An NBA Awards voter revealed where New Orleans Pelicans rookies Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen landed on his All-Rookie ballot.
Throughout the entire season, NBA.com's Steve Auschburner released an ever-updating "Rookie Ladder," which ranked all of the league's newcomers based on their week-to-week performance.
In the final edition of the ladder, Auschburner ditched the ranking and instead opted to reveal what his voting ballot is going to look like for Rookie of the Year and the All-Rookie teams. He gave Kon Knueppel the top spot in Rookie of the Year.
As for New Orleans Pelicans rookies Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, who were on the rookie ladder for much of the season, both ended up on the All-Rookie second team.
Here's what Auschburner's first team looked like:
Charlotte Hornets F Kon Knueppel
Dallas Mavericks F Cooper Flagg
Philadelphia 76ers G VJ Edgecombe
San Antonio Spurs G Dylan Harper
Sacramento Kings C Maxime Raynaud
Most of those names are undisputable, but the lower it gets, the better the argument could be that the Pelicans' youngsters should be included as well. Here's where Fears and Queen ranked among their peers this season in some common stats and some of their strengths:
G Jeremiah Fears
Where Fears Ranks Among Rookies
Points: 4th
Threes Made: 6th
Rebounds: 10th
Assists: 6th
Steals: 2nd
Fastbreak Points: 1st
Fears is an interesting rookie. He came out of the gates guns blazing with 17 points in his debut and went on to showcase his ability to score with ease. In the past two games, with the offense running through him, he's dropped 40 and 36.
The problem is that everything else was a bit inconsistent. He had a great rookie year overall and will still be 19 until just before the next season begins. New Orleans should be very happy with the growth he showed throughout the year and how well he responded to being benched when the team got healthy.
C/F Derik Queen
Where Queen Ranks Among Rookies
Points: 6th
Rebounds: 1st
Assists: 3rd
Steals: 3rd
Blocks: 2nd
Second Chance: 2nd
Queen is a bit more interesting a case. Many would probably say that Fears had the better overall rookie year, but the numbers show that Queen should probably be in the first team. The on-paper production looked better than the eye test.
Still, he's just a rookie, didn't get a preseason and still averaged 11.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists. That's not easy to do. Queen is just not a prototypical player, so it would be odd if he had a prototypical season. The defense raises some concerns, but he's fun to watch when he's in the game.
He had a good first year, but the trade to get him is still overshadowing him.