Brace for impending robbery of Stephon Castle's unanimous Rookie of the Year bid

Stephon Castle is about to be hosed out of what should be an obvious unanimous Rookie of the Year victory over the rest of the 2024 draft class. The award hasn't been announced, but the voters have cast their ballots, and some have seen fit to reveal their selections ahead of time.

The award has yet to be announced, but it was already obvious that Castle was going to win it. The way the list of confirmed voters is shaking out, we can pretty much guarantee that now. But what's alarming is that there are several people who didn't vote for Steph, and honestly, it doesn't make sense.

Confirmed 1st place votes for Rookie of the Year

Stephon Castle- 16
Jaylen Wells- 2
Zaccharie Risacher-1

Stephon Castle could have been 7th ever unanimous ROY winner

There have only been six players to win this very prestigious award unanimously. Ralph Sampson, David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Victor Wembanyama. That means Steph was close to establishing a new record.

While Rookie of the Year has been won by one team in back-to-back years once before (Timberwolves 2015-2016), they didn't both win the award unanimously. It's a rarity that should be applicable for the Spurs' 2024 first-round draft pick, but a few voters are bucking the obvious to opt for a more nuanced selection.

Generally, I'm a fan of nuance. It's necessary in just about every situation because context is needed to properly assess anything. However, there is no nuance in existence that could rationally explain the thought process behind voting for Zaccharie Risacher or Jaylen Wells over the former UConn standout.

Wells played well in November, December, and January, but he fell off toward the end, only averaging nine points and three rebounds in February, eight points and four rebounds in March, and seven points and 5 rebounds in April. He did nothing special on either side of the ball in the past few months. What are we even doing here?

The voter's reason for choosing Risacher is even worse

Infamous Spurs' hater from ESPN, Tim Bontemps, was the one who cast a vote for Zaccharie Risacher. The Hawks finished the season 40-42 as the eighth seed, and apparently, this is a factor in Bontemps' decision. He writes in his column:

"This season's choice boiled down to Castle, who has taken on a bigger individual role in San Antonio, or Risacher, who has carved an effective role on a team competing for a playoff spot. I went with the latter." - Bontemps

If you're not going to punish Risacher for Castle's higher usage rate, which he clearly isn't, since he's voting for the Hawks rookie despite Steph's obviously better numbers, then you can't punish San Antonio's rook because the Spurs aren't playoff contenders. What a gross inconsistency.

The Silver and Black were firmly planted in the playoff race before the season went down the drain, and Castle was performing at a higher level than Risacher before and after that breaking point. It's not his fault that Victor Wembanyama was diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis, nor is he to blame for Coach Pop's unfortunate health crisis.

Castle sat atop the NBA Rookie Ladder at the number one spot from the end of January through the end of the season without relinquishing his spot once. There was a reason for that. Giving someone else the award smells like Spurs hype fatigue to me. People are getting tired of hearing about how awesome San Antonio is going to be, and this is their pushback.

That reason makes more sense than any real belief that someone not named Stephon Castle should be winning this award. He'll still win it, but again, he going to be robbed out of a special title he should receive. The fact that three of the six unanimous ROY winner were Spurs players would have made it more special, but he won't get that now, and that sucks.