Dante CunninghamConsidering he's always been a power forward in a small forward's body, Cunningham made a pretty decent effort of pretending otherwise. Given plenty of opportunities due to injury, Cunningham shot his customary mid range two's well, rebounding well enough for a man of his size, and proved he could play defense on most small and power forwards. He also turned it over only 25 times all year, leading all rookies in turnover percentage at 6.0%. This is helped significantly by the fact that he doesn't dribble, but nevertheless, it's a hugely impressive number. (
Tyler Hansbrough was next lowest at 7.1% in his part-season of work;
Marcus Thornton was third at 7.3%. The worst?
Jrue Holiday, 21.9%. Then
James Johnson. Then
Hasheem Thabeet.)
In fact, not only did it lead all rookies, the only player that played significant minutes (i.e. more than 500) to have a lower turnover percentage than that was
Maurice Evans at 4.5%.
Michael Redd had only a 5.8%, but he barely played all season. And
Steve Novak had a 1.8% in 57 games; however, he only played 14 seconds per game. (NB: That figure is exaggerated slightly.)
