2026 NBA Awards Ballot: All-NBA, All-Defensive, All-Rookie team selections

For the seventh straight year, the NBA asked me if I’d like to be one the media members with an official ballot for year-end awards. I said yes.

On Thursday, we broke down MVP, Rookie of the Year and individual honors. Let’s finish up with the team selections.

Quick note: I’m writing this before I receive the link to my actual ballot, which won’t come until after the end of the regular season, when the powers that be make their final tabulations on who qualifies under the league’s 65-game threshold for awards consideration. As such, I might need to make a change or two before I click submit.

For the most part, though, here’s what my picks for the 2025-26 NBA regular season will look like:

All-NBA • All Defensive • All-Rookie

All-NBA

First Team

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Nikola Jokić, Nuggets
Luka Dončić, Lakers*
Jaylen Brown, Celtics

Hey, look: it’s my MVP ballot. That’s tidy. (Again: Luka’s here pending the resolution of his challenge, and Cade would be here if he was eligible.)

Second Team

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
Kevin Durant, Rockets
Tyrese Maxey, 76ers
Chet Holmgren, Thunder

I made the case for Leonard among the MVP candidates and in the aforementioned recent episode of The Big Number. I also discussed Durant there, as Ben Rohrbach did in a recent piece on older players having elite seasons.

It’s frankly unbelievable that, at age 37, now nearly seven years removed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, has played the second-most minutes in the entire NBA. It’s much more believable, to anyone who’s watched KD cook over the years, just how much he’s done with those minutes, averaging nearly 26 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5 assists per game on characteristically pristine 52/41/88 shooting splits, and keeping the Rockets’ offense at a top-10 level despite the losses of starting point guard Fred VanVleet before the season and offensive rebounding kaiju Steven Adams midway through the campaign.

For all their flaws, the Rockets survived those injuries and rickety offense to win 50 games in the tough-as-hell West, and KD — in or just outside the top 10 in win shares, value over replacement player and estimated plus minutes, among other metrics — has been the biggest reason why. For that, he gets (from me, at least) his 12th All-NBA nod; only LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal have more.

Mitchell’s been sensational in Cleveland, averaging just under 28 points, six assists and 4.5 rebounds per game while shooting a career-high 58% on 2-pointers, drilling the fifth-most pull-up 3s in the league, posting a career-best free-throw attempt rate, and finishing in the top 10 in a slew of advanced metrics. He’ll likely earn more than a few down-ballot MVP votes for his work in driving Cleveland to a top-seven offense, their second straight 50-win season and home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

Philadelphia, conversely, enters the final weekend of the season slugging it out in the play-in mix. That the 76ers even made it that far is a testament to the contributions of Maxey, who made it his mission to put the team’s disappointing 2024-25 season behind him and, in the process, made the Sixers his team. The sixth-year guard is averaging career highs in points (28.4, fifth in the NBA), assists (6.7), rebounds (4.1), steals (1.9, tied for third in the league) and minutes per game (38.2, tops in the league) as the ever-revving engine of a Philly offense that scores like a near-top-10 unit in his minutes … which is probably why Nick Nurse never really wants to take him off the floor.

Holmgren rounds out the second five for combining DPOY-finalist-level work as the anchor of by far the NBA’s best defense with super-efficient complementary scoring — 17.1 points per game on 56/36/79 shooting — over 2,000 minutes as Gilgeous-Alexander’s most dependable running buddy on the league’s best team.

Third Team

Jalen Duren, Pistons
Jamal Murray, Nuggets
Jalen Brunson, Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns, Knicks
LaMelo Ball, Hornets

Duren gets the nod not because Detroit demands representation with Cunningham now ineligible, but on his own merits. The only players averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds per game while making 60% of their 2-point shots are Jokić and Duren. Among players who've appeared in at least 60 games, Duren’s third in both total win shares and win shares per 48 minutes, sixth in PER, and ninth in EPM and BPM. He’s been incredibly productive even with Cunningham off the floor — more than 27 points and 15 rebounds per 75 possessions with a .652 true shooting percentage without Cade, per Databallr — and has developed into a rock-solid back-line presence for a team that wins largely on the strength of its No. 2-ranked defense.

Like Duren, Murray caps a season that saw him make his first All-Star appearance with his first All-NBA appearance. The just-turned-29-year-old put together the finest season of his 10-year career, averaging a career-best 25.4 points, 7.1 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game on 48/44/89 shooting, while serving as one of the premier crunch-time scorers in the game.

In years past, fans and commentators have made reference to “Bubble Murray” or “Playoff Murray” — monikers that both describe the best versions of the Canadian that we’ve seen, and underscore the fact that his tendency toward slow starts and regrettable injury luck have led to that version not typically being visible throughout the slog of a regular season. This time around, though, Denver got the best of Murray from opening tip through the finish line — one massive reason why, despite injuries to Jokić, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Cameron Johnson, the Nuggets once again field the NBA’s best offense, once again won 50 games, and once again enter the postseason as a team that nobody in the West will be particularly eager to face.

Brunson and Towns merit spots for their roles in delivering another 50-win season in Manhattan — Brunson, for his now-customary 26 points and seven assists per game with timely fourth-quarter bag work; Towns, for what’s been (to my eyes, at least) a broadly overlooked excellent season that’s seen him play arguably the best defense of his career while still averaging 20 points per game on 50/37/86 shooting despite sacrificing shots and touches. The Knicks can be maddening, but they’re also really good, thanks in no small part to their All-Star inside-out combo.

You know who else is really good — or, at least, has been since about Christmas? The Hornets. And while it’s taken a village to get Charlotte back to the postseason, the prime mover behind this surge has been Ball — long a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him showman who this year, thanks largely to better health and better teammates, has used that audacity to drive one of the NBA’s best offenses.

