Quick Answer
The 2025-26 All-NBA First Team is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama and Jayson Tatum.
The Second Team is Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, Kevin Durant and Tyrese Haliburton. The Third Team rounds out the 15 with Anthony Davis, De'Aaron Fox, Jaylen Brown, Domantas Sabonis and Jalen Johnson.
Selections are positionless for the second straight year, and the 65-game minimum once again knocked several high-impact stars off the ballot before voters even got to weigh them. For players on the right contract clock, a place on any of the three teams unlocks supermax eligibility worth roughly 35 percent of the cap instead of 30 percent.
The Full 15-Man Slate
First Team
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
- Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets
- Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks
- Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
- Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Second Team
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
- Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
- Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks
- Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns
- Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers
Third Team
- Anthony Davis, Los Angeles Lakers
- De'Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings
- Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics
- Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento Kings
- Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks
Why the Positionless Format Matters
For decades the All-NBA ballot demanded two guards, two forwards and a center per team. That structure created some indefensible outcomes when three top-five players all happened to play center, or when an elite combo guard was punished for not fitting a category neatly. The positionless format, in its second season, fixes that. Voters now choose the 15 best players in the league, full stop, and the league sorts them into the three tiers afterward.
You can see the effect on the First Team this year. Jokic and Wembanyama are both nominal centers. Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander are both lead guards. Under the old rules, that lineup would have been impossible. Under the current rules, voters were able to honor what actually happened on the floor.
The 65-Game Rule, Again
The 65-game minimum, in place since the 2023-24 cycle, has reshaped how front offices think about regular-season minutes. To qualify for any year-end individual award, a player must appear in at least 65 games and log at least 20 minutes in most of them. Anything below that threshold and the ballot rules them out, no matter how dominant the per-game profile.
That rule, more than any narrative, explains the most painful absences this season. A handful of legitimate top-15 talents missed the cut because injuries left them short of 65 games. The rule is doing exactly what the league designed it to do, which is to push stars to play, but it also means the All-NBA list each season is partly a story about availability rather than only quality.
First Team Breakdown
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SGA carried Oklahoma City to one of the best records in the West with a scoring and efficiency profile that would have led the league in most seasons of the last 20 years. His mid-range game is the most repeatable shot in basketball right now, and his on-ball defense quietly puts him near the top of the guard pool. He is the runaway MVP favorite and a near-unanimous First Team pick.
Nikola Jokic
Another season, another triple-double baseline. Denver's roster has changed around him, but the offensive identity has not. Jokic remains the most efficient scorer in the league at his usage rate and the best passing big man in the history of the game.
Luka Doncic
Doncic threatened a 30-point triple-double average across the full year while carrying the highest offensive workload of any wing in the league. He defends in spurts rather than possessions, and that gap is the only reason he is not in the MVP conversation in the way Jokic and SGA are.
Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama's first All-NBA First Team selection is the headline of the entire voting cycle. He led the league in blocks, posted a Defensive Player of the Year level rim-protection profile, and stretched his offensive game out to the three-point line with real volume. Pairing that with elite availability gave voters an easy call.
Jayson Tatum
Boston's two-way engine. Tatum is the most durable star in the league over the last three seasons, and the Celtics' regular-season dominance translates directly into voter support for him. He is the kind of player the 65-game rule was built to reward.
Second and Third Team Notes
The Second Team is a clean snapshot of the next tier. Giannis was punished slightly by Milwaukee's seeding rather than his own profile, which kept him off the First Team. Edwards has officially crossed into the two-way superstar bracket. Brunson held the Knicks together through a brutal injury stretch, and his late-game scoring numbers are absurd. Durant, at this stage of his career, still posts top-10 efficiency on top-10 volume. Haliburton runs the most watchable offense in the league.
The Third Team is where the most interesting story sits. Davis and Sabonis are the high-floor veterans you expect to see. Fox and Brown are familiar names rewarded for steady excellence. Jalen Johnson is the breakout, and his selection signals that Atlanta now has a foundational piece who can defend multiple positions, rebound at a power-forward rate and initiate offense like a guard.
The Biggest Snubs
- Jamal Murray. The most consistent omission of the modern All-NBA era. Murray is a tier-one playoff guard, but his regular-season pacing and recurring soft-tissue injuries keep him on the wrong side of voter math.
- Donovan Mitchell. Posted a strong season, but Cleveland's defense slid and the guard pool was deep. The 65-game rule did not help.
- Devin Booker. Phoenix's spacing and roster construction made his usage messy, and Durant's selection at the same wing tier ate the conference's available slot.
- Paolo Banchero. A short midseason injury absence put him too close to the 65-game cliff, and the Magic's win total worked against him.
- Karl-Anthony Towns. Strong individual numbers in New York, but he fell behind Sabonis and Davis for the third big-man slot.
The Supermax Math
The reason these teams matter beyond bragging rights is the contract bump. Under the current CBA, a player who hits certain service-year and award thresholds can sign for up to 35 percent of the salary cap instead of the standard 30 percent. Making an All-NBA team in the season before a designated extension is one of the cleanest paths to that 35 percent figure.
Across a five-year deal, that 5 percentage point gap can easily be worth more than 60 million dollars. That is why front offices, agents and even broadcasters treat each ballot as a financial event, not only a basketball one. Some of the late season minutes pushes you see from contenders for individual recognition are literally tens of millions of dollars in motion.
How the Voting Works
A global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters submits ballots after the regular season ends. Each voter ranks 15 players in tiers. The league converts those tiers into points and the top five point-getters land on the First Team, the next five on the Second Team, and the next five on the Third Team. Ties at the boundary are resolved by total first-place votes.
Voters never see each other's ballots in advance, which is part of why the discourse around close races feels chaotic. There is no whip count. There is only the final tally, released as the playoffs heat up.
The Bottom Line
The 2025-26 All-NBA teams confirm a generational handoff already in progress. Wembanyama's First Team breakthrough, Jalen Johnson's emergence on the Third Team, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's near-unanimous selection at the top all point the same direction. The league's next decade will be defined by these names, and the financial machinery wired into the ballot ensures that every future May, the All-NBA debate will only get louder.
