Milwaukee Bucks: Was Malcolm Brogdon a trend for Rookie of the Year?
The Typical Award Winner
The NBA has handed out the Rookie of the Year award since the 1952-53 season, when big man Don Meineke of the Fort Wayne Pistons brought home the award. Over the years, a number of future Hall of Fame players have hoisted the trophy, from Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1960s to Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan in later years.
The most common draft slot for the league’s best rookie is unsurprisingly the first pick, with the draft’s first selection winning the award 21 times — most recently with Karl-Anthony Towns winning in 2015-16. Only six times has a rookie won after being selected after the tenth pick, and at No. 36 Brogdon was picked later than all but one award-winner, 1958 winner Woody Sauldsberry.
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In recent seasons the spread of talent has tightened up even more. Since LeBron James beat out Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade for the award in 2003, only once has a player picked later than sixth won the award, with the exception being Michael Carter-Williams in 2014.
While there is little evidence to suggest that NBA teams have improved dramatically in their drafting accuracy, the trend until 2016-17 was that the types of players who would win Rookie of the Year were consistently going early in the draft. These players had high usage rates, made an immediate offensive impact and filled up the box score. Winning games was often of lesser importance, if weighed at all.
But last season Malcolm Brogdon changed all of that, with lower counting stats than many of his peers. Why was he recognized with the award when his profile didn’t look like those of recent winners?