On Saturday, the NBA announced the winner of the Rookie of the Year award. The consensus top 3 for the award in no particular order was Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons. All 3 had reasons to be given the award, but only one could be given it. Scottie Barnes was given the award, but the race was very close, as Evan Mobley wasn’t too far behind in votes.
As the league demonstrated from the voting results, Barnes finished with 378 points, while Mobley finished 363 points. Cunningham finished off with 153 points, so it was basically a two-man race between Mobley and Barnes.
The 15-point difference between the NBA Rookie of the Year winner (Scottie Barnes) and the second-place finisher (Evan Mobley) is the smallest margin since the current voting format began 19 years ago.
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 23, 2022
More ➡️ https://t.co/dC7zbvLY5q
Full voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/LWhlYARDcX
Many people, not only in Cleveland, think that Mobley was snubbed of the award.
There is some reason to that statement, as Mobley was one of the best defensive rookies the NBA has seen in a while, and his counting numbers weren’t too bad either. Mobley finished the year off with 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.7 blocks per night, playing 69 games this season. Barnes’ stats were very similar, averaging 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.1 steals per night for Toronto, playing in 74 games this season. The stats are very similar, and both Mobley and Barnes were very good, both deserving the award.
However, there can only be one winner (unless the season is 1999-2000, where Elton Brand and Steve Francis both won the award), and Barnes did deserve the award. I will list off a few reasons on why he deserved the award from here, with three especially in mind.