Kurt Helin
First team
- Devin Booker
- D’Angelo Russell
- Kristaps Porzingis
- Nikola Jokic
- Karl-Anthony Towns
Second team
While there is no positional requirement with this vote, I still prefer to put a two guards and three front court players on each team. Usually with this award, I’m scrambling to find rookies who deserve the honor of making the team, but this year’s class is so deep I am leaving guys who showed promise — Emmanuel Mudiay, Frank Kaminsky, Bobby Portis — off the list.
Sean Highkin
First team
- Karl-Anthony Towns
- Kristaps Porzingis
- Nikola Jokic
- Myles Turner
- Devin Booker
Second team
- D'Angelo Russell
- Jahlil Okafor
- Justise Winslow
- Stanley Johnson
- Willie Cauley-Stein
This is the deepest rookie class I can remember. In the entire lottery, and most of the first round for that matter (excepting the Spurs’ Euro-stash pick and the little-used Sam Dekker), everybody can reasonably be expected to at least be a rotation player in the league. There’s usually at least one Joe Alexander or Hasheem Thabeet, a high pick that looks like a disaster right away. Not this year.
Dan Feldman
First team
- Karl-Anthony-Towns
- Kristaps Porzingis
- Nikola Jokic
- Willie Cauley-Stein
- Jahlil Okafor
Second team
- Justise Winslow
- Devin Booker
- Myles Turner
- Boban Marjanovic
- Josh Richardson
Towns, Porzingis and Jokic were locks, and the more I reviewed Cauley-Stein’s season, the more impressed I was. After that, there isn’t much separation within this incredibly strong rookie class. This season could’ve had an All-Rookie fourth team with players who’d make the second team many years.