PHX), Jayson Tatum (BOS), Karl-Anthony Towns (NYK), Jalen Brunson (NYK)<\/h5>\n
All-NBA Third Team<\/h3>\n
James Harden (LAC), Tyrese Haliburton (IND), Trae Young (ATL), Domantas Sabonis (SAC), Alperen Sengun (HOU)<\/h5>\n