The top two winners of this year’s NBA Rookie of the Year vote, Charlotte Hornets guard, LaMelo Ball, and the Minnesota Timberwolves guard, Anthony Edwards, they were two unanimous selections for this year’s All-Rookie First Team.
The NBA announced both rookie teams ahead of Game 6 Thursday night between the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Ball, who won the Rookie of the Year award, and Edwards, who finished second, were among the four players who were named to the first or second team on the 99 ballots sent by the global panel of sportswriters and broadcasters who voted in all. the league’s annual postseason awards.
Ball, the third overall pick in the 2020 draft, who averaged 15.7 points and 6.1 assists per game, won three Eastern Conference rookie of the month awards, while Edwards, the top pick in last year’s draft, averaged 19.3 points per game. among rookies, and he won the Western Conference version of the award each of the last three months of the year.
The other two were the Sacramento Kings guard, Tyrese haliburton, who got a second team vote, and the Detroit Pistons forward, Saddiq bey, which received 63 first-team votes and 36 second-team selections. Rounding out the first team was the Houston Rockets point guard, Jae’Sean Tate, an undrafted free agent who assumed a starting role with the Rockets this season.
💫 Best young stars this year 💫
2020-21 NBA All-Rookie First and Second Teams: pic.twitter.com/iD6C6DHoFS
– SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 18, 2021
The second team is made up of a quintet of first-round selections: the point guard of the New York Knicks, Immanuel quickley, the guard of the Memphis Grizzlies, Desmond bane, the pivot of the Pistons, Isaiah Stewart, the forward of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Isaac okoro, and the Chicago Bulls forward, Patrick Williams.
Thursday night’s announcement culminates the series of individual NBA awards given each offseason. The League has reverted to its traditional format of announcing each of them during the Playoffs on different nights, as opposed to the end-of-season awards show that things had changed to as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. .
In addition to the All-Rookie, All-Defensive and All-NBA teams, all of which were announced this week, the NBA has handed out its six top individual awards: Most Valuable Player (Denver Nuggets center, Nikola Jokic); Defensive Player of the Year (Utah Jazz center Rudy gobert); Sixth Man of the Year (Utah Jazz guard Jordan clarkson); Coach of the Year (Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau); Most Improved Player (Knicks forward Julius Randle); and Rookie of the Year (Ball).