UPDATE 10:08 A.M. EDT
The NBA officially announced Monday that Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns has been voted rookie of the year, and it’s unanimous.
ORIGINAL POST
Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns will be named the NBA’s rookie of the year when the league makes the official announcement Monday, as reported by John Krawczynski of the Associated Press on Sunday night.
The top pick in the 2015 NBA draft averaged 18.1 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks and is the 15th No. 1 pick to win rookie of the year honors since 1985. He follows Minnesota teammate Andrew Wiggins, who won the award as the top pick in 2014-15. Wiggins and Towns are the first teammates to win the award in consecutive years since Buffalo’s Bob McAdoo and Ernie DiGregorio won in the 1972-73 and 1973-74 seasons.
As Krawczynski notes, Towns ran right through the so-called “rookie wall” in his first season, averaging 21.3 points on 55 percent shooting and 11.7 rebounds over the final 31 games of the season, in which the Timberwolves improved by 13 wins over the year before. After being named Western Conference rookie of the month in every month from November to April, the only question left is whether Towns will be a unanimous winner.
Towns told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he’ll send the award trophy to his parents’ house in New Jersey, as he does with most of his individual accolades.
“I’m not a big individual-award guy,” he said. “I never keep any of mine. My parents like ’em. The only awards I keep in my house are my state high school championship rings and playing at Kentucky. If it’s not a championship, it’s not something I keep.”