A couple weeks back, my fellow co-editor Ben Beecken wrote this piece sharing his thoughts as to why Andrew Wiggins should not win the NBA Rookie of the Year award this season, although he probably will.
While Ben makes some very good points in his article regarding rate-based statistics and Wiggins’ somewhat lack of efficiency both offensively and defensively, I feel like these points can be countered with one simple argument.
The responsibility that was placed on Wiggins’ shoulders for basically the entire length of the season was enormous. As far as rookies go, he was asked to do so much more than the likes of Elfrid Payton, Nikola Mirotic, and Nerlens Noel.