Building 2024 All-NBA 1st, 2nd and 3rd Teams So Far

Dan Favale@@danfavaleFeatured Columnist IVMarch 5, 2024Building 2024 All-NBA 1st, 2nd and 3rd Teams So Far0 of 16

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Believe it or not, we have entered the stretch run of the 2023-24 NBA regular season. Time sure does fly when you’re consuming hoops daily and also watching people pointlessly twist themselves into a pretzel debating the ethicality of offensive explosions, huh?

Anywho, with roughly one-quarter of the schedule to go, the All-NBA picture is taking shape. Granted, it is a fuzzy, wrinkly, barely distinguishable, half-formed shape. But it’s a shape all the same.

This speaks to the level of tough choices that await. A handful of sure-things exist within this 15-player, three-team pool, but hashing out inclusions thereafter is a gory bloodbath.

I am going to give it the ol’ college (read: preschool) try anyway. Everything under the sun is taken into account throughout this process: entire-season play, recent developments, anecdotal factors and asterisks, box score numbers, catch-all-metric standings, eye-test viability, functional improvements, team context and more.

Justifications will mostly be dedicated to propping up candidates and selections. But this exercise will—because it must—also explore why certain names fall behind others or don’t make the final cut. Please do not interpret devil’s advocacy as a personal vendetta or deliberate oversight. This stuff’s just hard.

In the end, the list to come reflects who I believe to be the 15 best stars this season. The final tally is of course debatable, and my own priors may shift before year’s end. Entering games on Mar. 5, though, this is where my All-NBA hierarchy stands.

*Note: All-NBA teams are now positionless and require entrants to have played in at least 65 games. Anyone who already has more than 17 absences—Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid, Kyrie Irving, etc.—will not appear here. Players in jeopardy of missing the games minimum are still featured, though total court time will factor into the final order.

1st Team: Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets1 of 16

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Four ironclad locks populate the All-NBA first-team candidate pool. We begin with Nikola Jokić, who is yet again one of the two foremost MVP favorites—and, frankly, the likely and deserving winner of his third Maurice Podoloff Trophy.

Most of Jokić’s case is a given, and it’s completely absent any counter-arguments. Quibble over his minimalist three-point volume (under five per 100 possessions) and efficiency (sub-35 percent) if you’re feeling edgelordy. He’s still nailing over 60 percent of his twos and notching a true shooting percentage north of 65–all while averaging around 25 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists with the lowest turnover rate of his career.

“The Joker still exerts a level of control over every game that no one else matches, and he does it with ease,” Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes wrote while naming Jokić his MVP (so far). “He doesn’t so much play basketball as perform thorough mental dissections on every possession. At 29, his processing speed still seems to be increasing.”

That latter sentiment applies to the defensive end, too. Jokić still isn’t the stoutest rim protector, but he no longer forces the Denver Nuggets to guard a certain way. His length and quick hands continue to render him a threat when he comes up high, and he’s improved his positioning and decision-making when dropping back.

Jokić is the best player in the world, much like last year, and the year before, as well as the one before that—only more complete than ever.

1st Team: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder2 of 16

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has emerged as the biggest threat to Nikola Jokić winning his third MVP. This is not merely a hollow-handed “Atta boy!” designation, either. SGA could actually win the whole damn thing, and he’d deserve it.

Clearing 30 points, six assists and two steals per game on almost 65 true shooting is just bonkers. History is shattered annually, even daily, in this era. But SGA’s benchmarks have only ever been hit by 2015-16 Stephen Curry—the league’s lone unanimous MVP.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are officially mainstream enough to know what we’ve got here: a megastar who plays at a cadence all his own, an artist of angles and balance, trafficking almost exclusively in the ultra-difficult and unpredictable. Among 450-plus players who have appeared in more than 10 games, only Luka Dončić sees more of his made buckets go unassisted.

Less celebrated, for the most part, is Gilgeous-Alexander’s defensive engagement. The Thunder do an excellent job of insulating—and therefore optimizing—him through the bodies of work ferried by Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. But SGA’s impact is transcending gambles and the simple. He has turned in singular, gritty-as-hell stands against contemporary stars like Anthony Edwards, Paul George, James Harden and others, even more than occasionally guarding up the positional spectrum.

