The NBA Rookie of the Year award is very important. It's the only award that you can only win once in your career. Sadly, some teams have sabotaged their players' chances to win.

The Philadelphia 76ers have embarked on the most brazen tanking effort ever. They made a bad decision to trade their best player (Andre Iguodala) and young assets for Andrew Bynum, who did not play a single game with them.

They needed to recover, and their view is that the 2014 Draft is the key. The best chance (not certainty, just a chance) to get that is to be the worst team in the NBA. They are on a 14 game losing streak, and their rookie of the year candidate, Michael Carter-Williams, is often on the DNP (did not play) slate. It is not a pretty sight.

MC Dub's loss is Trey Burke's gain. The Utah Jazz is doing the right thing. They are also tanking, but they are giving the proper playing time to their future court general. Burke has emerged as the top candidate for Rookie of the Year honors.

From ESPN, three former NBA head coaches make their predictions:

"PJ Carlesimo: There's still half a season left so it's still so early. Things can change, but right now I'd have to say Michael Carter-Williams. Philly hasn't won a lot of games, but he's been a positive factor for them. He leads the rookie class in just about every category. But again, it's really early. Trey Burke has come on strong after returning from injury.

George Karl: Well, the guy who's trending right now is Burke. For a guy who was a scoring point guard, he's shown me he's a better passer and pick-and-roll guy than I thought. And you can't deny when he started finally playing for Utah, they started winning games. Sure, Victor Oladipo and Carter-Williams have some flamboyance and flash. But I like a guy like Burke who's got winning in his blood.

Avery Johnson: To me, with rookies it's all about attitude. Coaches and teammates gain confidence in rookies by the attitude they display in practice, during games and in the community. A guy like Trey Burke can be that guy. At the end of the year, I just think the difference he's made since he's been back with the Jazz; he can pass, dribble and shoot and impact the fourth quarter of a game. That's good news for the Jazz."

It's a shame for Carter-Williams if he would not be given a shot at the award. That would have been the only consolation for an awful season. Trey Burke on his part, is proving that he deserves the award and it's not only won by default.