NBA broadcasters and sportswriters apparently believe Pascal Siakam had a better season than Jayson Tatum — and Jimmy Butler, for that matter.
Siakam, who made the All-Star team this season and had a great season for the Toronto Raptors, was named to the All-NBA Second Team on Wednesday, receiving 15 more voting points than Tatum and 21 more than Butler. The Boston Celtics forward and Miami Heat stars were joined on the All-NBA Third Team by Rudy Gobert, Russell Westbrook and the perpetually overrated Ben Simmons.
Votes were cast before the start of the postseason. Here are the full voting results, via Forbes’ Chris Grenham:
Siakam averaged slightly more rebounds and assists than Tatum, but he fell short in virtually all other categories. Tatum also ascended to a near-elite level of defense, and he unarguably had more MVP-like performances than Siakam.
As for Butler, his case for making the second team over Siakam is a far more subjective one, as anyone who watched the NBA this season knows Butler was the more consistently high-level, impact player.
And no, this is not a matter of recency bias resulting from what happened between the Celtics and Raptors during the NBA Playoffs.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
