Milwaukee Bucks 2016-17 Season Review: Malcolm Brogdon
After being selected in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft, Malcolm Brogdon turned in a tremendous rookie season for the Milwaukee Bucks, and could win Rookie of the Year.
Coming into last year’s draft older than most of the players in his class, Malcolm Brogdon was not selected in the first round, despite a tremendous collegiate resume.
During his time at the University of Virginia, Brogdon was named to the All-ACC team three times in addition to being the Defensive Player of the Year in the entire country.
Upon being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, he was expected to come in and play big minutes off the bench. When Michael Carter-Williams was traded for Tony Snell just before the season started, he was thrust into a position of being the primary backup to Matthew Dellavedova.
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Yet, over the course of the year, he developed into an even more important part of the team, both offensively and defensively, which eventually led to Brogdon taking over the starting job from Dellavedova.
In what was otherwise a weak draft class, Brogdon was clearly the best player in their first season. Dario Saric and Joel Embiid both have cases to win Rookie of the Year over Brogdon, but neither of them were drafted last summer.
On the whole, Brogdon had an incredibly productive rookie season and his stats back that up:
| Season | Age | G | GS | MP | FG% | 3P% | eFG% | FT% | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 24 | 75 | 28 | 26.4 | .457 | .404 | .518 | .865 | 2.8 | 4.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 10.2 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/3/2017.
In addition, his stats in comparison to Embiid and Saric make him a pretty good candidate to win the Rookie of the Year Award. It’s clear that during the time Joel Embiid played he was the best out of the group, but is 31 games enough to win a season-long award?
Now that the regular season is complete, here is where the NBA Rookie of the Year race stands for the top three candidates. pic.twitter.com/1D9FZsDro7
— Lukas Harkins (@hardwiredsports) April 13, 2017
Even if Brogdon does not win the award, it should not take away from the fact that the man known as the President had a great season for the Milwaukee Bucks. Let’s dive deeper.