Malcolm Brogdon Beats Joel Embiid, Dario Saric For Rookie Of The Year

The Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon is the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year, defeating 76ers teammates Joel Embiid and Dario Saric for the award.

Brogdon, the 36th pick in last year’s draft, averaged 10.2 points with 4.2 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game in his first season. Embiid, meanwhile, was off to a historically great start before being sidelined for most of the second half of the season with knee issues and finally being shut down in early March. He ultimately played in just 31 games, averaging 20.2 points and 7.8 rebounds despite a minutes restriction that kept his playing time down in the games he did play. While Embiid was clearly the most spectacular player of the class, there’s no precedent for a Rookie of the Year with so few games played—the current record on that is held jointly by Patrick Ewing and Vince Carter, who each played 50 games in their respective rookie seasons. (And Carter’s rookie year was the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, which was 50 games in total.)

Of the highlight reel Brogdon put together this year, there is perhaps nothing better than his dunks. Here he is with a particularly glorious one over LeBron James: