Rookie of the Year is an utterly meaningless individual honor that doesn’t necessarily provide an accurate indication for who will eventually become the best player. Still, awards are awards, and several members of The Lottery Mafia gathered to blather about which baller will take home ROY in 2016-17.
Daniel Coughlin: Dragan Bender – Essentially, his name is everything. We are talking about a man who can bend dragons. I’ve never met anyone who can do that, probably neither have you. If you had the power to do this, people would be pretty high on your potential. Honestly, I don’t even know much about dragons. Here is a full list of the dragons I know: Smaug and the dragons a kid in my International Politics course at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire drew. The kid who drew them had a small ponytail and wore purple corduroy pants. Every single class period, he would sketch more dragons. Sometimes it was just one large dragon, other times it would be two smaller dragons. I never saw him sketch three or more dragons. This is fair because I understand that dragons are solitary creatures. A couple years later, I saw the same guy from that class at a local coffee shop/eatery. I didn’t approach him, but I wanted to ask his name. While his identity will remain a mystery to me forever, I know he wasn’t Dragan Bender. Also, no other rookie has a cooler shirt with his name on it than this one.
Josh Cornelissen: Jamal Murray – The Denver Nuggets have taken full advantage of the draft in recent years, adding rotation players up and down the board and rarely missing on a pick. With their top pick this year they drafted swing guard Jamal Murray out of Kentucky, and he is set up to make a serious run at Rookie of the Year. He lit up Summer League, showing not only the shooting ability for which he was known at Kentucky, but playing solid team defense and displaying strong play-making skills as well. Denver teams are always above average in pace, and with the Nuggets flush with young talent Murray will be given every opportunity to flourish. If his shot falls all season long, Murray could put up serious numbers in all of the categories that matter for this award. Simmons is the obvious pick, and Kris Dunn would give the Timberwolves three-in-a-row, but Murray is a dark horse to steal the award and the spotlight.
Gabriel Allen: Joel Embiid – I have this crazy belief that Embiid will display such dominance that (despite seeing limited minutes) he earns Rookie of the Year honors over teammates Ben Simmons and Dario Saric. Regardless, the Sixers have a near-monopoly on odds to win the award. Jaylen Brown, Dragan Bender, Denzel Valentine, and others won’t have the same opportunities as Simmons, whom ESPN recently deemed to be the overwhelming ROY favorite. Meanwhile, Kris Dunn might be a sixth man behind Ricky Rubio and Zach LaVine; and Brandon Ingram looked rawer than sushi in Summer League. Buddy Hield is the sleeper since Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis are going to get the former Sooner plenty of open shots from the outside.
Ilia Shatashvili: Jamal Murray – If all things were equal, Joel Embiid would be my first choice and Ben Simmons would be my second. But due to some very particular factors specific to the roster composition and recent history of the Sixers franchise, the chances of Murray winning ROY seem more tangible. Simmons will put up major counting numbers and impress with amazing passes and triple doubles, but his scoring deficiency, turnovers, and defense will all be negatives–and I could see voters backlash from the stat inflation that occurred under Sam Hinkie’s watch when Michae Carter-Williams won the award. Embiid is facing a crowded frontcourt logjam, and he is coming into the year with injury concerns after missing his first two seasons of his pro career. Even in limited playing time with kitten mittens and a leash on him, he should be able to make enough noise to blow off the socks of fans who are paying attention. But my choice is Murray, because as he showed in Summer League, he will not be stopped from scoring. We all love scoring and he can turn it into an art even at the tender age of 19. Perhaps he never jumps over Gary Harris or Emmanuel Mudiay on the depth chart, but that leaves him as the third guard and sixth man in control of the second unit wreaking havoc on opposing backups. Expect this 19-year-old to immediately remind you of another Jamal: Jamal Crawford.
Matt Sexton: Dario Saric – While I’ve been all about trading the homie Dario this offseason, he’s my man for ROY. On a Sixers team that needs shooting and secondary playmaking, I think Saric will regularly start over Jerami Grant and Richaun Holmes at the 4. He’s got the second coolest name in the rookie class, and he’s battle-hardened from playing in highly competitive Croatian leagues for the past two years. This is a player that could have been picked after Aaron Gordon and Dante Exum if he had been coming over to the NBA in 2014. And if Simmons can guard 3s, Saric should regularly be starting beside the Australian and the second coming of Hakeem, Joel Embiid. Sandwiched between that duo, he’ll reap the rewards of being the best offensive Swiss Army knife not named Nicolas Batum. The year Saric was selected another draft-and-stash barely (and according to some wrongly) lost the ROY to Andrew Wiggins. But the dude Dario is better built for today’s NBA than Mirotic, and I think he’ll be the one to bring home the hardware this year.
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