“Best two-way player in the NBA” is a largely ambiguous distinction, once upon a time most aggressively used to show appreciation for Peak Kawhi Leonard cannoning into Prime LeBron James years. I’m not sure if SGA should take up that mantle. But he’s exploring high enough apexes—at both ends—to be in the conversation.

1st Team: Luka Dončić, Dallas Mavericks3 of 16

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Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić are currently rounding out a four-player MVP race. Their order on the five-man ballot, behind Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will invite endless, oft-toxic debates.

Fortunately, we needn’t choose between them here.

First up is Dončić. He’s averaging a ridiculous-even-for-him and league-leading 34-plus points to go along with nearly 10 assists per game on better than 62 true shooting—all of which are career-high marks.

Some get bogged down by his inconsistent defensive motor and serial complaining. He has abated both this year, even if only marginally. Others harp on the level of agency he has over the Dallas Mavericks offense. Is his ball-dominance a necessity or a limitation of his own design?

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the middle. But it’s hard to view Dončić’s style as anything more than essential given Dallas’ pecking-order ambiguity after Kyrie Irving. And especially when he’s burying over 39 percent of his trademark step-back threes, which are arguably the most devastating shot in basketball, and which are, per PBP Stats fueling his cosmically, comically wide lead in unassisted triples.

When you’re this efficient, on this volume, in these minutes (37-plus a night), there’s no way you’re part of the problem. Dončić is an every-level threat, both as passer and scorer, who manipulates defenses at a level currently rivaled only by Jokić and SGA.

1st Team: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks4 of 16

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Giannis Antetokounmpo spent the first quarter or so of the season, it seemed, trying to recalibrate his role at both ends of the floor following the arrival of Damian Lillard. The results were great by mortal standards, but a mixed bag by his own.

He looked and felt less aggressive on offense, particularly in transition. And he was initially, and absolutely, part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ defensive malaise on the break.

That is all ancient history (on an individual level). Giannis has found himself, in full, within the Bucks offense and resumed many of his all-galaxy defensive tendencies.

His numbers, like usual, speak for themselves. And they are, like always, louder than deafening. This dude is spitting out 30 points, 11 boards, six-plus assists (career high), over one steal and a block like it’s routine. Because for him, it is routine.

Make no mistake, though, there’s nothing actually casual about what Antetokounmpo’s doing. And his first-team case is buoyed even further by a personal-best true shooting percentage and the most impressive passing display we’ve ever seen from him—feats he has achieved by adapting everything from his shot distribution to his decision-making processes going downhill.

1st Team: Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers5 of 16

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Six players garnered consideration for this slot: Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Tyrese Haliburton, Kawhi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum.

Just so you know how warped my brain is and how much I quadruple-guess everything: When I went through this exercise with B/R framily member Grant Hughes for our Hardwood Knocks podcast, I settled on Mitchell. And now, I’m landing on Kawhi.

Mitchell’s overall case is, in my humble opinion, underrated. I’ve seen him put much lower or entirely outside other All-NBA mockups. For this spot, specifically, his lower minutes total relative to the field and a recent post-trade deadline trough (by his standards) scared me away.

Excluding Tatum will be seen by some as treason of the most egregious order. But like, when did “Almost made my first-team All-NBA ballot” become an insult? And also, the whole “Best player on the best team” trope carries more weight in the MVP discussion.

Haliburton’s uneven play since returning from his left hamstring injury upended what originally felt like an airtight first-team appearance. And just like that, it was down to Booker, KD and Kawhi.

Leonard wins out by virtue of passing my “Who’s your best player right now?” test. Booker is saddled with more self-creation, but Kawhi has not averaged around 24 points and four assists on the second-highest true shooting percentage from this six-player gaggle the easy way.

While he remains selective with his defensive takeovers, he flips the switch more often than recent years. Leonard’s primary assignments and responsibilities are more difficult than those of Booker or Durant, and this is also the first time he’s cleared 2 percent block. and steal rates and played in more than 10 games since 2015-16—when he won Defensive Player of the Year. That he’s smack dab in the middle of minutes played, behind KD but ahead of Book, makes me feel even better about this…for the next couple of nanoseconds.

