Minnesota Sports Forum

This guy likes somebody else more than Wiggins.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nerlens-noel-the-other-rookie-of-the-year/



[note: while we all agree wiggins is winning the award... noel's recent defensive performances are making some of the recent trades for him we saw on this board seem more than a bit implausible.]

Imagine if New Orleans would have kept him. They'd be like the Sampson/Olajuwan Rockets.

Can Nerlens and Embiid play together? I guess they will move Embiid to PF since Noel doesn't have any range to his game. I would really like to get a guy like Noel for our C. A big that makes the team defense much better.

Weren't there character concerns that red flagged him for many teams? Such as his circle of friends being a terrible influence?

Chad Ford's newest opinion is that Mirotic is the ROY. So, those of you that like Ford... Meh.

This award has been Wiggins' since January. Mirotic is a nice player, but those who take the same view as Ford are living in the moment and not looking at the entire year.

Camden0916 wrote:Chad Ford's newest opinion is that Mirotic is the ROY. So, those of you that like Ford... Meh.

This award has been Wiggins' since January. Mirotic is a nice player, but those who take the same view as Ford are living in the moment and not looking at the entire year.

I definitely disagree with Ford on this one. Mirotic is shooting like 40% from the field on the year. Just another person with their head up their ass when it comes to picking an award based on how a team plays and not the player's real impact on the team. The Bulls would be virtually in the same spot with or without him. Rookies aren't big contributors to a team's ability to win so it is stupid to pick an award like this based on how good his team is. Swap Wiggins and Mirotic and Mirotic doesn't even get a whiff of the award.

Camden wrote:Chad Ford's newest opinion is that Mirotic is the ROY. So, those of you that like Ford... Meh.

This award has been Wiggins' since January. Mirotic is a nice player, but those who take the same view as Ford are living in the moment and not looking at the entire year.

I think there are a couple things at play here.

1) They have to keep it topical. Saying it's Wiggins' award for 3 months gets old and boring for writers.
2) We're in a more analytical age. So people analyze this stuff quite a bit. Wiggins' case is from the old school... decent gross stats that show flaws under the glare of advanced analysis. "He's posting numbers on a super crappy team... Mirotic wasn't given that opportunity with a playoff bound team, why hold better teammates against Mirotic?"

I get it. Mirotic would be posting a string of 20/10 games if he was playing in Minnesota. But he's not. So in the end it comes down to "what ifs" and you don't give out awards on "what if" scenarios.

Ford will just go back and change his opinion 5 years later

kekgeek1 wrote:Ford will just go back and change his opinion 5 years later

Yep and whatever he changes it to will still be at least slightly dumb.