Malcolm Brogdon can thank Joel Embiid’s knee.
The Milwaukee Bucks point guard took home the Rookie of the Year honors on Monday night, becoming the first second-round pick to win the award. He averaged 10.2 points, 4.2 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game. He beat out Embiid and fellow Philadelphia 76er Dario Saric.
Embiid was by far the best player in a historically bad rookie class, but only played 31 games during the year. The fewest games someone has played during a season and won the award was Patrick Ewing, who appeared in 50 during the 1985-86 New York Knicks campaign. Embiid put up 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game during his inaugural season.
Due to the dominance and circumstances of it being such a weak class, I would’ve given Embiid the award.
But Embiid could care less about it, he was too busy Eurostepping on Monday night.
EURO STEPPING my way through CHILD SUPPORT with the smooth lay up #TheProcess pic.twitter.com/lUuKHJrHV6
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) June 27, 2017
He congratulated Brogdon for winning the award.
Congrats to Malcom for the award.. you deserve it #ROY
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) June 27, 2017
The case for Saric can be made as well due to his blistering hot close to the season. He averaged 18.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists during the month of March and put up 12.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the entire season. He did only shoot 41.1 percent from the field and 31.1 percent from 3. Brogdon was a lot more efficient, recording a 45.7 percent mark from the field and 40.4 percent average from behind the arc.
You can follow Adrian Fedkiw on Twitter (@AdrianFedkiw) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Subscribe to The Bitter Birds on YouTube here. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.