2nd Team: Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns6 of 16

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Bemoan the Phoenix Suns’ late-game offensive struggles all you want. I have no idea where they would be without Devin Booker tying everything together a lion’s share of the time.

HIs scoring package remains divine—not just because he’s blowing past 27 points per game while nailing over 54 percent of his twos and 37 percent of his treys, but because he can make things happen at every level, both on and away from the ball.

It’d be nice if upped the rim pressure. The team could use it. But this slight dip is, in part, a function of his spending more time running the entire show. The off-ball beelines aren’t as prevalent.

Mind you, running the entire show looks pretty damn good on Booker. Playmaking somehow remains the most overlooked part of his game. His 6.9 assists are a career high, and more importantly, he throws some of the league’s most consequential dimes.

Adjusted assist-to-pass percentage measures the percentage of a player’s passes that lead to direct assists, secondary assists or free throws. Among the 130-plus players who have thrown at least 1,500 passes this season, Trae Young, Luka Dončić, Tyrese Haliburton and LeBron James are the only ones who grade out better than Booker in this metric.

2nd Team: Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers7 of 16

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Recency bias seems to be detracting from Donovan Mitchell’s place in the All-NBA discourse. The Cleveland Cavaliers are healthier, and he has played less-than-otherwordly basketball since the trade deadline.

Still, while anecdotal boosts are more critical to MVP debates, we shouldn’t discount how instrumental Mitchell was to helping the Wine and Gold thrive amid joint extensive absences from Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.

His chemistry within the Mitchell-Isaac Okoro-Max Strus-Dean Wade-Jarrett Allen lineup is absurd and has many wondering how J.B. Bickerstaff can continue yanking that lever in meaningful volume while incorporating Garland and Mobley. More than that, Mitchell has put on a masterclass in toggling between existences. He ratcheted up his playmaking downhill in the face of shorthanded rotations but recedes just a bit into more complementary capacity when the Cavs are full strength.

This isn’t meant to imply Mitchell’s case is driven purely by narrative. His 27-plus points per game come on better than 61 true shooting—efficiency that has sustained pull-back on his off-the-dribble triple. He still isn’t what you’d call a net-positive defender. To be honest, he’s belched out some not-so-hot entire-game performances. But he’s by and large fought on-ball, played passing lanes without selling out and come in with aggressive contests on rotations.

2nd Team: Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns8 of 16

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Kevin Durant’s numbers bellow “First-team, dammit!” at the top of their lungs. He’s flirting with 28 points and six assists while banging in almost 57 percent of his twos and over 42 percent of his triples.

Sure, unreal efficiency is his default. But his ability to torch defenses and draw fouls without seeking to generate gobs of rim pressure remains astounding.

That all of this comes while shouldering outsized defensive importance and placing in the top 20 of total minutes logged is equal parts brain-bending and terrifying.

On the one hand: Holy freaking crap! He’s 35!

On the other hand: He’s 35 for crying out loud! How is this possibly safe or sustainable or anything other than (necessarily) tempting fate?

My reasoning for “demoting” KD to a second-team lock rather than first-team mainstay is neither damning nor particularly convincing. Wonky returns without Booker count against him, as do continued bouts of functional inertia when another star has the ball.

Split hairs? You bet. That’s how fine the line is at this level.

2nd Team: Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics9 of 16

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Jayson Tatum morphs into a lightning rod during year-end award discussions. Just as leaving him outside the top three to five of an MVP ballot will rankle a good many people, and sticking him on the All-NBA second team rather than the first team will incite plenty of push-back.

That’s fine. Every member of the second team, to this point, has a case to snare that final first-team slot. Maybe Tatum will claim it as his own over the last quarter of the season. His recent uptick from the perimeter bodes well for his chances.

Off-the-bounce outside shooting is his signature skill, and it has not served him especially well for much of the season. His sub-48 effective field-goal percentage on pull-up jumpers is higher than last season but far from standout relative to his higher-volume peers.

