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When the NBA released its full All-NBA ballots after the 2018-19 season, one of them got the attention of Dwyane Wade himself. Kennegh Lau of China’s BesTV had Wade, who had been on his farewell tour averaging 15 points in 26 minutes a night, on his All-NBA 2nd Team. Wade quickly reacted to the selection on Twitter:
That is the most extreme outlier full ballot in our Media Vote Tracker, the tool we launched last week that lets you look up how every media voter has filled out NBA award ballots over the years. The tracker gives each voter a contrarian score, which measures how far their picks strayed from the consensus across every award they voted on.
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A typical voter scores around 5 percent in the Outlier Rating. Lau’s 2018-19 ballot came in at 36 percent.
The Wade pick was not the only big surprise on his All-NBA 2nd Team. Lau also had Luka Doncic and Danilo Gallinari there. Doncic had a stellar rookie season, but his team finished 14th in the West. Gallinari had the best year of his career in his final season with the Clippers, though his numbers were nowhere near 2nd Team territory. And Wade, at that stage, had cratered to a level of production that should not have put him on any awards list.
Lau’s All-NBA 3rd Team included Marvin Bagley (!), Pascal Siakam and Donovan Mitchell. Bagley, also a rookie, averaged 14.9 points and 7.6 rebounds and finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting. Siakam was just coming into his own in his third season and won Most Improved Player that year, but 16.9 points and 6.9 rebounds should not warrant an All-NBA vote. Mitchell was the most defensible of the three after a strong sophomore year of 23.8 points, 4.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds. Even so, not a single one of the other 99 voters put any of those three players on a ballot.
Some players Lau left off might be the most telling part. Paul George made 1st Team All-NBA and finished third in the MVP vote playing all 82 games and averaging a career-high 25.6 points, 5.9 assists and 4.4 rebounds. It was the only All-NBA 1st Team selection of George’s career, and he earned it without any help from Lau, who skipped him entirely. Also excluded from his ballot: Nikola Jokic (1st Team), Kawhi Leonard (2nd Team), Kyrie Irving (2nd Team) and LeBron James (3rd Team).
Mar 26, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins (22) drives to the basket against Los Angeles Clippers guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) in the third quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
Lau found room instead for Jordan Bell on his All-Defensive 2nd Team. Bell played 11.6 minutes per game that season and averaged 0.8 blocks and 0.3 steals, a complete non-factor in any awards discussion. Kevin Durant, Bam Adebayo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Terrance Ferguson rounded out that All-Defensive 2nd Team, and Adebayo, SGA and Ferguson did not receive a vote from anyone else in the 100-ballot pool.
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The Defensive Player of the Year portion followed the same pattern. Lau had Rudy Gobert third, even though Gobert was the runaway consensus pick with 82.2 percent of the maximum possible score that season. Giannis Antetokounmpo and George rounded out the Top 3 among voters, and Lau picked neither. His Top 2, Draymond Green and Joel Embiid, did not crack the Top 3 of the award overall.
Though the league is less punitive about outlier votes than you might expect, it goes without saying that was the final ballot Lau ever got for end-of-season NBA awards.
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This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: The most bizarre NBA awards ballot ever (on record)
