Title: Awards Watch: Terence Davis II and how All-Rookie cases are evaluated
Date: April 15, 2020
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I wrote about Terence Davis’ rookie season, a top-10 one among freshman that may not land him on the All-Rookie team because of how rookies tend to be evaluated.
It would not fit the Terence Davis II narrative if contextualizing his first season in the NBA were straightforward.
While preseason hopes that Davis would be the Raptors next undrafted gem were fulfilled, his story was filled with pauses and circuitous routes. Davis blew the Raptors away in pre-training camp workouts, killing the idea he might spend time with Raptors 905 fairly early. He then proceeded to outplay his competition in training camp, but it was only because of an injury to Patrick McCaw that Davis began the season in flirtation with Nick Nurse’s rotation. Eventually, performance and continued injury up and down the roster allowed him to build momentum and a meaningfully sized sample of success.
Despite those success, endorsements of Davis were hardly unanimous. Davis was not named to the Rising Stars Game at All-Star weekend. At multiple points it appeared he’d fallen back behind McCaw in Nurse’s pecking order.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 