With apologies to Houston Rockets power forward Luis Scola, the NBA Rookie of the Year award should be a battle between Al Horford of the Hawks and Kevin Durant of the Sonics… and without being a homer, I’d give it to Horford… ok I was being a homer, but look at the tale-of-the-tape…
Horford Durant
games/starts 81/77 80/80
points per game 10.1 20.3
field goal pct 49.9 43.0
3-pt field goal pct 0.0 28.8
free throw pct 73.1 87.3
rebounds per game 9.7 4.4
assists per game 1.5 2.4
steals per game 0.7 1.0
blocks per game 0.9 0.9
double-doubles 25 1
team record 37-45 20-62
OK, so it looks like Durant’s a little better, he might be, but c’mon 1 double-double? I know he is guard but grab a board or two. He is averaging less than 1 offensive rebound a game (someone should some him video of Sundiata Gaines.) Of course his scoring is higher, Horford has 3-4 guys on his team that can score while Durant took 1,366 shots, the next highest Seattle player took 749.
More importantly Horford helped the Hawks in the one area they needed the most, while the Not So SuperSonics finished with the 2nd to worst record in the NBA. But on the bright side, Durant gets to watch Horford in the NBA playoffs as he counts the days to when Derrick Rose gets to be his teammate (so he can take more shots.)
Dom Webber
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