Surprise Rookie of the Year Candidates Who Could Steal Award from Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving is in all likelihood going to win the Rookie of the Year award. He absolutely deserves it. He has the second-best player efficiency rating by a rookie point guard in the three-point era, exceeded only by Chris Paul's remarkable rookie year. 

In fact his PER is the 10th best in the three-point era by any rookie at all. Considering his age and that he only played a smattering of college games, it's amazing how he has come out and played in his rookie year. 

However, for the sake of discussion, let's say that it's discovered that he has working bionic parts, or he's actually form another planet and he's really an alien disguised as a human, and he's just infiltrating Cleveland because they are susceptible after the LeBron James loss. 

Due to some hypothetical, extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances, suddenly he's disqualified from voting. There are some other players who are big surprises who might end up taking the award from him.

Here are a list of players who weren't even lottery picks (or wouldn't be) who would be in the running for Rookie of the Year if Irving were a martian. 

Two honorable mention picks that aren't on here but could be are Marshon Brooks (who had a great start but has tailed off a bit of late) and Kenneth Faried (who started slow but has come on like gangbusters of late.)

I didn't include them but certainly I wouldn't complain if they were on someone else's list! They are doing an admirable job! 

Ricky Rubio`

Ricky Rubio was getting dissed in the media before the season started. For instance John Hollinger in his scouting report said of Rubio:

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There's no way to sugarcoat this: Rubio's translated European stats are just awful, and have been for the past few years. I have a system that's been pretty reliable in terms of predicting first-year NBA performance for imports from the Euroleague, and what they project for Rubio offensively is ghastly: a 27.3 percent shooting mark and a 9.93 PER. It's not just his play in that league either; Rubio's play for Spain in international competition has been similarly discouraging. 

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Technically Rubio was a lottery pick way back when he was drafted in 2009. However, if he were drafted this year he wouldn't have been so I'm calling him a surprise anyway. And hey, since it's my article I get to set the rules. 

So when Rubio set the NBA on fire before getting injured, there were a lot of people surprised. He might have even given Irving a run for the award if he'd been able to guide the Timberwolves to the playoffs. However, when he went down to injury, he dropped for contesting for the award. 

Iman Shumpert

Iman Shumpert was drafted as a defensive specialist and he's been exactly that. 

The Knicks, formally a team as effective at stopping opposing defenses as a sieve does water, have become one of the premier defensive teams in the Association. Their defensive rating of 100.6 is good for fourth best, and is an improvement from 23rd last year. 

Shumpert has been one of the league's best on-the-ball perimeter defenders, yielding just .67 points per play on isolation plays. 

Defensive players don't typically get Rookie of the Year love, but Shumpert's outstanding performance deserves a name on the ballot, even if it's just an occasional third-place vote.

Chandler Parsons

Chandler Parsons plays for a team that doesn't get the limelight. His name is probably not nearly as recognizable to the casual fan as some of the higher taken picks, or a player like Norris Cole who plays for a higher profile team, but he's played better. 

Among rookies, Parsons has the fourth-most win shares, the fifth-most rebounds and the 10th-most total points. He also has the second-most minutes played. 

That's not bad for a guy who was taken with the 38th overall pick. 

Isaiah Thomas

Little dude can ball. Sure, he's the only player in the NBA that John Lucas III can post up. I get that. But let me say this again, little dude can flat out ball. 

Thomas scores 16.4 points per 36 minutes and adds 5.6 assists and shockingly, 3.7 rebounds. Exactly how a player generously listed as 5'9" is grabbing 3.7 rebounds is beyond me, but it says a lot about his hustle and speed. Little dude gets to a lot of those long boards, a la Rajon Rondo. He's fun to watch. 

That's none too shabby for the last guy taken in the draft. Looks like the Kings didn't come up short with that pick. His PER of 17.2 is the second best of any rookie with at least 1,000 minutes played, trialing only the martian, Kryie Irving. 

Kawhi Leonard

They must have some kind of basement-sized super computer with all kinds of whistles and dials and some sort of super-coolant running through it called the draft-o-matic, in a secret underground room beneath the Alamo. All I know is that they seem to routinely hit big on their draft picks. 

Kawhi Leonard is the most recent example of the Spurs making a smart draft-day decision. Leonard has developed nicely this season, and has become a reliable starter for the Spurs heading into the postseason. In fact, Leonard leads all rookies in win shares, including Irving. 

The sharp-shooter has an effective field-goal percentage and averages 7.2 rebounds and 11.2 points per 36 minutes. He hasn't done enough to merit moving past Irving, but he should have his name written in the second slot on most ballots. His performance is a significant factor in the Spurs chasing the best record in the league.