Ok you said guards but I’m gonna throw a center in here because it’s an instance where a player was unquestionably one of the best in the NBA but didn’t make All-NBA or All-Defense.

Pat Ewing in 1994 was a top 5 MVP candidate that season and led the league’s best defense. He missed out on being All-NBA behind Shaq, Hakeem, and DRob, and missed out on being All-Defense behind Hakeem and DRob. During a 3 season stretch where the Knicks had the best defense in basketball, he made All-Defense a total of 0 times. He is a 3-time All-Defense selection, and missed out on several All-NBA selections due to positional restrictions regarding the award.

Anyone who played in the Curry, Westbrook, Harden era. Even Kyrie only made two all NBA 3rd teams and one 2nd team.

Chris Bosh 11 All Stars, 1 All-NBA

• Duncan, Garnett, Nowitzki, Gasol, Pierce, Durant, Carmelo, LeBron, Griffin, Aldridge, PG, Love

Ray Allen 8 All Stars, 2 All-NBA

• Kobe, McGrady, Nash, Iverson, Kidd, Wade, Billups, CP3

Any great but not legendary guards from the 2010s, that includes Lowry, Wall, IT, Rondo, Conley, Kemba, Dragic, D-Will, even Kyrie and Klay to an extent

Tony Parker

When he came into the league there was AI, Kobe, Kidd, Nash, Ray Allen

Then by the time he would’ve actually been competing for all nba spots there was Wade, CP3, Deron Williams

Then the last years where he might’ve been good enough there was Westbrook, Harden, Curry, Kyrie

Im probably forgetting a couple guys in all these eras. I believe he still made 4 all nba, 3 third team and 1 second team

Correction: 3 second team and 1 third team. He was able to capitalize in the early 2010s between different guard eras

Mike Conley was up until 2021 the answer you’d always give when asked “who was the greatest player never to get an All-Star nod.”

Incredibly solid to great all-around game, and was the best player on the later part of the Grit and Grind Grizzlies.

Rod Strickland (90s). Easily one of the best PGs of the decade, impossible to stop off the dribble, absurdly talented court vision.

Absolutely shocking he never made an all-star team, when almost every player from that era cites him as a top tier PG.

Mark Price (also 90s). My god was his four year peak run incredible, and perennially unrecognized.

Goran Dragic (more modern). He should 100% have been a 3-time all-star, and got majorly snubbed twice in an absolutely loaded western conference.

Al Jefferson lowkey was a beast

Lenny Wilkens. As a player, he didn’t get nearly the praise and accolades he deserved. Nine all star nods and not a single all-NBA. One of the best passers in the entire league, but the big names stole the glory and awards from that era. He’d get his though with coaching, including a very impressive 1979 Championship that most people are too young to even know anything about. For him to have stomped Kareem and Jerry West must have felt incredible on the road to the championship. Need I mention prime Kareem at 31YO played basically the entire series too and it still wasn’t enough.

He’d of course play a key role coaching the Dream Team too, leading to three separate inductions to the HOF. A very worthy 75 Anniversary name that didn’t get nearly enough praise for everything he accomplished on the court as a player during his career.

McCollum should have made at least one all star game or all nba team. I think he’ll be lost to history unfortunately.

Mark Price finished in the top 10 in MVP voting 4 times, but was only 3rd Team All NBA in 3 out of those 4 years.

Terry Porter and Sam Cassell also come to mind.

KJ

Deep playoff runs?! Multiple??!! What alternate universe did you just appear from?

I had to give you a down vote because, while Wall was generally considered an electric player on the court, he NEVER had playoffs deep runs, he never got past the 2nd round even on a depleted east and in years when the Wiz may seems favourites to win it or at least going to the ECF.

Also the many lacking aspects in Wall games made him overall not a very dominant player, he was basically a Rajon Rondo, but with a team playing around him, and not the other way around (as it was for Rondo). Rondo was exactly another guard that just had a single all nba selections for similar reasons of Wall…

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Wall had an assist-to-turnover rate of 2.41 as a Wizard that left a lot to be desired. That means for every 10 assists, he had an average of 4.15 turnovers to go with it.

The Wizards were top 10 in OffRtg just once with Wall on the squad (7th in 2016-17), and were routinely in the bottom half of offensive efficiency as well, so you can’t even give the “but it worked” argument.

Wall was style and athleticism and numbers over substance most of the time.

leading the Wizards to multiple deep playoff runs

They won three first-round series. I don’t think making the second round counts as a “deep playoff run.”

FWIW, in the early teens, Steph Curry vs John Wall was an eye-test-vs-analytics battleground. John Wall looked exactly like everybody thought a PG should look, where Steph was a skinny guy with (early in his career) questionable ball handling, and “might not be a real point guard,” because “all he can do is shoot.”

There were A LOT of people who thought that John Wall was clearly a better player, and that only stat nerds who didn’t watch the game would prefer Curry.

