NBA: 5 biggest sleepers to win the Rookie of the Year award in 2017-18
By Dillon Dente
The deepest sleeper – AKA ” The Dirt Nap” – Caleb Swanigan
I’m not sure where to start, so I’ll just come out and tell you that I hope Swanigan wins Rookie of the Year. This might seem like a real long shot, but I will definitely do everything I can to convince you why it shouldn’t be. The kid they call “Biggie” has one of the most incredible stories in professional sports, and if you don’t root for him, you’re a monster.
Though Swanigan could be a new face to some NBA fans, he was the face of Purdue basketball last season, and there are some really good reasons why. For starters, Swanigan played in 35 games and had a double-double in 28 of them. In Summer League, Swanigan accrued double-doubles in five of his eight games while averaging over 16 points, 10.6 boards, and over two assists per contest.
Last year, in just his sophomore season with Purdue, Swanigan had four 20-20 games, scoring at least 20 points and grabbing at least 20 boards in a contest. That was something that had happened only twice in the last 20 years in the Big 10, per Land of 10.
Swanigan isn’t just some brute who grabs rebounds and gets put-backs a la Ben Wallce. What separates Swanigan from soon-to-be peers and fellow glass-cleaners like De’Andre Jordan, Dwight Howard, Hassan Whiteside, and Andre Drummond, is his ability to shoot the ball.
Swanigan shot 45 percent from 3 last season with Purdue on 2.4 attempts per game. The best shooting power forward in the NBA last season? That would be Channing Frye (41%), who played next to Lebron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving. The second best? Ryan Anderson (40%), who played alongside James Harden. Swanigan didn’t impress from deep in Summer League, but I’ll take the full college season and the 78 percent free-throw percentage as more of an indicator of his abilities over an eight-game stretch.
Swanigan is behind Al-Farouq Aminu and Ed Davis on the Blazers’ depth chart, according to ESPN, but if head coach Terry Stotts decides to experiment with some lineups, gives Swanigan some starts, or even plays Swanigan 20-plus minutes a night, Swanigan could see the court alongside C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard, reaping the benefits in the form of open looks and potential offensive boards as help defenders try to stop the dangerous Portland back court.
A lot has to fall in place for Swanigan to compete for Rookie of the Year, but probably not as much as we think. Biggie Swanigan is a walking double-double at any level and his skill set, while still expanding, will prove him to be an outstanding value as the 26th pick overall.
There are certainly some honorable mentions for an article like this. I pledge my allegiances to an NBA team just like most other NBA fans, and I’m a die-hard, but objectively speaking, some players just aren’t going to be in a great position to win Rookie of the year, regardless of how skilled they may be.
Jordan Bell may well compete for Defensive Player of the year in the near future, but being drafted to the Warriors, he’s not going to see 30 minutes of action a night. Frank Ntilikina could end up being a lock-down defender with his 7-foot wingspan, and plenty of people are sleeping on the French lottery pick, but his offensive polish is still a question mark, as is his role on an unpredictable Knicks team.
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Most other rookies remain sleepers because of their projected role in the rotation of their team or their lack of offensive development at this point in their careers. Regardless of who snags the award at the end of the season, this is surely one of the deepest and most exciting rookie classes in recent memory, with impressive skill peppered throughout both rounds of the draft. The NBA season can’t come soon enough.