Nick Piccone
ESPN released their 2016-17 NBA Rookie of the Year projections earlier today, and while I’m always hard-pressed to take anything ESPN dishes out as gospel, because this involves Ben Simmons, we’re tracking it closely.
Simmons joins the NBA as a highly touted forward out of LSU, despite not participating in the NCAA Tournament nor the NIT.
The Sixers have talent on their roster, and even though we’re still unsure of how they’ll all work together on the court, Simmons joining the likes of Nerlens Noel [maybe], Jahlil Okafor [maybe], a healthy Joel Embiid, and Dario Saric among others only increases his chance of winning the NBA rookie of the year award.
According to ESPN, their projections are based on the predictions of over 200 people with “vast NBA experience, knowledge and perspective.” ESPN touts their panel having a “collective intelligence that’s greater than any individual member’s knowledge and sharper than that of any single statistical system.” You can’t possibly argue with that, can you?
And here’s what that panel came up with:
I sure can’t hate on that. The Simmons hype is real. Even if he doesn’t win the award for NBA’s best rookie, seeing him develop as a player who already seemed to fall in love with this city might mean a lot more to fans than anything.
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And fans young and old can’t get enough of Simmons. The first round draft pick joined a Sixers youth camp on Tuesday. Check out the video below, courtesy of the Sixers.