How Luka, Cade Could Cost Kon Knueppel the NBA Rookie of the Year
Want to get more Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account here . Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham—two candidates who each missed out on making the top three in voting for MVP—may have lost the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award for Kon Knueppel even after votes were due.
How is that timeline possible, and why did two non-rookies play such a pivotal role in this year’s awards race? Let’s review the timeline… Former Duke teammates Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg were engaged in a back-and-forth battle for the award nearly all season. Key Takeaways The NBA extended its voting deadline due to “extraordinary circumstances”.
Knueppel had a strong early lead in first-place votes and still leads in overall points. Nearly two-thirds of first-place ROTY votes cast after the Play-In were for Flagg. NBA award voters are required to submit their ballots for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and all other categories, including Rookie of the Year, immediately after the final game of the regular season and before the Play-In Tournament.
At least, they are supposed to. This year’s timeline was altered by Doncic and Cunningham both submitting Extraordinary Circumstances Challenges after they were initially ruled ineligible for regular-season awards. Both players suited up for 64 games, one shy of the mandatory minimum for awards candidates included in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, taking them out of awards races despite them playing at an all-league level.
Doncic’s challenge case centered on him missing two games for the birth of his child in his native Slovenia. Cunningham did not play from March 17 until April 8 after he suffered a collapsed lung while diving for a loose ball against the Washington Wizards. The league ruled in favor of both players, extending the voting deadline from midnight on April 12 to 3:00 p.
Continue to the original source for the full article.