More Than Half of 2013 Lottery Picks Fail to Make All-Rookie Teams

With the NBA still buzzing from Tuesday’s draft lottery and the anticipation of next month’s loaded draft, it is only fitting that we offer good riddance to one of the worst draft classes in recent memory.

Among the 14 lottery picks of the 2013 draft, a staggering eight did not make the NBA All-Rookie Teams announced Thursday. They were top pick Anthony Bennett, No. 3 Otto Porter, No. 5 Alex Len, No. 6 Nerlens Noel, No. 7 Ben McLemore, No. 8 Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, No. 10 C.J. McCollum and No. 14 Shabazz Muhammad. 

Porter and Noel – who sat out the entire season recovering from a torn ACL – received no votes from a panel of 125 sportswriters and broadcasters. Bennett, Len, McCollum and Muhammad received one Second Team vote each. Caldwell-Pope received six Second Team votes. And McLemore fell two points shy of making the Second Team with 63 points and four First Team votes.

Bennett, Len and Muhammad receiving votes is absurd. None was even the best rookie on his team, let alone one of the top 10 in the league. Bennett missed 30 games, Len missed 40 and Muhammad 45. Combined, they averaged 10.1 points per game, or slightly less than Tim Hardaway Jr.

We published weekly rookie rankings throughout the season, and while this was a bad class, we stopped short of calling it the worst ever. However, our bottom 10 collected a grand total of three votes in Rookie Team balloting, so we pretty much nailed it.

Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams of the Philadelphia 76ers was the only unanimous selection, receiving 125 First Team votes. One voter left Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo (124 firsts) off his ballot – which is almost as inexplicable as Bennett, Len and Muhammad receiving a vote – and three snubbed Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke (108 firsts, 14 seconds).

UPDATE: Thanks to some investigative work by our readers (see the comments below), the Oladipo snub came from ESPN announcer Kevin Calabro, who owned up to the error in a Tweet. Bennett’s vote came from Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News, Len’s vote came from Ted Davis of WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee and Muhammad’s vote came from Bulls play-by-play man Neil Funk.

The backcourt trio was joined on the First Team by a pair of New Yorkers – Nets center Mason Plumlee (95

firsts, 24 seconds) and Knicks guard Hardaway (87 firsts, 30 seconds).

The Second Team included four centers. It included Boston’s Kelly Olynyk (19 firsts, 81 seconds), Minnesota’s Gorgui Dieng (21 firsts, 54 seconds), Charlotte’s Cody Zeller (3 firsts, 61 seconds) and Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams (9 firsts, 47 seconds). Milwaukee swingman Giannis Antetokounmpo (15 firsts, 86 seconds) completed the group.

The second-round pick with the most votes was Lakers forward Ryan Kelly (29 seconds). The undrafted rookie with the most votes was 31-year-old Atlanta center Pero Antic (10 firsts, 42 seconds).