For some reason, everyone seems to be campaigning for their players to win awards this season more than any season in recent memory. Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey has talked about James Harden multiple times being the MVP. Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers has campaigned for DeAndre Jordan being the Defensive player of the Year. We’ve also seen Steph Curry get love from one of his teammates as well for the MVP award.
Now we have Minnesota Timberwolves team President and Head Coach Flip Saunders talk about his player, the number one Rookie of the Year candidate, Andrew Wiggins.
Following from Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
“Anyone that throws anything else out, they’re dreaming,” Saunders said. “He is the most dominant rookie. He’s playing in a situation where because we’ve been so undermanned, he is the guy. Like (Monday), when we got the ball, he had three people over there trying to guard him. This has helped him and it will help him even more when we get veteran guys back and surround him with our other guys, too.”
You can’t blame Saunders for believing this and saying these things about those who don’t believe the same. The numbers back it up the whole way. He’s been the front runner all year and has won the honor for Rookie of the Month numerous times as well.
Granted, there are guys like Orlando Magic guard Elfrid Payton, who’s handed out a couple triple-doubles, Philadelphia 76ers big man Nerlens Noel who’s improved from the start of the season and Chicago Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic has made the most out of his increased playing time. All 3 haven’t been in the discussions for most of the season as it has been a discussion as of late but the entire season has been dominated by talks about Wiggins winning.
Wiggins is on pace to play every game this year on an often injured T-Wolves team and he’ll play the most minutes among rookies, leading first year players in both categories. The fact that he’s leading all rookies in scoring, averaging 16.2 points per game, likely makes this a pretty simple choice for most voters, who have looked at his body of work all season. The majority of the time, Rookie of the Year award is really the ‘best-scoring rookie award with the biggest name’.
On the, Flip side, (no pun intended) if Saunders coached any of these guys, he’d give them the same type of love and with proper argument because all of those guys are deserving of putting their name in the running for the award. The issue is that this was Wiggins award to lose, even back when he was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
