2021-22 NBA Awards Media Poll: Rookie of the Year

20 different NBA media members from around the country participated in a mock voting process conducted by SI Fastbreak for this year’s NBA awards. Here are the results of the voting for Rookie of the Year.

Over the last few weeks, the NBA awards have been a hot topic of discussion around the NBA world.

The three finalists for each award were announced on Sunday, but SI Fastbreak has collected data from NBA media members around the country covering both the league at-large and individual teams.

These media members were asked to vote on their Top-3 for Rookie of the Year this season with the voting process working as follows:

• 5 points for every first-place vote
• 3 points for every second-place vote
• 1 points for every third-place vote

Here is SI Fastbreak’s official voting results for the 2021-22 NBA Rookie of the Year:

Official results from SI Fastbreak NBA Media Awards Polling 2021-22 - ROTY

Rookie of the Year: Evan Mobley - Cleveland Cavaliers

This year’s Rookie of the Year race comes down to three very worthy recipients of the award in Evan Mobley (Cleveland Cavaliers), Scottie Barnes (Toronto Raptors) and Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons).

While Mobley seemed to run away with the award in our voting process, the real vote is expected to be much closer between Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes, a race that could wind up being determined by just a handful of votes.

Evan Mobley collected 13 of the total 20 first-place votes as seen above and received 86 total points out of 100 possible voting points.

While he did miss some time this year, Mobley did not play like a rookie this season, averaging 15.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and shooting 50.8% from the floor.

Along with first-time All-Stars Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley helped the Cleveland Cavaliers achieve a 44-38 record during the regular season and they earned a spot in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament, only to lose to the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.

Scottie Barnes had a terrific rookie year with the Toronto Raptors and he was an integral part of their ability to claim the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference.

Being able to affect the game on both ends of the floor, Barnes has proven to be a long-term core piece in the Raptors’ championship puzzle moving forward. Viewed as a clear runner-up for the award in the voting process, Scottie Barnes collected the most second-place votes.

Cade Cunningham finished the regular season leading all rookies in scoring (17.4), despite only playing in 64 games. The Pistons finished with one of the worst records in the league, but Cunningham proved very quickly this season that he is the young leader of his team and that he has All-Star potential moving forward.

This year’s Rookie of the Year award truly is a toss-up between Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes, but Mobley secured more first-place votes in our voting process. 

Voting results for other NBA awards and honors:

• Most Valuable Player
• Rookie of the Year
• Most Improved Player
• Coach of the Year
• Sixth-Man of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• All-NBA Teams
• All-Rookie Teams
• All-Defensive Teams