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With the NBA season in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic, some members of the national media have unofficially started filling out their end of the season awards ballots.
By now, when it comes to rookie players, Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant has been most commonly mentioned as the 2019-20 Rookie of the Year winner given his total body of work over No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson.
ESPN reporter Zach Lowe and FiveThirtyEight writer Chris Herring recently linked up on the “Lowe Post” podcast to discuss the All-Rookie Teams in which they named the 10 best rookies of the season. They each essentially agreed on the First Team but had some differences on the Second Team.
The noticeable omission is New York Knicks forward R.J. Barrett.
Lowe and Herring each acknowledged they would likely hear from Knicks fans over leaving him off. They added that while Barrett’s numbers look like he belongs in the discussion, if they are examined more closely, it would suggest Barrett struggled this season: He shot 43.2% on 2-pointers and 32% on 3-pointers for an effective field-goal percentage of 44.5, one of the worst among rookies.
The two writers each tended to award players that were on winning teams when making their final decisions. Toronto Raptors guard Terence Davis ultimately made the cut based on his defensive ability and scoring off of the bench this season. Davis was also one of two rookies that were a net positive on both sides of the ball, according to FiveThirtyEight stats.
Overall, the All-Rookie First Team appears to be locked among most voters while the Second Team will present some challenges when determining the final order of players. Nonetheless, the final voting should be interesting to see once that time comes.
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