Shumpert finishes fifth in ROY voting
By Jared Zwerling

Knicks rookie combo guard Iman Shumpert finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting, released on Tuesday by the NBA. Shumpert received 33 total votes and one first-place vote from a ballot that was filled out by 120 writers and broadcasters from across the country.

In a predicted win, Cleveland's Kyrie Irving, who went to high school in New Jersey (St. Patrick's), was named Rookie of the Year. Rounding out the top five were Minnesota's Ricky Rubio, Denver's Kenneth Faried, San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard and Shumpert.

While Shumpert's offense was inconsistent -- and sometimes took a backseat with Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin on the court -- he was arguably the NBA's best rookie one-on-one defender. He was routinely assigned to the opponent's best perimeter player -- a matchup he also wanted -- and finished the regular season averaging 1.7 steals per game (tied for sixth-best in the league).

"I don't play with fear," he said before the Knicks' Game 4 against the Heat. "I don't feel like I can't match up with anybody. I don't feel like I have a deficiency that's bad. Anything I do, I just do it with confidence. In the offseason, I'm going to go back and look at tape, look at numbers and try to improve on where I can improve."

Shumpert is currently in the initial stages of his recovery process, after undergoing surgery two weeks ago to repair a torn left ACL and lateral meniscus suffered in Game 1 against the Heat. He tweeted on Monday: "Now that I have more rehab exercises things are a little more interesting ... even tho they're still boring lol. Can't wait to walk."

The last Knick to be named ROY was Mark Jackson in the 1987-88 season. Before him, it was Patrick Ewing (1985-86) and Willis Reed (1964-65).

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Solid rookie campaign for Shumps, just has to rehab, get healthy again, and develop that offensive game to take that next step.

Defensive Rating
Shump  101
Kawai  101
Faried 103
Rubio  104
Kyrie  110
Klay   111

It's much harder for guards to post a high Defensive Rating given the guys they have to cover and in particular Shump is unique in being able to guard 3 positions. If you factor in that aspect of his game it makes it even more remarkable that he was able to post such respectable defensive numbers. Shump was guarding speedy PG's a lot and I don't believe Kawai was forced to have to do that as much as Shump. I think Shumps game has been somewhat undervalued, but in time more people will learn to appreciate the level of D he can bring to the table.

Faried is very impressive.

Shump finished ahead of Isiah Thomas!!!! Thats good!

Rubio had a great season. Faried, like Shump got better thru the season which helps in the voting.

He had a great year and he was a great pick for us.

Now the hard part is getting him back to where he was and beyond!

Bonn1997 wrote:So it is just Knicks fans who think Shump is better than Faried

Probably not. But since you appear to be obsessed with the Knuggets, just guessing that you feel that way.

Bonn1997 wrote:

foosballnick wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:So it is just Knicks fans who think Shump is better than Faried

Probably not. But since you appear to be obsessed with the Knuggets, just guessing that you feel that way.

I was referring to a poll someone else posted here. You come here twice a year. So I wouldn't expect you to realize that.

Faried at this point definitely looks like the better pick.

nixluva wrote:I think part of what holds Iman back is that his best skills isn't something that you can put up a sexy stat for. I knew it would be like this to some degree. Not letting guys blow by you and denying them the ball or easily bringing the ball up just doesn't show up in the boxscore. I think his impact was much higher than it seems when you look at stats. Good 1st year for the Kid overall. I hope he can fully recover from his knee injury. If he can improve on his offensive game then I think he'll get more attention from the media.

Defensive Rating
Shump  101
Kawai  101
Faried 103
Rubio  104
Kyrie  110
Klay   111

It's much harder for guards to post a high Defensive Rating given the guys they have to cover and in particular Shump is unique in being able to guard 3 positions. If you factor in that aspect of his game it makes it even more remarkable that he was able to post such respectable defensive numbers. Shump was guarding speedy PG's a lot and I don't believe Kawai was forced to have to do that as much as Shump. I think Shumps game has been somewhat undervalued, but in time more people will learn to appreciate the level of D he can bring to the table.

Faried is like 6'7 at best, how can we afford to pair him up with Amare which would have killed us with their lack of size.
We were not going to pick him to be a starter but we needed an impact player to go with the starting lineup...
If we signed Tyson Chandler first, you would have a good point, even though I love what Iman brings.
Its just very unlucky that he got hurt this bad, unable to develop his game for a whole year.

Billups
Fields
Melo
Faried
Amare

Now, if we took a center with Hibbert, McGee, Lopez in previous drafts, picking Faried would be debatable...

He was a "dennis rodman" type of player but it was not known if his game would translate with the bigger and faster NBA.

Shump was seen as a possible better NBA player than college given his athletic ability.

Both great picks for their teams. Objectively its not the "Knutt" huggers that voted Faried over Shump.

They were both close and both finished behind Kyrie who was deserving.

- Damaged meniscus in the right knee in college
- Tore ACL and meniscus in the left knee

Now with two bum knees, I just dont see how he can ever reach his fullest potential. Prove me wrong, Shump!