NBA Draft 2019: Way too early Rookie of the Year rankings
By Dave Daniels
The 2019 NBA Draft was entertaining as always, but now it’s time to overreact to the picks and rank the potential Rookie of the Year candidates.
The 2019 NBA Draft was held Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, and it mostly went to plan. Zion Williamson got drafted first by the New Orleans Pelicans and will become their new franchise player after Anthony Davis officially gets traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Memphis Grizzlies picked Ja Morant second after trading Mike Conley Jr. this week.
The New York Knicks were the wild card at the No. 3 pick, though. That’s when things got interesting. They had worked out Darius Garland and Coby White in the last week, and so there was some intrigue as to who they would pick.
They ended up picking R.J. Barrett, and that was probably the safest choice.
It should be a super entertaining season of basketball because the Western Conference is wide open after the Golden State Warriors not only were defeated in the 2019 NBA Finals but also lost two of their four best players to long-term injuries.
Kawhi Leonard’s decision looms over what will occur next year because Kevin Durant isn’t a factor anymore this summer after tearing his Achilles in the playoffs rushing back from a calf injury.
Other teams in the NBA will be even more cautious with situations like that from now on and rightfully so. Look at how the Raptors handled Leonard. That worked out pretty well for them, and they now get to spend their summer enjoying a well-deserved championship. But enough about the free agents.
Here are the way-to-early Rookie of the Year predictions going down from five to one.