In what should come as a surprise to no one, it was announced on Tuesday that All-Rookie honors were bestowed upon LA Clippers standout, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
On Tuesday, May 21st, the NBA All-Rookie first and second teams were released by none other than ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
NBA All-Rookie teams pic.twitter.com/4MrBYjACa1
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 21, 2019
(Could you use a grainier image, Woj?)
As you can see, the LA Clippers are well-represented with both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet receiving All-Rookie honors. This in itself is a huge indication of just how far the Clippers front office has come as far as evaluating and acquiring young talent in the league. And Clippers fans should absolutely be proud of and excited by it!
However, a number of folks around the NBA and certainly in the Clippers fanbase are taking issue with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s placing among his fellow rookies. Many feeling as though the Kentucky product (who was so instrumental in providing the defending champion Warriors with a tough first-round playoff series) deserved a place on the All-Rookie first team. SGA receiving eight fewer first team votes than Kings rookie Marvin Bagley III and 10 fewer than the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr.
I don’t think anyone can really argue with the top three vote-getters in Trae Young, Luka Doncic, and Deandre Ayton, but one could certainly make a case that Gilgeous-Alexander was more deserving than either of the other two.
Right off the bat, you’ll notice that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet are the only rookies on either team to have played (and started) in a playoff series. And although the voters weren’t privy to just how well they’d play in the playoffs, the simple fact that they’re the only rookies to accomplish this should certainly count for something. In fact, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the most productive rookie on any team that was over .500, let alone in the playoffs. But, I digress. This list is about individual rookie performance, not team success (although I think it has to factor in a tiny bit).
So, let’s look at the two players whose spots on the first team could arguably have belonged to SGA.
Marvin Bagley III played in 62 games and averaged 14.9pts/7.6reb/1ast. If you look at the splits themselves, they’re quite good and you can see why he drew first team votes. However, he missed a quarter of the season. Not exactly insignificant.
Jaren Jackson Jr. played in only 58 games and averaged 13.8pts/4.7reb/1.1ast. Once again, very good rookie splits, but 24 games missed. That’s a lot of time to not be on the floor.
Now, Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander. Shai played in all 82 regular season games (plus six in the postseason) and averaged 10.8pts/2.8reb/3.3ast. The drop-off in production isn’t that significant, but it is there. However, the simple fact that Shai played his rookie season in its entirety, and at the point guard position no less, is kind of a big deal. Certainly enough to make you think he was more than deserving of a spot on the All-Rookie first team.
Hopefully this all just winds up being more bulletin board material for a supremely talented and motivated young player to get even better.
But that’s just what we think. We’d love to hear from Clipper Nation. Do you think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or even Landry Shamet were more deserving of first team honors than any of the players above them? It may be too late to actually influence the results, but we can absolutely put on for our guys.