A majority of the teams in last year’s lottery have received an immediate boost from their draft picks. While it remains to be seen whether any of these players will be considered superstars during their careers, there was clearly plenty of talent at the top.
That has led to a spirited chase for the Rookie of the Year award. There are plenty of worthy candidates, so with fewer than 20 games left on regular-season schedule, let’s take a look at their credentials:
- Cade Cunningham – After a slow start, Cunningham has established himself as a player the Pistons can build around. He leads all rookies at 16.3 PPG and ranks second in assists (5.1 per game) and fourth in rebounds (5.8). During crunch time, coach Dwane Casey has put the ball in Cunningham’s hands, trusting that the top pick in the draft will deliver.
- Evan Mobley – The Cavaliers have been the league’s biggest surprise and a lot of that success can be attributed to the addition of Mobley. He’s fifth among rookies in scoring (14.6) and first in rebounding (8.2) and blocked shots (1.7). The No. 3 selection in the draft has lived up to his billing as the draft class’ top big man.
- Scottie Barnes – Barnes leads all rookies in minutes per game (35.4), showing coach Nick Nurse’s trust in him. He’s fourth among rookies in scoring (14.9), third in rebounding (7.6) and tied for third in assists (3.3). The fourth pick in the draft should be a fixture with the Raptors for many seasons.
- Josh Giddey – A bit of an unknown after playing last season in Australia, Giddey has displayed the ability to rack up triple doubles on any given night. The Thunder guard leads all rookies at 6.4 APG. He’s also seventh in scoring (12.5) and second in rebounding (7.8).
- Franz Wagner – The eighth pick in the draft, Wagner ranks second among his peers in scoring (15.6 PPG) and 3-point shooting (37.2%). He’ll continue to be a matchup problem for Magic opponents.
- Jalen Green – Like Cunningham, Green had some early shooting struggles but has come on strong. The Rockets guard and No. 2 overall selection has moved into third place (15.3 PPG) on the scoring list. He’s also advancing as a playmaker, contributing 15 assists in the last three games.
- Herbert Jones – While his counting stats are not as impressive as more heralded prospects, Jones has become a defensive stalwart for the Pelicans. The second-round pick is averaging 30.1 MPG while often being assigned to the opponent’s main offensive threat.
That leads us to our question of the day: Who is your current selection for Rookie of the Year and what makes him stand out among all other first-year players?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
Can you put a poll up?
The kid in Chicago should be in consideration seeing he has done stuff that hasn’t been seen in awhile…
Ayo has shown he is a up and coming star!
Not a star, but a very good role player. That should not be discounted.
What I wrote is up and coming which mean not yet and could still flame out or become one.
The kid is good and could be the future PG for the Bulls which if that happens and a big if still then Ball is expendable in the near future.
How in tarnation is there no Knicks rookie on this list?
I’d go with Mobley with Scottie Barnes a close second and Cunningham 3rd Giddey 4th Wagner 5th
None of the guys are a Star now. Cade is. Have you been watching everything. He is turning around the Pistons franchise as a rookie.
I’m a Raptors fan and love Barnes but Mobley is the ROTY and it’s not really that close.
@Stons should be more like “stoned” (just kidding). I’m not here to argue what Mobley is but how is Cade a “star” now? How has he turned the franchise around?
Personal numbers like 16/6/5 look great for a rook until you look at 40/32/84. Minus the FT% the shooting % are below average. The Pistons are a bad team so a bad record is no surprise but where’s the tangible proof of him turning around the franchise? They have 18 wins with 17 wins to go so they’ll likely match or surpass their 20 wins last year. But they’re also playing a full 82 game season as opposed to the 72 games last year. So how has Cade demonstrated tangibly that he’s the star of the class? His counting numbers are comparable to Mobley and Barnes but the other two have much better shooting efficiency in their FG% and you can tie Mobley’s rebounds and blocks into the success the Cavs have had moving from the 17th ranked defense in terms of PPG allowed last year to #1 this year. Also, the Cavs have shot past their 22 win total of last year to 37 this far with 17 games left.
Im not saying Mobley is a future star but certainly I wouldn’t feel justified saying Cade has distinguished himself from the field and is the “star ” of the draft class.
Everything is shooting percentage with you.
At least you quoted a Cavs team defensive stat where Mobley has helped tremendously but he’s not the sole reason for their increased win total.
@WhoGot
Yeah..shooting % is good way of measuring the players efficiency. You can be a high volume shooter’s like Russ or a more efficent shooter like Lebron.
How is Barnes a close second?
Always an underrated stat MPG-Minutes per game
Impressive Scottie is almost pulling in a full 36 out the gate
I like Y2YAK’s list
Its should belong mobley or barnes. Ayo showed a good performance,maybe 2nd rookie team for him.
