Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green emerged as one of the top first-year players this season but may not be a lock to be named to the NBA All-Rookie first team, according to some voters.
Green, in 67 games, averaged 17.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists with the Rockets. He finished second in rookie scoring average and had at least 30 points in five straight games from March 28 to April 5, the second-longest streak by a rookie since the 1971-72 season.
The second pick is not among those in contention for Rookie of the Year. The award appears to be narrowed down to Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley and Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes.
However, Green is a candidate for the All-Rookie first team.
The award is voted on by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters without consideration for positions. Currently, four of the five first-team players appear to be locked in: Cunningham, Mobley, Barnes and Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner.
The final spot may very well come down to Green, while New Orleans Pelicans forward Herb Jones and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey are also in consideration. However, Bill Simmons of The Ringer explicitly revealed on his podcast that he did not vote for Green.
(Expletive) Jalen Green! I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team is 19-60. Congratulations. Herb Jones is guarding dudes in real games. Now, the Houston people are going to be mad at me. I’m sorry. I like winning players, I’m sorry. Jalen Green will get there, it’s just that team was 21-61 this year or whatever.
After offering his explanation, Simmons later said that he likes Green but wanted to reward a player like Jones who is on a better team and is competing in the play-in tournament. He just didn’t think Green was among the top-five rookies.
Understandably, Rockets fans were not happy with Simmons.
They quickly jumped on him and believed his reasoning was flawed since most rookie players are not drafted to winning teams. They also pointed out that Cunningham and Wagner were also on teams positioned at the bottom of the standings like the Rockets were.
Simmons responded to the backlash on Twitter:
This is ridiculous. I think we were laughing during 80% of this. My point was: I’m always leaning toward a rookie like Herb Jones who was meaningfully contributing to a decent team over someone putting up stats on a bad team. Jalen is gonna be excellent. https://t.co/D4LEmDF2ae
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) April 13, 2022
Simmons likely could have delivered his argument in a more professional manner, instead of explicitly lashing out at Green. In any case, Green still has the chance to be voted onto the first team by the other 99 individuals responsible for casting ballots this year.
This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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