Who's The Favorite To Be Rookie Of The Year? The Pistons, Rockets And Magic Have The Favorites
According to FanDuel, the favorite to win the Rookie of The Year next season is Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons.
Cunningham being the favorite is no surprise.
The Pistons selected him with the number one overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft out of Oklahoma State.
The next two favorites are Jalen Green of the Houston Rockets and Jalen Suggs of the Orlando Magic.
Green was taken with the number two overall pick and Suggs was selected fifth overall.
Top-five ROY favorites according to FanDuel:
1.) Cade Cunningham (+250)
2.) Jalen Green (+270)
3.) Jalen Suggs (+650)
4.) Evan Mobley (+850)
5.) Scottie Barnes (+1300)
The Indiana Pacers selected Chris Duarte out of Oregon with the 13th overall pick, and while there is not a big surprise that he does not come in the top-five for favorites to win Rookie of The Year, he outstandingly enough did not even crack the top-10.
Why is that such a shock for the #13 pick to not crack the top-10?
For starters, he killed the NBA Summer League averaging 18.3 points per game on over 48% shooting from the three-point range.
On the defensive end he was also outstanding putting up 2.5 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
On top of the fact the he dominated in his first ever NBA competition, he has two other things going for him.
Number one, he is 24 years old and a much more mature player than most of the other players in the draft.
He is ready to contribute right now.
The second would be that he is going to a team that could very well need him to be in important part of their playoff push.
When awards get announced in the NBA it's not secret that winning has a big part in the voting process.
