Only a few journalists and media members have announced their pick for the Rookie of the Year award.
The NBA public relations office said that a series of end-of-season awards will be announced throughout this week's playoff broadcasts.
Among them, it appears the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year award is set to be announced at a later date.
The first award winner that was revealed was San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, who ran away with Defensive Player of the Year unanimously.
I know for certain that the unchallenged nature of that race will not be in play for the Rookie of the Year race between Dallas' Cooper Flagg and Charlotte's Kon Knueppel.
In fact, this one probably will be the closest head-to-head poll of them all.
As the anticipation builds, the crazed fans of NBA social media have devised a spreadsheet that tracks the journalists and media members who have announced which players they voted for prior to or after the ballots were due last week.
The document curated by X/Twitter user @CroesFire has Flagg and Knueppel in a neck-and-neck race for Rookie of the Year, with Philadelphia's VJ Edgecombe as practically a consensus bronze finisher.
These are already the trio of finalists announced by the NBA.
And voters are clearly split on who should stand atop the podium.
As of April 21, the document has tracked 14 first-place votes for Flagg, one greater than the 13 for Knueppel.
However, the chart has Knueppel receiving more total points due to him having four more second-place votes than the Mavericks teenager.
This is due to only some of the media members releasing their entire slate of medalists in the award race. Some, such as ESPN's Kendrick Perkins, who chose Knueppel, have only claimed their selected winner.
Each first-place vote counts for 10 voting points, while second-place tallies count for 7, and third-place gets 5. If we were to factor Flagg into each of the second-place slots where voters have Knueppel in first (and vice versa for Knueppel where Flagg is picked first), the Mavs' No. 1 pick would have 13 total second-place votes while the Hornets' sharpshooter would have 14, according to these 27 media members who have revealed their picks.
That, along with the confirmed first-place votes we mentioned earlier, would give Cooper Flagg 231 total points and Kon Knueppel 228.
UPDATE: As of the evening of April 21, another has been added. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix has given Knueppel his 14th first-place vote, which hands Flagg what we can assume is his 14th second-place tally. Dead even.
We may never hear from each of the 100 voters prior to the NBA announcing the winners, but from what we can confirm thus far, this year's Rookie of the Year race, as many expected, will be one of the closest in recent memory.
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