Player Capsules 2012, #34-36: Josh Selby, Ray Allen, Charles Jenkins

As our summer mainstay, Aaron's writing a 370-part series discussing almost every notable player who was -- as of last season -- getting minutes in the NBA. Intent is to get you talking, thinking, and appreciating the myriad of wonderful folks who play in our favorite sports league. This morning's three: Josh Selby, Ray Allen, and Charles Jenkins. 

• • •

Follow Josh Selby on twitter at @JoshSelby2.

I'm not sure what to do about awards voting. Year after year, we get awful votes that make no sense to anyone. In the last three years, we've seen: a rookie starter for a 32 win team get a third place MVP vote, a 35-year-old Ben Wallace get a vote for "Most Improved Player", and David Lee get a vote for All-Defensive first team. I get the fact that there's no way to really "fix" stupid votes. Even if you made voting public, you'd still have a person or two who would vote for something silly just to make the papers. Or people who'd revel in arrogance and refuse to admit they don't watch the games. There could also be an overreaction, a trend towards eliminating reasonable discourse and browbeating every voter into picking the same player -- that would be awful. So, no. I don't really know what to do about awards voting. I do, however, know that it can be hilarious and incomprehensible sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean every year.

Enter Josh Selby. Look. Selby is a summer league star, no doubt about it -- he plays incredibly well when the Vegas and Orlando summer leagues come around, and clearly, whoever voted for him had to have seen him do that. But shouldn't a player's actual NBA resume trump a scrimmage in the preseason? Shouldn't his scant minutes have disqualified him from a top 3 vote for Rookie of the Year? After all -- Selby averaged 2.3 points in just 28 games, playing just 8.5 minutes a contest. He didn't sit out for serious injuries, either. He sat out with DNP-CDs. Selby shot 35% from the field, with a scorching 14% from three to boot. He averaged a single turnover a game to go with his single assist a game. His per-36 averages aren't even that great -- 10-2-4 with 4 turnovers and 3 fouls a night. Regardless. Selby is a rookie, so those averages aren't the end of the world for his future development. They probably SHOULD disqualify him from receiving a high vote for rookie of the year, though.

And that's the problem. I don't understand at all how a voter could look at the slate of rookies we had last year -- on the whole, an excellent slate -- and place a vote for arguably the worst rookie in the league. I realize he had a good summer league, I realize he had outsized expectations as a popular college player, I realize the voter could've been in Memphis. But every time I read a story like this I wonder how it could possibly change. I've yet to come up with a very good way to do it -- perhaps expert shortlisting of a 5-6 player list for each of the big awards, then offering a write-in? Maybe making a rotating list of who actually gets to vote for the awards, with voters culled out if their votes have been laugh-worthy? Or, perhaps, it isn't really that big of a deal. After all, these are a little amusing -- sometimes they almost feel like a chortle-worthy reminder that maybe I'm taking these awards a little too seriously. Really though. Josh Selby?

• • •

Follow Ray Allen on twitter at @greenRAYn20.

Page 1 of 4 | Next page