ESPN predicts Zion Williamson to win NBA Rookie of the Year
In a recent article, ESPN has predicted current New Orleans Pelican and former Duke Basketball sensation Zion Williamson as the 2019 Rookie of the Year.
ESPN recently published an article predicting who would win Rookie of the Year as well as both conference title and the NBA Championship.
To the surprise of no one, the World Wide Leader of Sports predicted former Duke phenom and current New Orleans Pelican Zion Williamson to bring home the award.
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The voting was based on a points system and Williamson received 143 points, which was 73% of the vote.
Williamson, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, was ahead of No. 2 pick of the Memphis Grizzlies Ja Morant who received 88 points and 18.1% of the votes.
In third place was Williamson’s teammate at Duke and No. 3 overall pick of the New York Knicks, RJ Barrett. Barrett brought in 53 points and 9.1% first place votes.
Other players that received votes were Darius Garland, Coby White, Jarrett Culver, and 2018 First Round Draft Pick of the Denver Nuggets, Michael Porter Jr.
In his one season at Duke, Williamson was a consensus All-American and the consensus National Player of the Year along with leading the Blue Devils to an ACC Tournament Championship.
The No. 1 overall pick averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 68.0% from the field and 33.8% from 3-point range.
Former No. 1 overall picks have the Rookie of the Year three of the past five years, with No. 3 pick Luka Doncic winning last season and the No. 36 overall pick Malcom Brogdon winning in 2016-17.
Ben Simmons won the award in 2017-18 despite being the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft as he did not play that season due to injury.
In its Rookie of the Year prediction article, Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz give the strengths and weaknesses of each player in an ESPN+ article that can be found here.
ESPN also predicted the Los Angeles Clippers will in the NBA Title, while the Milwaukee Bucks will win the Eastern Conference while the Denver Nuggets will be the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Zion Williamson will start his Rookie of the Year campaign on October 22 against the Toronto Raptors at 8:00pm EST on TNT.