On Thursday afternoon, the NBA announced its three All-NBA teams, and the voters mostly got it right.

The All-NBA first team selections included guards James Harden of the Houston Rockets and Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers, forwards LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors, and center Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans.

On the second team were guards Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder and DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors, forwards Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and LaMarcus Aldridge of the San Antonio Spurs, and center Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Rounding out the third team were guards Victor Oladipo of the Indiana Pacers and Stephen Curry of the Warriors, forwards Paul George of the Thunder and Jimmy Butler of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and center Karl-Anthony Towns of the T-Wolves.

As is the case every year, there are a lot of players deserving of these spots, which results in some notable omissions. It’s hard to make the case that any of the players who were selected didn’t deserve it, but there are several who didn’t make it who warranted a longer look.

The main knock against Paul is time missed. He played in just 58 games and missed the first month of the season with a knee injury. Yet he played in more games than Curry, who made third-team All-NBA despite appearing in a mere 51 games. Houston was 50-8 in the games he played.

Besides Houston’s stellar record when Paul played, he also put up solid individual numbers, averaging 18.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 46 percent from the field and 38 percent from three-point range. He proved a seamless fit alongside Harden in Mike D’Antoni’s offense and added elite playmaking to take pressure off the MVP front-runner.

With the best record in the NBA, it’s a little surprising the Rockets didn’t have more than one representative on the All-NBA teams. Paul was as vital to Houston’s success as anyone, and despite the 24 games he missed, his performance speaks for itself.

There’s plenty of credit to go around for the Celtics’ successful season, which has them on the cusp of reaching the NBA Finals despite losing Gordon Hayward five minutes into opening night with an ankle injury and Kyrie Irving to season-ending knee surgery in March. Brad Stevens is a front-runner for Coach of the Year, and Jayson Tatum had the most impressive rookie campaign of anyone not named Ben Simmons or Donovan Mitchell.

However, Horford is the Celtics’ rock. There’s nothing flashy about his game, and his individual numbers (12.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game) don’t jump off the page. But the Celtics secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference on the strength of their defense, which was the best in the league. They gave up just 101.5 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com, and Horford was the most important piece.

In addition to his defense, Horford was also a capable scorer for the Celtics, as he’s added a three-point shot to his game over the past three seasons. He shot threes at a 42.9 percent clip this year, up from 35.5 percent in 2016-17, his first year with the Celtics. He was a deserving All-Star selection, and he should have been worth a longer look for an All-NBA spot, too.

Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz

Like Paul, Gobert was punished in the All-NBA voting for time missed. He played in 56 games, missing an 11-game stretch in November and a 15-game period in December/January, during which time the Jazz’s season appeared dead in the water.

But there’s a reason those games missed didn’t prevent Gobert from receiving a nomination for Defensive Player of the Year—his impact at that end of the floor is staggering.

When Gobert was on the floor, the Jazz’s defense allowed just 97.7 points per 100 possessions. When he was on the bench, the defense gave up 105 points per 100 possessions. After Gobert returned from his knee sprain in January, Utah turned its season around, eventually securing the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

Mitchell’s stellar rookie season was the feel-good story, but the Jazz’s turnaround wouldn’t have been possible without Gobert.

Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets

If Denver had made the playoffs, Jokic would have had a strong case to replace Towns in the third-team center spot. In his third season, he put up career highs (18.5 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 6.1 APG) in practically every statistical category and added a reliable three-point shot to his game.

Jokic knocked down 39.6 percent of his threes, up from 32.4 percent last season, while almost doubling his attempts from 1.9 to 3.7 per game.

The Nuggets’ season came down to an overtime thriller against Minnesota on the final day of the season, and they were sent home early. That failure to qualify for the playoffs doomed Jokic’s All-NBA chances, but he still put together a terrific season worthy of recognition.

Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 

Simmons will probably win Rookie of the Year, so it’s difficult to say he’s lacking in recognition. But he has a case for All-NBA as well, leading Philadelphia to the third seed in the East while Embiid was in and out of the lineup.

Simmons’ individual numbers are hard to argue with: 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game. And his defensive ability is well beyond that of most rookies. He’s a transcendent passer and more than lived up to the hype as the Sixers’ point guard of the future.

The glaring hole in Simmons’ game, of course, is his shooting. He attempted just 11 three-pointers this season and made none. Still, defenses can’t play off him on the perimeter the way they can most non-shooters because they give his vision and playmaking ability too much room to operate. If he can become even a passable outside shooter, he’ll be virtually unguardable.

Simmons didn’t make the cut for All-NBA this year, but there will be plenty of them in his future.