All Rookie Everything

From blockbuster trades and stashed Europeans to pre- and post-draft injuries, the 2014-15 NBA season has been a whirlwind for a draft class that was touted as the greatest in a decade or more. Today, we take a look at the race for Rookie of the Year and name the All-Rookie starting five.

There has been a lot of bad this year, the #baninjuries hash tag that took over basketball Twitter was a fair reaction to the reality of the season. League veterans like Ricky Rubio, Derrick Rose, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant all had injury shortened campaigns. The reality of injury also struck the rookie class. Players like Aaron Gordon, Julius Randle and Jabari Parker had their seasons cut short and the No. 4 overall draft pick Joel Embiid never suited up for a single game.

Andrew Wiggins, the main piece shipped to Minnesota in return for the restless Kevin Love, has emerged as the front runner for Rookie of the Year honors and it isn’t particularly close. As of Wednesday, Wiggins was number four in the entire league in minutes played. He has played the second most games of any rookie, 71 games, behind only Nikola Mirotic and Elfrid Payton, who each have 73 games, but average nearly 16 minutes per game more than Mirotic and six minutes more than Payton. Wiggins also leads all rookies in scoring with 16.0 points per game. While the race has been his to lose since before All-Star Weekend, Mirotic has made a late push into the conversation, but even Mirotic’s great numbers in a late push for the Bulls won’t be enough to overtake Wiggins, though both players seem destined for high upside careers.

But it isn’t just about Wiggins and the late surging Mirotic, there were many other players, so duds and some studs. Let’s take a look at our 2014-15 All-Rookie Team:

Backcourt: Elfrid Payton, Orlando Magic. Payton, the 10th pick in the draft, has had his fair share of criticisms. He isn’t taking a lot of threes, but he is making only 22.9 percent of the shots he is taking from deep and he is also having some rather pronounced issues from the line, shooting 53.8 percent on free throws. His upside is his consistency on the court, literally. In a season when so many promising young players and future Hall of Famers are going down with injuries, Payton has played 73 games, averaging 29.5 minutes per game. In spite of his poor shooting percentages, he averages 8.8 points per page to go with 6.2 assist and 4.2 rebounds. Payton also has racked up nine double-doubles and two triple-doubles as a rookie guard. Among rookies, only Nerlens Noel is averaging more steals per game and Payton’s assist-to-turnover ratio is just a shade under 3. Taking care of the ball while distributing to teammates and creating turnovers on defense is probably a best case scenario for just about any rookie guard and Payton is leading the way.

Backcourt: Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves. What more do we need to say about Andrew Wiggins. This young man has a very bright future and is certain lock for Rookie of the Year honors, assuming Nikola Mirotic doesn’t put up a triple-double every night for the remainder of the season. It seems that every passing game is another celebration for the Timberwolves and a mounting questioning of the Lebron-as-GM move that was trading Wiggins for Love. Wiggins leads all rookies in minutes played and scoring. His stat lines for the season aren’t mind-blowing but when you take into account that he is surrounded by other rookies and young players while Rubio has spend most of the season out with ankle issues and Kevin Garnett is going to be a part-time player at best for however long he stays in a jersey makes his play more impressive. Plus he does all of these wonderful things every night.

Frontcourt: Nikola Mirotic, Chicago Bulls. Living as a first-year NBA player under Tom Thibodeau can be difficult, just ask Tony Snell, Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic or anyone else who has ever played for Thibs. The minutes carousel has been quizzical to say the least but Mirotic has responded well and shown a greatly improved confidence as the season has gone. He had a solid year, but without his March awakening we probably aren’t hearing rumblings of his late push for Rookie of the Year. Jeff Mangurten blessed us all via Twitter on same statistics for the Mirotic March. As of March 20th, Mirotic led the entire league in 4th quarter points in March with 100, ahead of players like Steph Curry, Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Russell Westbrook. Further demonstrating his emergence, Mirotic had just two 20+ point games all season coming into March, during March Mirotic has scored 20+ seven times. As Mangurten also shares via Twitter as of March 21, Mirotic led all bench scorers in the NBA, a full 55 points ahead of Rodney Stuckey who was second on that list. Mirotic may not be a ROY this season, but he is no less intriguing than Wiggins at this point. And, like Wiggins, he does things like this from time to time.

Frontcourt: KJ McDaniels, Houston Rockets. This was a hard choice. When you look at McDaniels, Jerami Grant, Bojan Bogdanovic, and undrafted Laker Tarik Black, you could make a case for any of them. But the hardest player to leave off was Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles. Ingles doesn’t have particularly good numbers, but if you watch the Jazz play, his spacing, off ball work and general ability to irritate on the defensive end make him a surprisingly good rookie, and definitely not the Jazz rookie that we expected to see rise out of the land down under. But this about KJ McDaniels. McDaniels is putting up 8.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. He was playing so well, in fact, that the 76ers decided they needed to drop him at the deadline before he might help them win any games. The trade not only set the Sixers back, it also hurt McDaniels who has seen his playing drop from a season-high 27.1 in January to a lowly 2.2 in just five games during March. If not for the Rockets railroading McDaniels’s progress, he would be a much easier selection. The 76ers second round pick played himself into a trade piece at the trade deadline and drew a few whispers of comparison to Scottie Pippen. Really, that’s all you need to say for me to buy in.

Frountcourt: Nerlens Noel, Philadelphia 76ers. For all the tanking and drafting doing on in Philadelphia, they only have one rookie performing well enough to talk about. Noel was drafted and kept out all of last year much like his current teammate Joel Embiid is doing this season. Based on the numbers that Noel is putting up, maybe drafting guys and essentially red-shirting them is actually a great idea. After missing last year due to injury, Noel has been a mainstay in an otherwise fluid situation in Philly. For the season he is average 9.6 points, 8 rebounds 2.0 blocks and 1.8 steals. Noel has been a major defensive presence this season and his numbers only increase as the season goes along. Similar to Mirotic, Noel has had a great March, averaging 10.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks. Those numbers would be good for a veteran center but Philadelphia is getting this out of a rookie.

Next year will be loaded, again, thanks to players getting their first real crack after injuries this season, new rookies making their way into the league, and hopefully many players taking their game to another gear. For now, we have been fortunate enough to watch some of the best rookie campaigns in over 10 years so we should enjoy it while it lasts.