The nice thing about the voting for NBA awards this season is that we don’t always have to concentrate on the winner, we can concentrate on the voters at times, too.
Like when the news of who won is not all that unexpected.
The most important thing to know is that Michael Carter-Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers won the award with 104 of 124 first-place votes, including mine.
Victor Oladipo of the Orlando Magic was second, picking up 16 first-place votes; and Trey Burke of the Utah Jazz was third.
What is interesting is that Mason Plumlee of the Brooklyn Nets, who finished fourth, garnered twice as many first-place votes — two — as Burke. And since the individual ballots are public beginning this season, we can tell you that Sean Deveney of The Sporting News and A. Sherrod Blakely of Comcast SportsNet cast their ballots for the Nets center, putting Carter-Williams second.
Also, Tim Hardaway Jr. of the New York Knicks picked up one first-place vote, from future Knicks coach Steve Kerr of TNT.
Carter-Williams became only the third rookie since 1950-51 to lead all rookies in scoring, rebounding and assists.
Carter-Williams averaged 16.7 points, 6.3 assists and 6.2 rebounds, joining Oscar Robertson (1960-61) and Alvan Adams (1975-76) as the only players since 1950-51 to pace all rookies in those three categories. He also joined Robertson and Magic Johnson as the only rookies in NBA history to average at least 16.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists. Carter-Williams also led all rookies in steals (1.86 spg, sixth in NBA).
Selected by the 76ers with the 11th overall pick of the 2013 NBA Draft, Carter-Williams was named NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Oct. 29-Nov. 3, joining Shaquille O’Neal as the only rookies in history to capture NBA Player of the Week honors to begin their careers.
Here are the balloting totals:
Rookie, Team 1st 2nd 3rd
Michael Carter-Williams, Philadelphia 104 15 4
Victor Oladipo, Orlando 16 89 17
Trey Burke, Utah 1 13 52
Mason Plumlee, Brooklyn 2 5 33
Tim Hardaway Jr., New York 1 2 12
Gorgui Dieng, Minnesota — — 3
Steven Adams, Oklahoma City — — 1
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee — — 1
Nick Calathes, Memphis — — 1