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Via NBA.com, our beloved Andre Drummond finished fourth overall in Rookie of the Year voting, receiving 5 second place votes, 21 third place votes, and 36 fourth place votes.
Unsurprisingly, the Yay Points! thesis yet again explains the voting well: Damian Lillard was voted ROY - and only the fourth player in history to be voted so unanimously.
I'm not going on a long rant about this. Lillard is a good player who made a significant impact in Portland as a rookie. With Andre Drummond, I'm happy for the kid... even if I can't post this kind of picture on Instagram the way Dre can.
That said, I'd be remiss in my duties as a blogger if I didn't at least point out that statistically, Andre Drummond was a better player this year than everyone who finished ahead of him in the voting, including Lillard.
As I mentioned back in December, minutes appeared to be the main impediment keeping Dre out of the conversation. Through one quarter of the season, Dre dominated when he played (with the occasional missed rotation and overall deer in headlights look that all rookies get at one time or another). Unfortunately, just as Lawrence Frank decided to increase his minutes, Dre hurt his back, which all but took him out of the running.
Even so, the stats bear out just how good Drummond was this season. Basketball-reference.com gives us (just about everything) I want to point out via the table below, and frankly, it speaks for itself. Dre was really, really, really good. (Pro tip: use horizontal scroll bar at the end of the post to see the whole thing)
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Wins Produced and its derivative Points over Par tell a very similar story (via The NBA Geek):
|
0.064 |
4.2 |
-1.1 |
|
|
0.174 |
6.7 |
2.3 |
|
|
0.088 |
3.2 |
-0.3 |
|
|
0.313 |
8.1 |
6.7 |
And I'll just leave this here as well. I've mentioned this in the comments, but if you've missed it, notice the similarities between 12-13 Andre Drummond and 03-04 Ben Wallace.
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Congratulations to Andre Drummond for an amazing season and for capturing well-deserved national attention in spite of missed time and injuries.