In A Surprise Twist, The Rookie Voted To Have The Best NBA Career Was Not Zion Williamson

I love any form of NBA survey. There’s the players survey, the GM’s survey, and every year we also get the NBA Rookies Survey. In a draft that many considered extremely top heavy back in June, most of the answers are what you would expect. For example everyone with a brain thinks Zion will win ROY and was the most athletic rookie.

Not exactly going out on a limb with that one. Guys like Tyler Herro was voted the best shooter

which he backed up in summer league, Matisse Thybulle was voted the best defender

which anyone who watched Pac-12 basketball will tell you makes sense, and Ja Morant was the best playmaker.

Again, no hot takes so far. But one thing that shocked me when I say the results of this poll was who all the rookies think is going to have the best career. You would think the consensus here would be Zion or Morant given how much the internet slobbed their nobs leading up to the draft, but instead 19% of rookies went in a completely different direction.

Cam Reddish

Take a victory lap Hawks fans! Reddish was a guy that had a ton of hype heading into his only season at Duke, was largely talked about as a top 3 pick but didn’t really thrive like Zion or RJ Barrett did. He struggled to shoot the ball, and saw his stock “tank” all the way to the 8th pick. Well it appears his fellow rookies must realize that he’s the real deal and the Hawks found themselves a steal. It sounds like they all think Zion is going to be a star given how they voted, so if we’re to believe a bunch of teenagers then Reddish now has to outperform the biggest prospect since LeBron. Going with this logic, the Hawks are going to trot out an up and coming stud big in John Collins, a franchise point guard who you could make the case should have won ROY in Trae Young, and now another rookie who may be on a similar path if Zion is going to get the ROY.

When you look at what the Hawks front office has done, their rebuild has been pretty impressive. Even if you think they lost the Luka trade, they still got themselves a pretty damn good player and they are one of the few teams that don’t really win that are absolutely worth your time on League Pass. That should count for something. Would it shock anyone if they fucked around and made the 8th seed in a wide open East? That might be a little aggressive, but apparently they just brought in the best rookie of this class and they are already trending in the right direction.

I have to say, I did not see Cam Reddish coming out as the player from the 2019 Draft that will have the best career, but I can’t wait to find out if it actually happens.