T-wolves' Wiggins named NBA Rookie of the Year

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Andrew Wiggins became the first Minnesota Timberwolves player to be named NBA Rookie of the Year.

Last year's No. 1 overall draft pick won by a comfortable margin over Nikola Mirotic of the Chicago Bulls in results announced on Thursday.

Wiggins, 20, received 110 of the 130 available first-place votes. Mirotic was second with 14 first-place votes and Philadelphia's Nerlens Noel and Orlando's Elfrid Payton each garnered three.

A 6-foot-8 shooting guard, Wiggins averaged 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and one steal while playing all 82 games for the Timberwolves.

The Toronto-born former Kansas star was drafted No. 1 by Cleveland last June and then traded to Minnesota as part of the three-team deal last August that sent star forward Kevin Love from the Timberwolves to the Cavaliers.

He was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month four times in his first season, but the rebuilding Timberwolves were an NBA-worst 16-66.

The team sees Wiggins as the new cornerstone of the 26-year-old franchise.

"I have a long way to go," he said during a news conference. "I'm only 20 years old. So that's just motivation for me to get better."

Wiggins finished with 604 total points in balloting by sports writers and broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada. Mirotic received 335 points, followed by Noel (141), Payton (79), Boston's Marcus Smart (6), Denver's Jusuf Nurkic (3) and Jordan Clarkson (2) of the Los Angeles Lakers.