2021 NBA awards: Final picks for All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams

All-Rookie First Team

• LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets
• Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
• Tyrese Haliburton, Sacramento Kings
• Jae’Sean Tate, Houston Rockets
• Isaiah Stewart, Detroit Pistons

LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton are pretty obvious choices as the three Rookie of the Year frontrunners. After averaging 13.0 points and 5.3 assists per game on .472/.409/.857 shooting splits, Haliburton’s season-ending injury doesn’t threaten his place there either, especially with all the winning plays, anticipatory defense and surprisingly good shooting numbers he supplied the Sacramento Kings with.

Ball’s midseason absence due to injury doesn’t matter either. He’s been the NBA’s best and most exciting rookie, making an impact on a playoff-caliber Charlotte Hornets team while posting a 16-6-6 stat line and ranking second in scoring, first in assists, second in rebounds and first in steals per game among all rookies. The advanced metrics love him, revealing one of the few rookies who contributed to winning basketball from day one.

Edwards struggled early on for the Minnesota Timberwolves, but once Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the supporting cast got healthy, his game took off and he got more comfortable. Since the start of March, Ant-Man posted 23.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 45.1 percent from the field. Even better, the Wolves’ 16-21 record over that span — a stark contrast from their league-worst 7-28 mark heading into March — showed he could contribute to wins.

The Houston Rockets were unwatchable after the James Harden trade, especially when Christian Wood was hurt, but Jae’Sean Tate helped fans find love in a hopeless place, averaging 11.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game on 50.6 percent shooting. His individual defense is tantalizing to imagine on future, more competitive teams as Houston builds from the ground up.

Finally, Isaiah Stewart snags the center spot. There wasn’t much to talk about with the Detroit Pistons’ season outside of Jerami Grant and the rookies, but Stewart — a selection that was almost universally questioned at the time of the draft — has proven himself productive, putting up 7.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in just 21.4 minutes per game, all while shooting 55.3 percent from the floor.

All-Rookie Second Team

• Immanuel Quickley, New York Knicks
• Saddiq Bey, Detroit Pistons
• Desmond Bane, Memphis Grizzlies
• Isaac Okoro, Cleveland Cavaliers
• Jaden McDaniels, Minnesota Timberwolves

Immanuel Quickley and Saddiq Bey were the most difficult omissions from the First Team, but if we’re getting upset over All-Rookie selections, it might be time to take a step back and re-evaluate life in general.

Making an impact for any Tom Thibodeau team as a rookie is difficult, but especially so under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. Quickley rose to that challenge as the New York Knicks’ best rookie, putting up 11.4 points per game while canning 38.9 percent of his 4.8 3-pointers per game. He couldn’t really shoot inside the arc, but he contributed off the bench to the NBA’s most surprising team.

Bey’s defense will be huge for the Pistons in the future, and he knocked down 3s at a 38 percent clip despite taking a whopping 6.6 of them a night (second-most among all qualified rookies). Being a top-five rookie scorer helps cement his case, even if he only shot 40.4 percent from the field overall.

Desmond Bane already looks like yet another savvy draft pick for the Memphis Grizzlies, who watched him carve out 22.3 minutes per game on a playoff-caliber team in his first season. He produced too, averaging 9.2 points per game on excellent .469/.432/.816 shooting splits.

Isaac Okoro’s numbers — 9.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game on .420/.290/.726 shooting — aren’t overly impressive, but he made a lot of fundamentally solid plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers on the defensive end. He sneaks in as the final selection here.

Jaden McDaniels wasn’t on a lot of people’s radars (and probably still isn’t, considering the team he plays for), but he showed enough to prove he’s a future rotational piece and deserves this spot on the Second Team. His 6.8 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in 24 minutes per game don’t scream All-Rookie honors, but his on-court impact for the Wolves was definitely noteworthy.

The rookies who just missed the cut deserve some love too, since this was an incredibly productive draft class: Cole Anthony, Patrick Williams, Payton Pritchard, Theo Maledon, Facundo Campazzo and Chuma Okeke.