HOWEVER! This number is on the ascent. He’s hovering closer to a 54 effective field-goal clip on these looks since the start of February, a mark that puts him right in line with the efficiency from one Stephen Curry. (That’s a good thing.)

More to the point, in a harbinger of how far he’s come, Tatum has managed to leave an appreciable offensive dent despite his most appealing scoring trait failing to amaze for a large swath of the season. He’s tallying more than 27 points per game on true shooting that still sits above 60, a testament to the progress he’s made as a driver and foul-drawer.

Placing him within this hierarchy is nevertheless harder than your average top-10-player lock. There will be those who want him to assume more of the Boston Celtics’ playmaking and tackle glitzier defensive assignments. I can’t bring myself to actively penalize him for having awesome teammates. Beantown initiates offense by committee, and it’s not Tatum’s fault that head coach Joe Mazzulla has Jrue Holiday and Derrick White to roll out against the best of the opposition’s best.

All Tatum can do is excel and dominate within the context of what’s around him. That’s what he’s done. And at this moment, he’s doing it better than he did before the turn of the calendar.

2nd Team: LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers10 of 16

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Too many players were in contention for this final second-team spot. The main characters: Jalen Brunson, Stephen Curry, Tyrese Haliburton and the actual recipient, LeBron James.

Serious question: How is the NBA’s all-time-leading scorer still this not good, not great, but flipping awesome? He’s 39! There is longevity, there’s defying the laws of logic and time, and then there’s whatever the hell LeBron is doing.

Please don’t treat this as me giving James the elder-man-is-somehow-still-really-good bump. He’d be on the first team if that’s what I was doing. I fully recognize his dominance is more situational than comprehensive these days. He picks and chooses his spots, not just games but quarters, more than ever.

And yet, contingent dominance is seldom so encyclopedic.

LeBron is basically averaging 25 points and eight assists on what might wind up being the fifth-highest true shooting percentage of his career. His blow-by speed isn’t what it once was, but he’s supplemented it with above-average burst melded to superhuman strength. The share of his looks coming at the rim is the highest it’s been since 2019-20.

It does feel like LeBron will settle for bail-out jumpers more often, even when gaining mismatches. That might be problematic…if he weren’t shooting over 40 percent from downtown, including a 47-plus percent clip on spot-up treys.

Through it all, LeBron remains one of the game’s most lethal setup men, someone who manufactures should-be bunnies for teammates after bending opponents to his will. And while I’m not about to declare him a lockdown defender, he finds himself holding his own against primary shot creators more than you’d expect. His overall impact, which is mirrored at the tippy-top of most catch-alls, is enough for me to elevate him over those who lag in court time (Haliburton) or don’t carry as many across-the-board burdens (Brunson, Curry).

3rd Team: Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks11 of 16

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Somebody, somewhere, will invariably boil down Jalen Brunson’s All-NBA case to “Fringe All-Star plays lots of minutes and scores lots of points.”

A word of advice: Don’t be that person(s).

Brunson is not an A-plus passer or more than a resistant defender. But he is one of the most unique, important and offensive engines in the entire league. And yes, he plays a lot. He’s top-10 in total minutes logged. That availability cannot be discounted.

It’s also not Brunson’s main source of appeal.

For all the flame-throwing Donte DiVincenzo has done this season, the New York Knicks are not a billboard for picture-perfect spacing in the half-court. Brunson is so often attacking through paint-packed defenses—center-of-it-all attention that has impacted his inside-the-arc efficiency since leaving Dallas. He has countered this reality by…developing into one of the most dangerous off-the-dribble three-point shooters alive.

And by “dangerous,” I don’t just mean “efficient.” To be sure, he is certainly that. Even with a monthlong slump caked in, he’s connecting on nearly 38 percent of his pull-up treys for the season, a top-10ish mark among 50-plus players uncorking them in comparable volume.

But this says nothing of the shot quality—or rather, lack thereof. Brunson ranks in the 8th percentile of three-point shot quality yet places inside the 98th percentiles of both pull-up efficiency from beyond the arc and deep three-point shot-making efficiency, according to BBall-Index. Just one other player maintains these efficiency benchmarks on as crummy shot quality or worse.

