At the midway point of the season, it looked as though there would be little drama for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. LaMelo Ball of the Hornets was playing spectacularly for one of the league’s most pleasant surprises, with many of the rest of the top half of the lottery either struggling or dealing with injuries.
Then, Ball injured his wrist, keeping him out 21 games before returning for the stretch run in May, and as he was injured, top overall pick Anthony Edwards began to hit his stride in Minnesota, seemingly closing the gap and making for quite the ROY debate. Ball averaged 15.7 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game on 43.6/35.2/75.8 shooting splits for the season over his 51 games, while Edwards averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on 41.7/32.9/77.6 splits, playing all 72 games.
In the end, Ball’s strong start and eventual solid close for a Charlotte team that eventually lost in the first game of the play-in was enough to earn him Rookie of the Year honors, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball has been voted the NBA’s Rookie of the Year, sources tell ESPN. Announcement expected soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 16, 2021
Unsurprisingly, the Timberwolves weren’t happy to hear the report, posting this in reaction to Woj breaking the Ball news.
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) June 16, 2021
When the official announcement comes, likely later on Wednesday, it will be interesting to see how the voting shakes out. With the other awards given out thus far, only Coach of the Year has been tight in the voting race, but I expect this will be far more contested than MVP, DPOY, and the other player awards we’ve seen thus far, where despite debates, there was a lot of separation in the actual voting.