Rookie Discussion Thread

[cyclix]

NBA all-Rookie First & Second Team predictions?

[erudite23]

Those are apples and oranges. And while numbers can be fun, it's ultimately about winning basketball games and Trey Lyles has been doing more to contribute to winning basketball games than Booker has by a large margin. In fact, there's only a couple other rooks who can compare to what he's doing right now in that respect.

Which is all not to say that Book isn't great, because he is. I think he's going to be good, but the excitement about him becoming a future star is premature. He could get there, but what he's doing right now is not an indicator of that.

So by that same logic, would you take Lyles over Towns as well? You said Booker's team is 3rd worst in the league, well Towns team is 5th worst in the league. So then he isn't playing "winning basketball" either right? And nothing that Towns has done this season is an indicator of him being a star either right since you know, his team is also very bad?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not even making the case that I would put Lyles solidly in front of Booker. My statement before was that I would put Lyles, Booker and Turner on the same approximate plane, below Towns, Porzingis and Russell for sure and perhaps Okafor and Mudiay (depending on how you evaluate their performances thus far).

Booker showed some great stuff earlier in the season with his ability to space the floor and attack closeouts as a secondary or tertiary offensive weapon. That is much more indicative of what I think he will be long term. As good as he's looked at times running the pick and roll and creating offense, the numbers are not just bad, they are terrible.

Players that accumulate big numbers with low efficiency on teams that are eliminated from the playoffs have almost zero correlation with future performance in real games. Towns has been putting up big numbers with great efficiency all season. Therein lies the difference. He has shown every indication that he can carry become a primary weapon on a winning team through 1) his own improvement and 2) the improvement of the roster around him.

This isn't an exact science and there are many factors to consider. Lyles hasn't had eye popping numbers, but he has had success and produced efficiently for a team that is playing for something. He's also done this in the same type of role he will be expected to fill in the future, which is NOT the case for Booker. After this season, Book will likely return to his role as a shooter and secondary ball handler.

Does that make sense?

[islanders11040]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2-GE_zjoI[/youtube]

If you wanna enjoy some lanky big man dunks. Knicks need to involve him in more alleyoops.

[Goudelock]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2-GE_zjoI[/youtube]

If you wanna enjoy some lanky big man dunks. Knicks need to involve him in more alleyoops.

To summarize the video (read in Mike Breen's voice):

1: (Random Knicks player) takes the shot.

2: it misses.......

3: KRISTAPS MOTHER-EFFING PORZINGIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4: (Crowd is going crazy)

[Klomp]

[Piecake]

Pretty sloppy. He needs to tighten up that handle.

[Klomp]

Pretty sloppy. He needs to tighten up that handle.

And yet two defenders swiped at it and couldn't get a handle on it

[Klomp]

Some nice rookie-to-rookie passing

[tweet]https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/720430916540112896[/tweet]

Another 28/14 for KAT...his 8th game with 25+/14+. If you drop that to 25/10, it's his 19th.

[dalton749]

Norman Powell is goat guy
watch out for this kid

3 games without derozan
24.7/6/3.7
1 steal 2.3 turnovers
19/27 from the line
59% fg
9/12 from 3

[Domejandro]

Karl-Anthony Towns finishes the season with a 28 point, 14 rebound, 3 assist, and 2 block performance.

For the season...

1503 Points
54.25% Field Goal Percentage
34% Three Point Percentage
81% Free Throw Percentage
855 Rebounds
161 Assists
138 Blocks
58 Steals
1 Skills Challenge Award
1 Rookie of the Year Award

[Klomp]

1 Rookie of the Year Award

You sure about that?

[Domejandro]

1 Rookie of the Year Award

You sure about that?

It is going to be a close race, but I have to be a homer on this one, I think he can pull it out.

Man, us Minnesota fans have been suffering for so long, but Karl-Anthony Towns makes it worth it.

[Domejandro]

Karl-Anthony Towns finishes the season with a 28 point, 14 rebound, 3 assist, and 2 block performance.

For the season...

1503 Points
54.25% Field Goal Percentage
34% Three Point Percentage
81% Free Throw Percentage
855 Rebounds
161 Assists
138 Blocks
58 Steals
1 Skills Challenge Award
1 Rookie of the Year Award

For the record, Karl-Anthony Towns is one of three players to do this. The other two are Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan.

[GopherIt!]

NBA all-Rookie First & Second Team predictions?

First team:
PG: Anthony Towns
SG: Karl Anthony
SF: KAT
PF: Karl Towns
C: Karl Anthony Towns

[Piecake]

Pretty sloppy. He needs to tighten up that handle.

And yet two defenders swiped at it and couldn't get a handle on it

I was mostly joking. There has to be some weaknesses in KAT's game or else it would just be unfair!

[Klomp]

I was mostly joking. There has to be some weaknesses in KAT's game or else it would just be unfair!

I'm aware.

[Klomp]

This is going to be a long offseason, but for now, here's this to hold me over

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bxNGUizDF8[/youtube]

[Klomp]

He's reading the future now....

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ZacharyBD/status/720490466576318464[/tweet]

[HawaiianJazzFan]

Well Lyles got his third start recently with Favors injured tonight, he had:
18 points, 11 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists, he's averagine 19.33 ppg in his recent starts...

[Riko]

NBA all-Rookie First & Second Team predictions?

First Team:
KAT
Porzingis
Okafor/Jokic
Booker
Russell

Second Team:
Jokic/Okafor
Turner
Justin Winslow
Stanley Johnson (?)
Mudiay

The only doubts are about Okafor that has less than 2/3 of the games played and a fifth player in the secondo team...