His name is Stephen Curry.

3rd Team: Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers12 of 16

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Tyrese Haliburton may have the widest range of placement among anyone in the All-NBA discussion. (And if he misses five more games, that range includes All-NBA ineligibility altogether.)

His seasonlong numbers—around 21 points and a league-leading 11 assists on comfortably above-average efficiency—amount to first-team credentials. So does his standing in most catch-alls. Ditto for his pull-up shooting. And his abrupt artistry in the lane. And the faster-than-warp speed at which he plays and reads the game.

Then there’s his performance since returning from a left hamstring injury. His efficiency has dipped following an extended January absence…and cratered since the All-Star break.

Variables galore are at work. Haliburton just doesn’t look the same. Is he still battling left hamstring issues in an attempt to secure this very All-NBA selection and trigger 30-percent max language in his contract extension? Is he grappling with the unfamiliarity of playing alongside Pascal Siakam? And without Buddy Hield’s motion shooting?

It’s probably a combination of everything. Whatever the reason(s), it’s amounting to a departure from his peak that’s protracted enough to cost him All-NBA ground. More than a half-season’s worth of magic will have him no lower than second team for many. He came close to landing there for me. I ultimately couldn’t reconcile the court time. Has he matched or exceeded the value of LeBron James or Jayson Tatum while playing hundreds of minutes less?

Haliburton’s case may be strongest when pitted against Donovan Mitchell, who has missed ample time himself. But Cleveland reached a level in the standings, while shorthanded, on the back of Spida’s gears-shifting that a full-strength Indiana Pacers squad never did.

Allow me to reiterate: I hate this. It sounds like I’m chopping down Haliburton. I’m not. Sustaining All-NBA candidacy as both his play and availability adversely impact his stretch-run case is a nod to the top-five-on-the-MVP-ballot pinnacle he maintained for a good chunk of the year.

3rd Team: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors13 of 16

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Brilliance has been harder for Stephen Curry to maintain on this iteration of the Golden State Warriors. Everything is tougher. The spacing isn’t the same, the rotation has relentlessly shifted until recently and the talent around him has waxed and waned.

Curry’s incomparability is the Dubs’ lone (positive) constant. His very existence, on or away from the ball, frazzles defenses. His gravity doesn’t create opportunities so much as invent them. And though the day-to-day lift is heavier, you almost wouldn’t know it by what he’s doing.

Emphasis on almost.

Curry’s movements don’t look as swift or sudden. A mixture of age and a seesawing, if not regressive, supporting cast seems to be taking its toll. He cannot prop up this team or its offense as he has in years past.

But this transition is universes, plural, from ruinous. It’s the difference between his being a top-five player and borderline top-10 talent. Curry is still averaging around 27.5 points and 5.0 assists while knocking down over 41 percent of his triples the hard way—on unfathomable volume (12-plus attempts per game), with very few gimmes (only eight players have a lower three-point shot quality, per BBall-Index) and through mind-melting crunch-time bucket-getting.

Despite Golden State’s ups and downs, including Curry’s own, the list of more impactful offensive players stretches maaaaybe four or five deep.

3rd Team: Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves14 of 16

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Anthony Edwards’ superstardom is either balanced or incomplete depending on your vantage point. His two-way chops are undeniable by now, and both his defense and passing might be underrated at this point. But you also find yourself wondering whether he could be 10 to 25 percent better in any given area.

Wishful thinking shouldn’t cost him All-NBA love. He is a lock for at least third-team honors. But too many justifications will inevitably dilute his inclusion down to “Well, he’s the leading scorer on the West’s (potential) No. 1 seed, and we can’t not have a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves on an All-NBA squad.”

Framing Edwards’ value in this vein is unfair. The idea that he wants for an A-plus-plus-plus skill overlooks his bandwidth for busting up set defenses. His efficiency on drives (53-plus percent shooting) is revelatory when measured against Minnesota’s dual-big lineups and shaky stash of wing shooters. He is a force of nature when it comes to navigating cramped crevices. Among the 50-plus players who have finished at least 500 drives, only Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paolo Banchero and Jaren Jackson Jr. draw fouls at a higher clip.