Ball’s minutes and usage rate are down, and his individual shooting efficiency will always leave something to be desired, thanks to the sheer volume of extremely deep, heavily contested and unorthodox shots he regularly attempts. But he’s been more productive in (slightly) smaller doses, averaging 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 28 minutes per game. His penchant for demanding defensive attention and bending coverages, combined with his near-peerless court vision and passing touch, has made him one of the foremost creators of high-quality offense in the sport: The Hornets have scored a scorching 125.7 points-per-100 in his minutes and, according to PBP Stats, have been nearly as dominant when he plays without either Knueppel or Miller (+14.2 points-per-100 in 172 minutes) as when he plays with them (+16.2 points-per-100 in 840 minutes).

Charlotte’s return to NBA relevance has been one of the season’s best stories, and LaMelo’s been the biggest reason for it. I think that deserves recognition.

Also in consideration: Edwards, had he played enough games to qualify; Derrick White, James Harden, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, Deni Avdija, Jalen Johnson, Scottie Barnes, Stephon Castle, Amen Thompson.

All-Defensive

First Team

Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Chet Holmgren, Thunder
Ausar Thompson, Pistons
Rudy Gobert, Timberwolves
Derrick White, Celtics

My top three finishers in DPOY voting — Wembanyama, Holmgren and Thompson — make my First Team. So do Gobert, who continues to rank among the league’s premier weighted blankets to deploy in putting an offense to sleep — Minnesota prevents points at a top-two level in his minutes — and White, the skeleton key whose on- and off-ball defense, secondary rim protection and all-around fire-extinguishing unlocks Boston’s fifth-ranked defense.

(Here’s a bats*** stat: According to Second Spectrum, among 86 players who’ve contested at least 200 shots at the rim this season, White ranks 17th in defensive field goal percentage allowed on those up-close looks, holding opponents to 55.6% shooting at the basket when he’s the nearest defender, right between young shot-blocking centers Alex Sarr and Yves Missi. Reminder: White is a 6-foot-4 combo guard.)

Second Team

Scottie Barnes, Raptors
Bam Adebayo, Heat
OG Anunoby, Knicks
Stephon Castle, Spurs
Cason Wallace, Thunder

Barnes, Anunoby and Adebayo can all guard basically anybody: any size, any shape, any quickness or ability level, inside or out. That has made them the linchpins of the NBA’s No. 7, 9 and 11 defenses, respectively — all of which get stops at elite rates in their minutes and fare much, much worse without them on hand to ruin the opposing offense’s day.

Despite standing just 6-6 and weighing a few dozen pounds less than that trio, Castle seems eager to put himself in that “I guard everybody” category, too, not only pulling point-of-attack duty against the opponent’s top perimeter weapon — SGA, Luka, Cade, Brunson, you name it — but also pulling shifts against the likes of KD, Jokić and Alperen Şengün when the situation calls for an application of additional pressure. He’s relentless in working to circumvent screens, and plays with a physicality that ensures Spurs opponents understand that merely staying away from the 7-5 guy in the paint doesn’t mean their misery’s over.

Wallace takes the last spot in recognition of his incredibly disruptive third season: just off the league lead in steals and tied with Thompson in deflections; a full-court-pressing menace who’s equally adept at picking dribblers clean and blowing up a possession off the ball. On any given night, he might only be Oklahoma City’s third-best perimeter stopper, behind Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso; over the course of this full season, though, he’s been just about as good as it gets.

Also in consideration: Dyson Daniels, Amen Thompson, Jaden McDaniels, the Blazers’ duo of Donovan Clingan and Toumani Camara, Kris Dunn, Lu Dort.

All-Rookie

First Team

Kon Knueppel, Hornets
Cooper Flagg, Mavericks
VJ Edgecombe, 76ers
Dylan Harper, Spurs
Collin Murray-Boyles, Raptors

My ROY ballot (Knueppel, Flagg and Edgecombe) is joined by Harper, who already maneuvers around the court like a 10-year vet — 18-5-5 per-36 as a teenage rookie is some rarefied air; he’s going to be lethal — and Murray-Boyles, who, as a 20-year-old small-ball 5, would probably already be the best and most versatile defender on a lot of teams that didn’t employ Scottie Barnes.

Second Team

Cedric Coward, Grizzlies
Ace Bailey, Jazz
Derik Queen, Pelicans
Jeremiah Fears, Pelicans
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Hornets

The four lottery picks all showed flashes of what they might be and reason to hope for brighter days ahead. Coward averaged 14-6-3 on league-average true shooting in the first half before hitting the rookie wall (and before Memphis determinedly went into the tank). Bailey popped for 30 three times and, arguably more importantly, showed more of a willingness to play complementary, sweat-the-small-stuff basketball than his reputation suggested coming out of Rutgers. Queen turned in two triple-doubles in his first half-season as a pro; Fears showed real growth in his second half-season, averaging more than 13-3-3 off the bench over the final couple of months with that lightning-quick first step.

Kalkbrenner, for his part, came off four straight Big East Defensive Player of the Year awards and … promptly proved to be an immediate high-caliber NBA rim protector. He’s blocked 6.4% of opponents’ 2-point attempts — a rate that would’ve tied for third in the NBA if he’d played enough minutes — and held opponents to 54.9% shooting at the rim, a near-top-10 mark. Oh, and he also averaged four offensive rebounds per-36, made literally 75% of his shots, and paired with Moussa Diabaté to give Charlotte the most surprisingly successful center rotation this side of Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. Not bad for a 23-year-old second-round pick.

Also in consideration: Sion James, Hugo González, Jamir Watkins, Rasheer Fleming, and let’s be honest, you’re probably done reading.