Paul Millsap, Taurean Prince fall short of NBA award recognition

Following the 2015-2016 season, Paul Millsap received deserved recognition as a member of the NBA’s All-Defensive second team. There will not be a repeat of that, however, as both Millsap and rookie Taurean Prince fell short of the voting benchmarks needed to make different squads.

Millsap finished fifth among forwards with 35 voting points but he was outscored by Oklahoma City’s Andre Roberson and edged by Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo thanks to the tiebreaker advantage with more first team votes. In fact, Millsap did not garner a single first team vote and, while that was not “wrong” based on the availability of Kawhi Leonard and Draymond Green, it cost him a seat at the table.

Elsewhere, former Hawks center Dwight Howard netted a first place vote (ahead of Rudy Gobert!!) and six voting points to land in the “others receiving votes” category. Howard was the only non-Millsap Hawk to net attention in the category, though such defensive luminaries as Isaiah Thomas and Damian Lillard made the cut.

As for Prince, the NBA also released its All-Rookie teams and the young forward did not crack the first or second team. That does not come as a tremendous shock given that Prince did not join the rotation on a full-time basis until the stretch run but the 23-year-old likely did more than a few of his counterparts that received more attention.

Prince garnered five voting points (and no first-place votes) while DeAndre Bembry and Malcolm Delaney each received one second-team vote. Stay tuned.