Bam Adebayo expressed dissatisfaction making the All-Defensive second team for the fourth straight year.
"Still work to be done," Adebayo said. "I still want DPOY and first team."
What if he shouldn't have been awarded even the second-team spot?
By the NBA's own stated voting rules, the Nets' Nicolas Claxton seemingly should have been second-team center with Adebayo outside both teams.
The award release stated: "Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position at which they received the most voting points." Adebayo received 30 voting points at forward and 23 voting points at center.
Claxton got all 25 of his voting points at center.
Among forwards, Adebayo finished behind first-teamers Jaren Jackson Jr. and Evan Mobley and second-teamers Draymond Green and OG Anunoby plus Giannis Antetokounmpo, who made neither team.
Though behind Adebayo (and Jaden McDaniels and Marcus Smart and Mikal Bridges) in voting points, Claxton had the most voting points after first-teamer Brook Lopez among players who got most of their voting points at center.
However, according to NBA spokesperson Tim Frank, the error was in the press release – not in the tabulation of votes. Per Frank, players should be slotted at the position where they received the most votes, not the position where they received the most voting points.
Adebayo received 20 votes at center and 20 at forward. He just got more first-team votes at forward (10) than center (3).
In 2015, the NBA formalized a policy effective 2016 for players receiving votes at multiple positions: “Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position where they received the most votes.” That remained the stated policy through 2021.
The league (errantly, according to Frank) changed the stated policy last year to: "Players who received votes at multiple positions were slotted at the position at which they received the most voting points." That wording (again, errantly, according to Frank) remained in this year's press release, leaving – at best – confusion.
-Dan Feldman