Kendrick Perkins really let one slip through the cracks this year.
On Thursday, the NBA officially released the full voting results and ballots for all of their major awards this season. While there were many interesting revelations from that release, the Charlotte Hornets subreddit pointed out a particularly egregious one. The ESPN personality Perkins, who received an awards ballot this season, left Hornets forward Brandon Miller off his All-Rookie choices altogether. Between the First Team and the Second Team, Perkins voted ten other members of the 2023 draft class as All-Rookie selections … but not Miller.
In the voter selections just released by the #NBA, @KendrickPerkins left Brandon Miller off both his First Team and Second Team ballots for All Rookie Team.
#LetsFly35 pic.twitter.com/v3zripdtLp
— /r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) May 23, 2024
Indeed, you can see for yourself here that Perkins’ All-Rookie First Team was Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio), Chet Holmgren (OKC), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami), Brandin Podziemski (Golden State), and Dereck Lively II (Dallas). Meanwhile, Perkins’ All-Rookie Second Team was Keyonte George (Utah), Gradey Dick (Toronto), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Golden State), GG Jackson (Memphis), and Jordan Hawkins (New Orleans).
Miller, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft, indeed had a fine rookie year for Charlotte. He averaged a strong 17.3 points per game (second only to Wembanyama among first-year players) to go along with 4.3 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per contest. Every single other voter also agreed that Miller deserved All-Rookie honors. He ultimately earned 97 First Team votes and one Second Team vote (Perkins was the only one of 99 voters who left Miller off the list). Thus, Miller still made the All-Rookie First Team in a landslide.
As for Perkins, who was resoundingly criticized for the snub of Miller, it is possible that he did not watch any games this season of the small-market Hornets or that he simply just made an error. But that had to be the worst NBA voting mistake since Mark Jackson’s folly from last year.
