The Minnesota Timberwolves' Andrew Wiggins, the 2014-15 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, headlines the 2014-15 NBA All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today. Wiggins was the lone unanimous choice, receiving 130 First Team votes from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.
Wiggins is joined on the First Team by the Chicago Bulls' Nikola Mirotic (128 First Team votes, 258 points), the Philadelphia 76ers' Nerlens Noel (125 First Team votes, 252 points), the Orlando Magic's Elfrid Payton (121 First Team votes, 250 points) and the Los Angeles Lakers' Jordan Clarkson (74 First Team votes, 200 points).
The NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of the Boston Celtics' Marcus Smart (142 points, 28 First Team votes), the Timberwolves' Zach LaVine (135 points, 22 First Team votes), the Brooklyn Nets' Bojan Bogdanovic (107 points, seven First Team votes), the Denver Nuggets' Jusuf Nurkic (97 points, three First Team votes) and the New York Knicks' Langston Galloway (72 points, seven First Team votes).
The panel was asked to select five players for the First Team and five players for the Second Team, regardless of position. Two points were awarded for First Team votes and one for Second Team votes. Wiggins averaged a rookie-high 16.9 points, the second-best mark by a first-year player in Minnesota history, behind Christian Laettner's 18.2 points in 1992-93. He appeared in all 82 games and ranked fourth in the NBA with a rookie-leading 36.2 minutes, the highest average ever by a Timberwolves rookie. Wiggins, the first Canadian-born winner of the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award, won Kia NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month honors four times. Mirotic also appeared in all 82 games, averaging 10.2 points in 20.2 minutes. He was the Kia NBA Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month in December and March. Mirotic paced all rookies and the Bulls in scoring (20.8 ppg) in March, when he also led the NBA in total fourth-quarter points (136) and fourth-quarter scoring average (9.1). Noel led all rookies in rebounding (8.1 rpg), steals (1.77 spg, 10th in the NBA) and blocks (1.89 bpg, seventh in the league). He was the only player in the league to rank in the top 10 in both steals and blocks. Noel became the second rookie in NBA history to average at least 1.50 steals and 1.50 blocks; David Robinson accomplished the feat in 1989-90. The NBA All-Rookie First Team is rounded out by Payton, the rookie leader in assists (6.5 apg), and Clarkson, who averaged 16.7 points in 28 games after the All-Star break and was named the Kia NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month for March. For the second year in a row, complete media voting results for each NBA annual award will be posted on NBA.com/official after the announcement of each winner. Click here for those results. Attached are the balloting results for the 2014-15 NBA All-Rookie teams. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP. |
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