1/4 Poll ROTY

by Ustation on Dec 9, 2010 9:57 AM EST

I know it's early, but the season's a quarter over already and it's time to take an early look at who the favourites are for the Rookie of the Year.

You know me.. I love it when I'm right.. and when I'm right 51% of the time I'm wrong 49%. Back in June I made a call for Blake Griffin to be the ROTY (June Blog: http://www.raptorshq.com/2010/6/26/1538658/roty) and to be battling it out with John Wall, at the time, those who voted loved Cousins. I figured Cousins would have had a couple of suspensions by the mid way point of the season, and I'm fairly close on that.

More importantly, how did the Raptors do with picking Ed Davis?

At the time there was a lot of love for Cole Aldrich, whom on paper seemed solid, but I didn't like his game at all. I think it's safe to say with Aldrich playing a total of 40 mins this season, and sent to the D it's inconclusive and won't be in the ROTY running.

Fans of the Raps were also high on a couple of PGs in Eric Bledsoe an Avery (I almost said Johnson) Bradley. Bledsoes has been up and down, but probably more downs than ups. With Griffin and Blake on the team, expectations for him are pretty minimal and isn't asked to do very much. Bradley has pretty much been nailed to the bench in Boston, and would have expected to take over Nate Robinson in the depth chart by now or at least split some more time, but that hasn't been the case.

Raps HQ really wanted Patrick Patterson. He too has been assigned to the Houston's D league, and is very safe to say not in the running for the ROTY. He is however faring decently down with the Rio Grande Vipers with his 3 double doubles this season, but not anywhere near his expectations I don't think.

My call was for the Raps to take a huge gamble on a problem child of Larry Sanders. The Raps have never really taken a chance on a bad boy and stuck to clean cut upstanding good kids. Sanders struggled early, but is starting to get minutes on the Bucks team and recorded a season high of 8 blocks with a double double vs Denver. That just goes to show you what a potential beast could be, but consistency and stuff between the ears will remain his biggest issue.

Ed Davis has been hurt most of the season, but I think we can safely say he looks to be an NBA regular. Not sure what the upside will be, but he will definitely contribute. It's still amazes me how far he dropped. I definitely had him ahead of the likes of Aldrich, Ekpe Udoh and Greg Monroe to say the least. It may be have been pure luck that he fell this far, but for once instead of getting screwed on a pick, they're going to get some value from a 13th overall pick.

Who's your favourite rookie this year (notice I didn't say ROTY)? You can comment below on your ROTY, though I think it's a safe bet right now.

Poll

Who's your favourite Rookie this year in the NBA?

John Wall

0 votes

Blake Griffin

21 votes

Larry Fields

2 votes

Evan Turner

0 votes

Ed Davis

3 votes

Demarcus Cousins

0 votes

Derrick Favors

1 votes

27 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

re: Drafting Ed Davis at 13

Its part of the reason why having a pick every year is a good thing. Some drafts have a stronger class, and give you a chance to pick up talent that is usually not around at time you pick. I look back at the great mid first round run on bigmen in 2008. You had Robin Lopez (14), Marrease Speights (16), Roy Hibbert (17), Javale McGee (18), JJ Hickson (19), and Kostas Koufos to Utah in the early 20s. In the short time I’ve folowed the draft, it’s usually rare to see bigmen go in that range that for the most part possessed good frames for putting on weight and enduring the grind of the NBA season. And the ones that do carry that kind of bulk were usually very unathletic. It was also rare to see an established upperclassman bigman in that range (Roy Hibbert), especially one that hind above average size for a center, and yet had some refined skills as well. I recall Doug Smith mentioning that McGee and Hickson were the guys the Raptors would have decided between when making the pick, Hibbert wasn’t an option.

Finding my way back from that tangent, I’m wondering what our take will be on how Ed Davis has done two years out, when compared to his peers that were available in that draft range. From scouting reports, I worried about Larry Sanders thin frame, and whether we could be dealing with the injury issues of a Marcus Camby light. He also had that late start at basketball in early high school, so was even more rough around the edges, especially for an upperclassman.

Patterson seemed like the guy with the pedigree, like Aldrich, where you knew there was a high floor on his worst case scenario. I have some doubts whether a PF on the smaller side can find great success beside Bargnani unless they are an athletic marvel. Paul Milsap isn’t a big guy, but players of his ilk are so rare that they seem like the exception to that proves the rule.

by Yardly on Dec 9, 2010 1:22 PM EST reply actions

My philosophy is anything past the 7th pick, you have to gamble. Luckily Davis fell in our lap.

I was seeing so much up side with Sanders during last season.

by Ustation on Dec 14, 2010 9:37 AM EST up reply actions

If we end up with a later pick...

I haven’t seen in depth research on this kid but what do you guys know about Travis Leslie?

He looks like a very nice SG but I don’t know enough about him except highlights and a projected 25th in the draft…

Also Alec Burks looks like a possible SG prospect slated to go around the 11th spot… he just needs to eat a sammich every once and a while, boy is LITE…

by Mikthaniel on Dec 10, 2010 1:03 PM EST reply actions