Kristaps Porzingis earns unanimous NBA All-Rookie First Team honors

The accolades continue to roll in this week for Kristaps Porzingis, who recently earned a unanimous selection to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. He joins Minnesota Timberwolves phenom Karl-Anthony Towns as the only players selected to the first team without contest while becoming the fourth Knicks rookie in six years to be selected for the honor.

NBA All-Rookie teams announced. To see media members' full ballots, go here: https://t.co/2yxpYkwceo pic.twitter.com/tYjrLza1w7

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) May 19, 2016

Although this news cannot be considered surprising with Porzingis' recent second place finish in Rookie of the Year voting, it is a pleasant surprise that only he and Towns garnered 130 first-team votes each. For a litany of reasons Porzingis' season was a far more encouraging first frame than those of Landry Fields, Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. Not only is Porzingis younger than any of those players at the time of their honors, he is built like Todd McFarlane's Violator.

Further pleasantly surprising news: Jerian Grant received a vote for the second team, which was almost certainly earned down the stretch of the season (thanks, Cedric Maxwell!). Each rookie has plenty to build on next season and it will be exciting to see what the new coaching staff will have in mind.