The All-Rookie Teams were announced. The First Team features the Phoenix Suns top overall pick. Was another Sun was snubbed from the Second Team?
The 2018-19 NBA All-Rookie Teams have officially been announced. The Phoenix Suns have a First Team selection in first overall pick Deandre Ayton. In my opinion, the First Team is exactly how it should be.
However, while the Second Team features some solid youth and promising players, there’s one main issue with it.
NBA All-Rookie teams pic.twitter.com/4MrBYjACa1
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 21, 2019
Did you find the issue? It’s missing a Sun. Mikal Bridges was snubbed. He deserved to be a selection.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 10.8 points, 3.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He upped his scoring to 13.7 points per game in the playoffs against Steph Curry.
Collin Sexton made 1.5 treys per game at a 40.2 percent clip and averaged 16.7 points per game.
Those two received the most First Team votes out of the five Second Team selections for a reason. They both deserve to be on there and should stay.
Mitchell Robinson shot 69.4 percent from the field for 7.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. Among all qualified players, only Myles Turner averaged more blocks per game. and that’s a very efficient field goal percentage. I’m glad Robinson made the cut.
That leaves two wings, which is what position Mikal primarily plays, and therefore is his competition for a spot.
Landry Shamet and Kevin Huerter were both named to the Second Team.
Scoring wise, they put up about the same amount of points. Huerter had the slight edge as he averaged 9.7 points followed by Shamet with 9.1 points and then Mikal with 8.3 points.
While Mikal is third among the trio, he was only 1.4 points away from first. He also attempted the least shots out of all of them as well, showing he was more efficient.
Though he was third when it came to three pointers, he was still respectable (1.3 treys at a 33.5 percent clip) and his overall shooting from the field (43.0) put him right behind Shamet (43.1) and ahead of Huerter (41.9).
Mikal got to the free throw line the most with 1.4 free throw attempts per game and his 80.5 percent accuracy put him right behind Shamet (80.6).
So, though he was third from downtown, he was near the top in field goal percentage and free throw percentage while leading in free throw attempts.
His 3.2 rebounds per game put him right behind Huerter (3.3) and almost double Shamet (1.7).
While Huerter had 2.9 assists to his 2.1, he had a noticeably better assist to turnover ratio (2.47 to 1.96 and 56 more assists than Shamet on the season.
Following? Good. Long story short, on the offensive end he was right there.
On the defensive end is where he stood out.
He led all rookies in steals per game with 1.57. Next was De’Anthony Melton with 1.36. Shout out to his fellow Sun. Bridges was actually 12th in the whole league in that category.
He also led all rookies in total steals with 129, which is more than Huerter and Shamet combined (102) and was 8th in the NBA in that category.
That’s pretty impressive.
He also had three more blocks (38) than Huerter and Shamet combined (35).
If you look at Defensive Win Shares, Mikal led the trio with 1.2 while Huerter and Shamet combined for 1.6.
If you look at Defensive Box Plus Minus, Mikal led the three and was the only one in the positive with 0.3 while the other two totaled for -3.4.
Mikal’s defense puts him a good distance ahead of both Kevin and Landry and that side of the ball is what should grant him his way into a Second Team selection.
You could put him ahead of either of Huerter or Shamet. I’ll let you decide which one shouldn’t have made the list. What matters here is he deserved in but didn’t get the nod. He was snubbed.
Another very honorable statistic for Mikal is the fact that he played in all 82 games this season. He didn’t miss a single game.
Hopefully that durability continues and this miss gives him more fuel to strive to be an even better player. Suns fans know Mikal is going to be a special player. Not being selected doesn’t change that in the slightest.