Post by Ian Noble on May 31, 2017 12:48:49 GMT
Dynasty Five's
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
NIKOLA JOKIC
Memphis Grizzlies
The 2017 Rookie of the Year is awarded to Nikola Jokic of the Memphis Grizzlies (GM: Jeremiah Hill)!
In what became an extremely tight battle with the Knicks Buddy Hield, Jokic becomes the first D5 2nd Rounder to win Rookie of the Year!
Drafted all the way back in 2014 the Grizzlies have clung to Jokic's draft rights since they picked him up at #39 and, this season, finally paired him with their own 2016 Rookie of the Year, Karl Anthony Towns! The young Twin Towers of Memphis, two consecutive Rookie of the Year's, are a fantastic starting point from which the rebuilding Grizzlies are restarting their franchise after many years of hurt!
Jokic, Knicks rookie Buddy Hield, and fellow 2014 drafted rookie Joel Embiid continually shared the spotlight in the early half of the season, all of them hugely impacting their young teams, but when the Celtics Embiid went down with an injury 39 games into the year it became very much a two-horse-race.
Hield himself was inches from victory in the ROTY Race, possibly the most promising factor for the Knicks is that, in real life, the Sacramento Kings are looking to him to be the face of their franchise going forward - a big responsibility for a 23 year old, but an amazing opportunity that will reap rewards for New York for the rest of Buddy's career!
The same is true of our rookie of the year Nikola Jokic and the real-life Denver Nuggets - Jokic was a triple-double machine as a point-center for the Nuggets and is already identifiable as Denver's future centrepiece player along with ROTY runner-up Jamal Murray. With Towns also patrolling the paint in Memphis it's worth imagining the number of under-the-basket dimes and dunks occurring for Memphis on a daily basis in D5, they will look to add to their young team at #8 in this year's rookie draft, re-sign Jokic using their Bird Rights during Off Season Free Agency and maybe even use their new found star power to make even bigger plays to come!
Congratulations to Jeremiah Hill and the Memphis Grizzlies!
2016/17 Stats - 17.2ppg | 8.2rpg | 2.6apg | 1.1bpg | 1.2spg
Also in contention:
Buddy Hield - 18.8ppg | 4.1rpg | 2.7apg | 0.4bpg | 1.3spg
Joel Embiid - 19.5ppg | 10.1rpg | 1.6apg | 1.8bpg | 1.6spg
Jamal Murray - 13.6ppg | 3.7rpg | 2.8apg | 0.5bpg | 1.7spg
Denzel Valentine - 12.6ppg | 5.9rpg | 4.5apg | 0.6bpg | 1.2spg
Malcolm Brogdon - 11.8ppg | 2.7rpg | 5.4apg | 0.1bpg | 1.2spg
Dario Saric - 9.9ppg | 8.5rpg | 2.2apg | 1.3bpg | 1.2spg