Nerlens Noel Winning Rookie of the Year Means Nothing

With Nerlens Noel‘s recent play in the past month and counting, Sixers’ fans have started to cape for him as the Rookie of the Year. It’s nice to see, because this fanbase has dealt with much vitriol and hate this season. For once, the fans are fighting for something positive. But, it’s okay if Noel doesn’t wind up winning Rookie of the Year, I promise.

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First, let’s discuss how Rookie of the Year is won. Selected media members cast votes for a first, second and third place finisher, with each value being worth five, three and one point(s) respectively. The player that finishes with the most points, not number of first place votes, is named Rookie of the Year.

There have been three joint winners since the award came alive in the 1952-53 season. But, there hasn’t been co-Rookie of the Year’s since Elton Brand and Steve Francis in the 1999-00 season. That might be a possibility this year, but that would all come down to the voting by the media.

Again, let’s remember who votes for Rookie of the Year: the media. And, who are the people who have been spitting fire at the “tanking” and “embarrassing” Sixers all season? The media. I enjoy the fire being burned for Noel’s ROY campaign, but do people actually believe that the media that has ripped apart the Sixers since Sam Hinkie’s evolution are going to vote a Sixer for ROY?

Well… they might. Michael Carter-Williams did win it last year, even with Orlando Magic fans making a late push for their star Victor Oladipo to win the award. But, the hate for the Sixers has grown exponentially since last season. One of my main reasons why Noel won’t win ROY is because of the media voting. Still, remember that MCW was named ROY because he had the better overall season, not the best last three months.

The weird part is that Sixers faithful (myself included) are screaming for Nerlens Noel to be named ROY for the same reasons that Magic fans wanted Oladipo to win the award. Noel has made a late push and his growth has been exponential since the trade deadline, but that doesn’t mean he should win ROY based on a three month surge.

Take a look at the month-by-month splits of the two rooks:

Nerlens Noel

Andrew Wiggins

Nerlens Noel has exploded in February and especially March. Like Noel, Wiggins has also been having a solid two months, but the argument is that Wiggins doesn’t provide anything besides scoring and is mostly inefficient at that. Which is fair criticism. On the other side, Nerlens Noel is a rare breed of player. But, most ROY winners are players that lead all rookies in scoring. No one is saying that’s how it should be, but it’s what it is, unfortunately.

Grantland’s Zach Lowe had some intellectual words on Noel and the ROY race:

"Noel has been solid on defense all season, piling up blocks and steals at a historic rate, but it took a late surge of competence on offense for him to butt his way into a suddenly competitive rookie of the year race.Letâ€™s not go too crazy here. There is a 4-of-12 clunker for almost every night of rim-rattling efficiency; Noel has minimal range, and he remains shaky with the ball and occasionally turnover prone. He also gets more minutes than any other candidate in garbage time, and against opponents resting key players.But Noel has undeniably made a mini leap. His face-up drives are smoother, heâ€™s catching the ball cleanly on his rolls to the rim, and heâ€™ll even make a midrange jumper now and then."

What I really want to do, TBH, is throw all of this Rookie of the Year stuff in a trashcan and burn it. However, I do enjoy that Noel’s offensive parade has given him enough clout to be thrown into the ROY race. I’d be overjoyed if he actually did win it, but it’s not that important.

In the grand scheme of things, winning — or not — ROY will mean next to nothing for Noel’s career and his ceiling. We caped for MCW to win it last year and he isn’t even on the team anymore. Could there be a bigger example of ROY not meaning anything, especially to the Sixers? The growth of Noel is more valuable than a trophy. A bunch of media members voting on players they probably haven’t watched that closely this season means next to nothing on the outlook of a players career.

Look at the voting from last season’s ROY:

One could argue that out of this entire list of players that Michael Carter-Williams, the actual Rookie of the Year, was the least valuable to his (former) team. Or his value to the Sixers was low enough for them to trade him, even if the return looks great (protected Lakers first-round pick). Also, point guard is the most available position in the league, with star point guards everywhere. Still, these results from last season show that the ROY voting really doesn’t mean all that much.

Deron Williams finished sixth in 2005-06 ROY voting, while Danny Granger tied for seventh that season. In the 2004-05 season, the ROY was Emeka Okafor (lol) while Dwight Howard and Andre Iguodala finished third and fourth respectively, while J.R. Smith and Luol Deng tied for fifth. Emeka Okafor isn’t in the NBA anymore.

All of these players that finished in the low ranks of the ROY voting went on to have great careers — most of which are still happening — and some have been arguably better than the ROY winner, like in 04-05.

The Sixers’ faithful shouldn’t set the internet on fire if Nerlens Noel doesn’t come out of this as Rookie of the Year, even though they probably will.

The thing more important than Rookie of the Year is that Nerlens Noel is having one of the best defensive rookie seasons in recent history and his offense is showing life. His offensive game is starting to resemble a perfectly made peanut butter and jelly sandwich and not a PB&J with loads of peanut butter and no jelly. Nerlens is starting to equal his jelly and peanut butter ratio, which will make for a damn tasty sandwich and a damn good player, too.