The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving, the 2011-12 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Ricky Rubio headline the 2011-12 NBA All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today. Irving was the lone unanimous selection.
Joining Irving (58 points) and Rubio (49 points) on the NBA All-Rookie First Team are Denver’s Kenneth Faried (46 points), Golden State’s Klay Thompson (43 points), New York’s Iman Shumpert (40 points), San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard (40 points) and Detroit’s Brandon Knight (40 points).
Irving, the league’s top-scoring rookie, was named Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in December/January, February and March. He finished the season with averages of 18.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals, becoming one of only six rookies in league history to average at least 18.0 points, 5.0 assists, and 1.0 steal while shooting at least .450 from the field (Alvan Adams, Grant Hill, Tyreke Evans, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan).
Rubio, the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for games played in December/January, appeared in 41 games during an injury-shortened debut season, averaging 10.6 points, a rookie-best 8.2 assists, and 4.2 rebounds. He also led rookies with 2.2 steals.
Faried averaged 10.2 points, a rookie-best 7.7 rebounds and 1.0 block for Denver, garnering Western Conference Player of the Month honors for games played in April. His .586 field goal percentage paced first-year players.
Thompson averaged 12.5 points while shooting a rookie-best .414 from three-point range, 2.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists.
Shumpert, Leonard and Knight tied for the fifth spot on the All-Rookie First Team. Shumpert averaged 9.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 steals. Leonard posted 7.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 assists. Knight tallied averages of 12.8 points, 3.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds.
The NBA All-Rookie Second Team consists of Houston’s Chandler Parsons (33 points), Sacramento’s Isaiah Thomas (27 points), New Jersey’s MarShon Brooks (18 points), Minnesota’s Derrick Williams (16 points) and Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson (16 points).
The voting panel consisted of the NBA’s 30 head coaches, who were asked to select five players for the first team and five players for the second team, regardless of position. Coaches were not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Two points were awarded for first team votes and one for second team votes.
Attached are the results of the balloting for the 2011-12 NBA All-Rookie teams. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP.
