Who Will Be This Year's Rookie of the Year?

As the 2004-2005 season winds down, with about a week remaining, its about that time to project who will win the postseason awards. One of the most interesting competitions is for the Rookie of the Year trophy. At this time, it looks as if it will be a three-headed race, between the Charlotte Bobcat's Emeka Okafor, the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard, and the Chicago Bull's Ben Gordon.

The number one contender for this trophy, in my mind, is Emeka Okafor, who was the 2nd overall pick in the draft last summer. Okafor came out of the University of Connecticut after winning the national championship during his third season with the Huskies. He is a young, promising power forward/center that will be the cornerstone for the new Bobcats franchise for several years to come. Emeka leads all rookies in both scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game, and rebounds, averaging 10.9 rebounds per game (fourth overall in the league). He also adds 1.7 blocks per game. The only knock against Okafor is that he has missed 8 games this season with back problems, and he has not translated his good statistical performances into wins for the Charlotte franchise, which is a truly difficult task considering they are a new franchise.

Emeka Okafor

I project the first runner-up will be Dwight Howard, who was the selected first overall in last year's draft by the Orlando Magic. Howard is only 19 years old and has performed better than he was expected after entering the NBA straight out of high school. Howard was only the second high schooler to be selected first in the draft, the first- Kwame Brown- has been a huge disappointment thus far in his career. The power forward has been a great energetic complement to a Magic team that already had a load of talent, including stars Steve Francis and Grant Hill. Howard posts 11.7 points per game, third among rookies, 10.1 rebounds per game, seventh overall in the NBA and second among rookies, and another 1.7 blocks per game. Howard is seventh in the league in field-goal percentage at 53 percent. He has started in every game for the Magic this season. Howard has been a large contributor to a Magic team that has drastically improved since last year's lackluster performance.

Dwight Howard

Ben Gordon, a rookie for the Chicago Bulls, is a player that I see being voted as the second runner-up for the rookie of the year award, behind Okafor and Howard. This young guard came into the league in a similar situation as his college teammate, Okafor, after playing at UConn for three years he also left for the NBA after he helped lead the team to a national championship. Gordon has emerged as a pleasant surprise for an up-and-coming Bulls team. The 6'3" shooting guard was selected eighth overall in the draft. He has provided the Bulls with a much needed spark off of the bench, averaging 15 points per ame in the 77 games that he has played in thus far this year. Gordon is second among rookies, behind Okafor, in scoring and is also amongst the league leaders in 3-point field-goal shooting percentage, at about 41% for the year. More importantly, Gordon has proved to be one of the most clutch performers in the league as he has led the entire league in scoring per game in the fourth quarter. Of the three players vying for the Rookie of the Year trophy, Gordon's team has performed the best and will be the only contender to play in the playoffs. Ben Gordon has had a large impact on the Bulls this season and has helped propel them to the playoff level. Gordon also appears to be the leading contender for the sixth man of the year award as the leagues best bench player.

Ben Gordon