The off-the-dribble jumper needs work. Edwards is swishing under 38 percent of his pull-up twos. But he’s above 35 percent on off-the-bounce treys—and above 38 percent from downtown overall.

Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels and even Nickeil Alexander-Walker receive credit in droves for the Timberwolves’ NBA-best defense. That is…fair. But Edwards is viewed as this on-again, off-again defender. He’s something more. The most glamorous covers typically fall to McDaniels, and there’s no eclipsing Gobert’s interior presence (and newfound perimeter mobility!). But Edwards regularly plays his butt off and is no stranger to locking up premier wings or guards.

Aggregate offensive importance teleports this case home. Mike Conley is celebrated as Minnesota’s connective tissue, the glue holding an elite-yet-awkward-if-fragile dynamic all together. Yet, the Wolves’ offense is at its best when Edwards plays—both with and without Conley.

3rd Team: Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers15 of 16

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So (read: sooooo) many players were on the table for this 15th and final All-NBA slot. The list consisted of, in alphabetical order: Bam Adebayo, Jaylen Brown, Anthony Davis, De’Aaron Fox, Paul George, Rudy Gobert, James Harden, Chet Holmgren, Damian Lillard, Tyrese Maxey, Lauri Markkanen, Jamal Murray, Kristaps Porziņģis, Domantas Sabonis, Victor Wembanyama, Derrick White and Trae Young.

(Aside: That field is actually winnowed down from an initial crop that featured Scottie Barnes, Paolo Banchero, Brandon Ingram, Alperen Şengün, Pascal Siakam and Karl-Anthony Towns. FML.)

Trimming it down from here wasn’t too painful. Selecting from my final-for-real-this-time pool of Adebayo, Davis, Fox, Harden and Sabonis was patently excruciating.

Fox originally snatched this spot. I will always default to primary shot creators who can float the entire show independent of a co-star, and he’s shown enough defensive intensity to warrant the nod.

Sabonis’ individual numbers pop more. I just don’t know how to reconcile how poorly the Sacramento Kings fare when he plays without Swipa, or how much they need to work around his defensive deficiencies. Harden may have the strongest advanced-metric case of anyone. His role is a tad too streamlined for me to get there, though we should all appreciate his display of adaptability. Adebayo’s offensive impact is subject to a hair too many stops and stars for my liking. On the flip side, he’s once again defending at a DPOY level.

Davis’ on-off splits won’t support giving him the edge—not even on the defensive end. But is that a bug in his game or a feature of playing so many minutes previously with Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish? When you watch him, I’m not sure how you can attribute the Los Angeles Lakers’ middling defense to anything he’s doing or not doing.

Seeing him get bested by Nikola Jokić doesn’t change. Everyone gets bested by Jokić. Davis is responsible for so much, arguably too much, on the defensive end. He still manages to be almost everywhere and impact shots around the basket. Opponents are fare noticeably worse inside 14 feet with him in the floor, and it’s not by happenstance.

Dependence on others to set him up for scoring opportunities is the bigger knock. Head coach Darvin Ham hasn’t exactly done a bang-up job of running things through Davis, even when he has perceived mismatches. But we’ve seen his lack of self-creation and outside touch burn possessions to the ground in the past.

Warts, restrictions and all, AD is averaging 25 points on enviable efficiency while spitting out the third highest assist rate of his career. He is without question more play-finisher than fire-starter, but play-finishing at deific levels is impressive. Between that, the ground he covers on the defensive end and his 200-plus-minute lead over Fox, I am flip-flopping off my first inkling and rolling with AD…for now.

Full All-NBA Picks16 of 16

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First Team

Giannis AntetokounmpoLuka DončićShai Gilgeous-AlexanderNikola JokićKawhi LeonardSecond Team

Devin BookerKevin DurantLeBron JamesDonovan MitchellJayson TatumThird Team

Jalen BrunsonStephen CurryAnthony DavisAnthony EdwardsTyrese HaliburtonDan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.