Seattle SuperSonics guard Kevin Durant will be named NBA Rookie of the Year, the Seattle Times and The Associated Press reported. Nineteen-year-old Kevin Durant will become the first Sonics player to win rookie of the year honors. His points per game were third-best among rookies in the last 10 years. Durant, who led all first-year players in scoring, assists and free-throw percentage, reportedly beat out Atlanta Hawks forward Al Horford to become the first Rookie of the Year in Seattle franchise history. The NBA is expected to officially announce the award on Thursday. Durant averaged 20.3 points per game in 2007-08 -- the highest scoring average for a rookie since Carmelo Anthony averaged 21 points per game and LeBron James averaged 20.9 ppg in 2003-04. Only three of the past 10 rookies of the year -- Durant, James and Elton Brand -- have averaged at least 20 points in their first season. Among qualifiers, Durant also was the first rookie to lead his team in scoring since the 2004-05 season, when both Charlotte's Emeka Okafor and Atlanta's Josh Childress led their teams in scoring. Durant became the favorite to win the award when No. 1 draft pick Greg Oden was forced to miss the entire season following microfracture knee surgery. Horford averaged 10.1 points and 9.7 rebounds, helping the Hawks back to the NBA playoffs for the first time in nine years. Durant experienced the typical rookie struggles early on. He took rushed and challenged shots at times, dropping his shooting percentage. But as the season progressed, Durant's confidence grew even as the team stumbled through the worst season in franchise history. Durant averaged 21.8 points and shot nearly 53 percent in March. He capped his rookie season by averaging 24.3 points in his final eight games. Durant scored the winning points in what could have been the Sonics' final home game in Seattle, a 99-95 win over Dallas, then followed up with a career-best 42 points in the Sonics season finale against Golden State. All those numbers came in a season where the Sonics won just 20 games, often overshadowed by the off-court battles of where the team will play in the future. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3374806
Scola had less playing time, so of course he's not going to score at the rate Durant did. Regardless, I would rather have Scola on my team any day.
Good deal. Unlike most rookies, KD really picked it up the last 2 months of the season (except the awful game against the Rockets). I know he gets little respect here, but KD is totally sold out to basketball. With time and weight/strength gain, he is going to be something else. This kid has the mentality & heart to be a ruthless and dominant NBA player.
I never said he was a better scorer, but I know that's what a lot of the ROY voters looked at. I want him because he plays his heart out every single day.
Ya but you implied the difference in scoring was just a matter of playing time....anyway who cares, I love Scola too. he's great. But he's a role player and Durant is (possibly) a future franchise player. It's sort of like the McGrady-Ginobili comparison in a way, one guy's got to do a lot more.
I thought about that. It's not hard to get scorers, but it is extremely rare to find someone like Scola who hustles and can score pretty well. If Durant becomes as good as McGrady was in his prime, I might change my tune.
Disagree. Looking at Durant's late-season stats, he played better [and more efficiently] than some all-stars, despite being the [sole] focus of team defenses. He isn't the chucker people accuse him of being: In March: .526 FG%, 21.8 PPG In April: .461 FG%, 24.3 PPG He's ROY and it's not even close.
I disagree completely. The voters are basing this on potential. Durant led the league in loss shares, ahead of Ricky Davis, Jamal Crawford, and Rudy Gay. He lost many more games than he won. Odds are that he'll be the best player among the rookie class, but Horford and Scola were much better players this year.
Honestly curious: what's a "loss share?" My impression is that it's a stat biased against players on losing teams (e.g. having watched the Knicks and Grizzlies I think that the players you mentioned were hardly the problem).
It took him a while but he finally stopped shooting 3s and most of those silly, off-balance two point shots.
Loss share is an attempt to measure the number of losses for which a player is directly responsible by looking at measureables, like poor shooting performances, lots of turnovers, letting your opponent out-rebound you, and poor defense. It is certainly partially a product of a player's team, but it attempts to be very individually focused. It's not surprising that the players that lead in loss shares also have bad plus-minuses. (Crawford was better than his replacement, thought. Durant, Gay, and Davis were significantly worse.) Saying that Durant is a good player despite his horrible Win Share-Loss Share record is certainly true, but it's a bit like the old baseball maxim, "It takes a good pitcher to lose 20 games." It takes a lot of minutes to lead the league in Loss Shares, so you have to stay on the court. Horrible players don't fit that bill.
