Clippers Rookie Mfiondu Kabengele Receives Votes on Annual NBA Rookie Survey

There’s really not much NBA news out there now, Clippers fans. But every once in a while, a little interesting nugget comes along. Yesterday, the NBA released their annual rookie survey, asking a large crop (42, this year) of the NBA’s newest players about their fellow draftees. The survey usually has some hilarious results, but it’s still interesting to see what the rookies think of each other.

The Clippers, of course, drafted two rookies this year: Mfiondu Kabengele (27) and Terance Mann (48). Both players stood out in Summer League, especially Mann, and each had good college careers at Florida State. Unfortunately, Mann didn’t get any recognition in the survey (not surprising considering his age and where he was drafted). However, Mfiondu received votes for “Best Career” and “Biggest Steal”, which are probably the two most significant categories. He didn’t place in the top votegetters, but even getting a couple nods from his rookie compatriots is pretty cool.

While it’s slightly disappointing the Clippers’ rookies don’t have more buzz, it’s not surprising. They were selected later in the draft, and neither are in a situation where they’ll get much shine right away. Moreover, several of the categories (best shooter, most athletic, best defender) don’t really apply to either anyway. So while the results aren’t all that surprising, hopefully the lack of attention from their fellow rookies puts a bit of a chip on Fi and Terance’s shoulders.

As mentioned above, the rookies are usually fairly wrong on a lot of stuff (they predicted that Collin Sexton would win Rookie of the Year last season), and have some ludicrous answers this year too. I like Cam Reddish well enough, but he is objectively a poor option to have the best NBA career in his class, and that’s who this class voted for. They’ll probably be wrong on that category, and there’s a good chance they’re wrong on Fi and Terance as well.