The NBA regular reason wrapped up over a week ago which begins the league’s rollout of the 2021-22 NBA regular season awards. We have already seen the award finalist from the NBA and saw Marcus Smart named Defensive Player of the Year, but today the league crowned their rookie of the year for the best first-year player. The 2021 NBA Draft class was stellar, one that had the eyes of league executives for two draft cycles. The finalists were not surprising, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, and Cade Cunningham headlined the list. However, what was surprising is Josh Giddey did not earn a single vote for the award.
Today the league announced Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Rookie of the Year award. Barnes helped lead the Raptors to the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference after being selected fourth in the 2021 NBA Draft. The Florida State product logged 74 games, 15 points, seven rebounds, and three assists per game while shooting 49-percent from the floor, 30-percent from three, and 73-percent at the line. The 20-year-old wing was part of Nick Nurse’s rigorous rotation all season playing over 34 minutes per game.
This was a well-deserved win, as he narrowly beat out Evan Mobley, with Barnes having 378-points and Mobley capturing 363-points (first-place votes are worth five points, second place is three points, and third place is one point). Cade Cunningham was a distant third earning just 153 points breaking it down to just nine first-place votes, ten-second place votes, and 78 third-place votes.
Josh Giddey does not earn a single NBA Rookie of the Year vote, Scottie Barnes wins the award
Josh Giddey won four straight Western Conference Rookie of the Month awards, only missing out on the fifth and final award to Jalen Green due to a hip injury that sidelined Giddey one game after the All-Star Break. The former NBL star posted four triple-doubles in his rookie season, including a streak of three straight triple-doubles. Giddey was placed in statistical conversations with legends like LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, and more. How did he not deserves a single vote?
Sure, in a perfect world no one besides Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Scottie Barnes deserved votes since the ballot only goes to third place. That is fair. Even the strongest Thunder-colored glasses prescriptions can not argue differently. However, anyone who pays attention to these yearly awards knows that is not how it works.
In overwhelming cases, like this year’s Rookie of the Year award, a single vote is not going to change the results or standings. This leads to a handful of media members throwing their vote to someone who has no shot of winning the award but still deserves acknowledgment for a great season.
Enter votes for Herb Jones (one third-place vote), Franz Wagner (two third-place votes), and Jalen Green (one second-place vote). Again, in a perfect world, no one gets a vote thrown their way and we have a correct, but boring, three-player ballot. However, if you are going to throw votes around, despite the stellar defense of Herb Jones who has all-defensive potential this year much less later in his career, Franz Wagner being good all season long, and Jalen Green had an immaculate second half of his season, none are more deserving of a tossed vote than Giddey.