To be fair, John Wall really did look like you grew a PG in a lab. Great passing, insane speed, a ton of fun. He turned into a great example of a player who helps your offense a ton despite missing a ton of shots, just because of how much chaos he created and the open shots that got his teammates.

Damian Lillard

Pau Gasol

yeah, PG was a stacked position but it’s not like the Wizards were world-beaters. They never won 50 games when he was there - and there was a season or two when he was probably a top-10 guy - and they never made a lot of postseason noise at his peak so national audiences didn’t really get to see him.

Lowry

Lowry? Same era - 6 consecutive all stars with one NBA3 nod

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Bosh only made one All-NBA. The time he was the lead in Toronto, he was competing with other Power Forwards like Duncan, KG, Dirk, Webber, Marion, STAT etc. When he was in Miami, he sacrificed his stats to get wins and thus got outvoted by the likes of Blake Griffin, Zbo, etc.

Vince Carter was considered a forward in the early 2000s and then a guard once he got to the Nets. So he was blocked by Dirk, Duncan Webber etc in Toronto. In NJ he was blocked by Kobe, Wade etc

Wall had empty stats on the Wizards. He really wasn’t that good. He couldn’t shoot and had a low motor when he didn’t have the ball.

Didn’t help he was with the Wizards that really stunted his growth and potential.

Dominant?

Are we really working under the premise that John Wall was “dominant”? He was very good, sure…but “dominant”? Come on…

Lowry

Wall basically got caught in the Golden Era of guards. Dude was putting up ²⁰⁄₁₀ seasons and still had to fight six other dudes for two All-NBA guard spots.

Idk how many all nba teams he made but Jerry west never won mvp. A man who led his teams to 8? 9? NBA finals never won MVP. The logo never won an mvp even though he deserved it multiple times the most egregious example is in 1970

Mike Bibby.

Nate Thurmknd is pretty good example I think. 7×All-Star, 5×All Defense, 5×Top 10 in MVP including 2nd in 1967.

He never made All-NBA because he went up against Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Reed and Wes Unseld.

John Wall only made the all star team because most of the guards mentioned played out West.

He’s not an All-NBA player unfortunate to be in the league as the same time as these guys. He’s barely a fringe All-Star lucky to be playing in the East while Dame, CP3, Booker would be missing out. Without the fan vote or conference slots, I wonder how many all-star games Wall even gets to play in.

Jrue Holiday. I’m glad he’s got 2 rings.

Lowry, Conley. Gragic may have been a fringe all star as well in a weaker guard era.

kyle lowry

Quick ain’t fair.

The Kobe era probably had a few with Kobe, Nash, Wade, TMac, JKidd, VC, Deron Williams, Gilbert Arenas even Chancey Billups etc. Then you had players like Steve Francis, Joe Johnson. It was stacked.

Iverson stole a lot of Marbury’s all nba selections

I think Wall was the fastest tho

LaMelo Ball

Deep playoff runs? He never won anything but 3 first round series

Andre Miller.

One of the best and most natural passers ive ever seen in my life. Never said a word, yet every team he was on immediayely improved and came together because of his leadership by example and truly selfless play.

Not a point guard but Clyde Drexler is my favorite example of this. If it weren’t for MJ, Drexler would’ve probably had at least 1 MVP and 2 rings instead of 1. He also would’ve been a lock for 1st-team All-NBA for at least 2 or 3 years in there during MJ’s peak.

Take in account he got his basically career ending injuries at 28. I think thete was a good shot he would have made another 1-2 all nba if he didnt get those injuries

I think people just honed in on Wall’s flaws and felt justified in undervaluing him. He was incredible at his peak. Ya his era was stacked with PGs but I wouldn’t count him out just because he wasn’t dunking on everyone’s head in the same way.

Don’t forget Derrick Rose. “Fastest player with the ball” indeed.

EDIT: I meant as one of the players pushing Wall out.

The talent at PF in the late 90’s and early 00’s was insane (especially in the Western Conference). Antonio McDyess, Zach Randolph, and Rasheed Wallace had stretches of perennial 20-10 guys but have only six all-star appearances between them in 45 seasons. Between Duncan, KG, Nowitzki, and Webber, there was not a lot of daylight to make the All-Star team in the West much less All-NBA

Nick Van Exel and Terry Porter.

Both were great and both were seriously overlooked for their careers.

Y’all will never believe how good Rod Strickland was

Ehm, John Wall never reached Conference Finales, only came out of the opening round twice and technically only had one ²⁰⁄₁₀ season (having an additional 19.⁹⁄₁₀ season). He actually wasn’t that good, like the only thing you had to say about him that was actually true is that he was fast. Wow, fast as fck boiiii

Lenny Wilkins.

Jamal Murray

Greivis Vasquez om

It always baffles me how good Kyrie was in 2017 but he didn’t even make the 3rd all nba team.

Rojan Rondo

Chris Bosh is actually a poster child of this.

Vince Carter is similar in terms of his popularity far exceeding his actual impact on winning.

Was John Wall ever a top 20 player in the league?

Kyrie probably should have had more accolades.