Jamal Shead receives nomination for Rookie of the Month

Toronto’s rookie point guard Jamal Shead received votes for rookie of the month, which was won by Atlanta Hawks first overall pick and forward Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta) on the Eastern Conference side after posting an impressive 16.3 points on 53 percent shooting from the field, aswell as being just shy of 4 rebounds per game (3.8). Along with Shead, Matas Buzelis (Chicago), Justin Edwards (Philadelphia), Alex Sarr (Washington) and Kel’el Ware (Miami) rounded out the nominees for the Eastern Conference. Outside of Justin Edwards (undrafted) and Jamal Shead, the rest of the field all share the commonality of being first-round talents in the previous draft class.

San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle won the honours for the Western Conference’s side while averaging 19.5 points along with 4.8 assists per game and 4.4 rebounds per game. Donovan Clingan (Portland), Zach Edey (Memphis), Isaiah Collier (Utah), Kyle Filipowski (Utah) and Quinten Post (Golden State) all were able to reel in votes for the Western Conference nominees.

It’s one of the positives that has come out of Toronto resting players relentlessly over the last month, as Shead’s minutes skyrocketed to a season high of 23.7 per game in March, which is three more minutes than his second closest month. He was also able to post a season high in points (10.2), rebounds (2.5) and steals (1.3) in an impressive stretch of games during the month of March.

The rookie of the month nominee, who was acquired in a trade during the 2024 NBA draft with the Sacremento Kings, which saw Toronto offloading Jalen McDaniels, who had a disappointing season with Toronto in 2023/24, for Davion Mitchell (traded at the deadline to the Miami Heat), Sasha Vezenkov (waived in less than a month after being acquired) and the 45th pick of the draft which turned out to be Jamal Shead.

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