Good class, as predicted. All look likable. Well they’re young give them time to be otherwise lol!
Duarte, Sengun also good… Christopher, Grimes, Hyland, &CamThomas are guards picked consecutively, Dosunmu a bit later… 13 drafted with a good quick start, plus Austin Reaves, 60%TS, +10onoff in 962 minutes.
Mobley or Scottie
Thomas
Mobley 1 Barnes 2 and Cade 3
Cade is the only Rookie right now that is a legit Star. ROTY period.
Cade 6 games with 25, 5, and 5. All other rookies combined 3. Teams game plan for Cade nightly. Mobley and Barnes are not on the top of opposing teams game plan.
I’ll admit in five years Cade will most likely be best of this crop of rookies. However no one has had a bigger impact on his team winning games this year than Mobley. The truth is the Pistons still suck (which is good for the Pistons honestly) but Mobley deserves rookie of the year.
Cade 3-0 against Barnes, 2-1 against Mobley 2-1 against Suggs/Wagner. 1-0 against Green.
8-2 head to head vs top 5 of the draft.
This isn’t tennis – a player’s record against another player is meaningless.
It may not be a significant stat. But it is certainly not meaningless.
It pretty much is meaningless, basketball is team sport
How can something be “pretty much” meaningless? A thing either has meaning or it doesn’t.
The greatest player of all time Jordan thrived on his head to head matchups with league greats and contemporaries. You are wrong my friend. Great players want to beat other great players in team matchups.
@Stons
Cade’s shooting in those 3 games? 14 for 45 for a 31% FG%. And although the Cavs still should have won, 1 game was without Sexton, Garland and Rubio.
All you quote is shooting precentages. Either fine tune your arguments and come with an army of analytics to prove your points or argue from the position of a guy who watches these games all year from start to finish.
Just quoting shooting percentages is lazy. If that was the meausre then players like Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace would not be in the HOF.
@WhoGot
my bad. I used facts to make my arguement in 2022 not 1982. Counting numbers are great. %’s give those numbers context. If it takes a player 30 shots to score 30 points but it only takes 19 shots for another player to do the same then the guy with the 19 shots is going to have a better FG% and be more efficient as a scorer.
Mobley. Should be unanimous. ROTY isn’t a projection of who might be the best player down the road, it’s who was the best THIS year.
The three physically big perimeter players with high end facilitation ability (CC, Barnes and Giddey) all have a chance to be all stars as well (as do others, I could see 8 all stars from this class). BUT only Mobley has had a significant impact in the only stat that matters, winning, and he did it from the start of the season. The truly great players do this as rookies more often than not.
At the moment I have Mobley & Barnes tied at the top…
1/ Mobley
1/ Barnes
3/ Giddey
4/ Cunningham
5/ Wagner
I think Mobley or Barnes should get it, the rest of the rookies are getting more opportunities on bad teams. It’s harder to have similar stats on winning teams.
Keep underating Ayo, that will only motivate him. I have seen both in games in person and he is for sure way better than Jones and improving every game, literally a student of the game.
Looking at some of the answers one can tell that not many here have league pass or watch many games. Just look at the posted numbers and read a hyped ESPN or NBA.com article and make your opinion. Smh.
Full disclosure I’m a Pistons fan. Now with all that out of the way, a serious ROY conversation includes only Cade and Mobley and they are neck and neck. They are running backwards while lapping the rest of the pack to see what 3rd place looks like.
@WhoGot
can you really even put Cade ahead of Wagner?
16/5/3 shooting 47/37/85
The only reason I wouldn’t put him ahead of Mobley and to an extent Barnes, is that both the Cavs (+15) and Raps (+7) have already surpassed their win totals from last year whereas Orlando and Detroit are both still among the worst teams in terms of wins this year.
So you’re saying that Mobley and Barnes are solely responsible for their teams’ increase in wins from last year to this?
@WhoGot
What arguement are you trying to make? YOU said Cade was the star of the class NOW. You also said he was turning the Pistons around. How? Mobley by himself isn’t responsible for the Cavs turnaround but he’s 2nd in rebounds on the team (top 25 in nba), 1st in blocks on the team (6th in nba) and along with Allen they are 1st and 2nd on the team in contested 2s and contested 3. They are both top 8 in the nba in both categories too. So Mobley rebounds, blocks and challenges a ton of interior and perimeter FG attempted by opponent. So he OBVIOUSLY has a lot to do with the turnaround that’s made the Cavs the stingiest NBA team in points allowed per game. Offensively, he’s given Garland another lob target to go to.
Anyone watching a game thinks, *Everyone should agree with me*. But people astound with their takes.
Pistons needing a win for Cade does not help his chances. Few care to help them or anyone like that.
Now, advice on who a team should start… there are posters who want such questions!