With the rookie wall and adjusting to NBA rigors part of the challenge of being a first-year player, I considered disqualifying Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal, Dion Waiters and Andre Drummond from consideration. Anyone raving about Davis' statistics without acknowledging the huge advantage in making only 64 appearances is ignoring the impact of going from playing 30-some games against boys vs. 82 vs. men for the first time. Ultimately, I decided not to eliminate Davis, Waiters et. al from consideration because it opened up another question: What do you make the minimum? Eighty percent of the season or more? Seventy-five percent? Or should the baseline depend purely on minutes, not appearances? I suppose if some of the supporting players who didn't miss significant time -- Harrison Barnes, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kyle Singler -- had had more of an impact, it might've shifted my thinking. My ballot: 1. Damian Lillard 2. Anthony Davis 3. Bradley Beal. And if I'd had to fill out a ballot before the season started, those three names would've been on there -- conceivably in the same order, anticipating that Lillard would have the ball in his hands a lot and thereby inherently have the chance to make a bigger impact.
