If any of the above manage to get their team to the playoffs then I would vote for said person.
Wall: With the Wizards giving Wall the reins from day one, it's easy to see why more than half of our panelists think he'll take home the hardware. A pure point guard with amazing quicks, the will to pass, defensive skills and a decent shot, Wall has a game that should translate immediately to the pro level. Witness recent ROY winners Chris Paul and Derrick Rose -- the two players to whom Wall is most often compared.
That's not to say he's a shoo-in, of course. In fact, only two of the past 11 No. 1 picks have won rookie of the year. And, you might recall, the last time Washington had the No. 1 pick, it didn't work out so well. (Ask Kwame Brown.)
Assuming Gilbert Arenas is still with the Wizards, Wall will have a backcourt mate who can either help him or hinder him, depending on how willing Arenas is to defer. Either way, the stage is set for Wall to turn around a franchise coming off its most embarrassing season ever, and, as we saw earlier in our forecast series, we expect that the Wizards will only go up from here.
Griffin: After a kneecap injury derailed his entire 2009-10 season, Griffin is officially still a rookie and now, as our panel sees it, Wall's main compe ion. A quarter of our voters believe the 2009 No. 1 pick will regain the form that made him the overwhelming favorite to win the award last season.
It's easy to forget now, but Griffin's arrival had us calling the Clippers "Team Turnaround" in last year's poll. And that's one reason why, as we'll see in Thursday's forecast, he's one of our top choices for players we're most excited to see.
Cousins: Based on talent alone, Cousins could easily be the favorite to win rookie of the year. Just look at his Kentucky stats -- he's an efficient double-double machine who dominated college opponents as a freshman.
Still, you can't blame our panel for hesitating to crown Cousins king of the rooks. Not when he's going up against two No. 1 picks for the honor. Not when he's dealing with maturity issues. Not when he's competing with Samuel Dalembert, Carl Landry and Jason Thompson for minutes in Sacramento. And not when he's battling the likes of Duncan, Gasol and Yao in the West when he does see the floor.
But if Cousins overcomes those obstacles and plays to his potential, Sacramento could very well be looking at back-to-back ROY winners (Kings point guard Tyreke Evans won the 2009-10 award). The last team to accomplish that feat was the Buffalo Braves (Bob McAdoo in 1973 and Ernie DiGregorio in 1974).
Turner: Although his summer-league performance seemed wanting, it's easy to see the case for the reigning college POY as ROY. At Ohio State, the No. 2 pick showed he could fill up a stat sheet, and he should flourish under new Sixers coach Doug Collins, who knows a thing or two about guiding multifaceted young players (see Michael Jordan, Grant Hill).
The main issue for Turner might be finding minutes on a team loaded at the wing positions, but we find it hard to believe a player with his versatility will be glued to the bench. Of course, if the Sixers decide to move out Andre Iguodala, as some have speculated, then Turner's ROY bid should gain even more steam.
ESPN "experts" have John Wall as their Rookie of the Year .........
Who is your choice???
If any of the above manage to get their team to the playoffs then I would vote for said person.
Red Rock Yeeaaaaaaah Yeaaaaaaaaah
Cousins, Griffin, and Wall are my choices. I can't much narrower than that.
I see a lot of people like Griffin. Hopefully his knees aren't a disciple of Danny Manning
I don't think he's even close to the best player coming out of the draft, not to mention Blake Griffin, but he could well win ROY because he'll be the focal point of everything the Wizzers do. He'll have a high usage rate with a ton of shots and assist opps. So his raw numbers will likely look pretty good. Where he is likely to be bad is in efficiency but since when do ROY voters care about efficiency?
If he gets minutes, Tiago Splitter could wind up being a contender...but he probably won't get enough minutes cause Pop tends to be conservative about integrating new players/rookies into the system...
Griffin... that's if he doesn't suffer Oden's Syndrome
Yeah, and what about Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook?
Mark my words: Unless Blake is unbelievably amazing in his 1st 20 games, he will not win ROTY, because Blake will not stay healthy enough to play more than 20ish games...
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