Portland Trail Blazers point guard has been named the NBA's
Nike Air Structure Triax 91 2012-13 Rookie of the Year, as announced late afternoon Wednesday in the least surprising news of the league's awards season so far. The sixth pick in last June's draft received all 121 first-place votes, becoming the first unanimous winner since Blake Griffin in the 2010-11 season. Lillard led all rookies in scoring average (19.0 ppg), assists (6.5 apg), and minutes (38.6 mpg, also second overall in the NBA) and established himself as the award's frontrunner in the earliest days of the season.Lillard impressed throughout the season with his scoring ability and feel for the game, becoming one of the leaders of the Blazers along with All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and a face of the franchise moving forward. Lillard
nike air max 91 helped to fill the backcourt gap left by the injury-plagued final seasons of Brandon Roy, the franchise's last Rookie of the Year in 2006-07, and he was one of the most watchable players in the league for non-partisans, as well.Nevertheless, there's some question as to whether he deserved to be a unanimous winner. In separate pieces for ESPN.com, Ethan Sherwood Strauss and Henry Abbott argued that New Orleans Hornets power forward Anthony Davis, the top pick in
Nike Trainer 1.3 Max the draft and a distant second in voting, deserved the award on the strengths of his stellar defense and better efficiency stats, even though he played in 18 fewer games and nearly 10 fewer minutes per game than Lillard. Despite playing significantly less time than Lillard, several stats show that Davis added more value to his team over the course of the season. And while efficiency shouldn't always stand in for value, these metrics do show that Davis likely didn't earn enough attention for his contributions this season.