Rookie Discussion Thread

[ChaosHamster]

One thing I agree with, is that Kris doesn't have a lot of moves.

But in the other hand, I think its kind of impressive that he scored 14ppg, pretty much just shooting over people, and hitting open jump shots.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Is there rly debate who is better Myles or Porzingis? haha-

One is by a mile better with much higher ceiling, and you should know who if u watch bb for years.

I was trying to have a nice discussion. Got any real aurguing point other than being obtuse? I've watched basketball for a very long time, I stand be my evluation. One is not a mile better nor do they have a much higher ceiling than the other.

We can have a nice debate, but I will not argue with someone being a jerk.

This is like debating peak Lamarcus Aldridge or Dirk Nowitzki in that you're debating a couple of studs.

[Quentin]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

[NBA Fan 1234]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

Not sure what "NY bias" you're talking about, because most media tends to hate on NY. Why not bring up every market with its own solid rookie? Why not Phoenix? Denver? LA? Indiana? Toronto? Such garbage.

[cyclix]

Winslow already with 85 GP (78 RS + 7 PS) in his teenage season with at least 4 more to go. Great NBA experience already to start his young career is all I can ask for. Really happy with both our rookies.

[Quentin]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

Not sure what "NY bias" you're talking about, because most media tends to hate on NY. Why not bring up every market with its own solid rookie? Why not Phoenix? Denver? LA? Indiana? Toronto? Such garbage.

You misinterpreted what I said. The media in NY will be voting for Pork Sandwich because they're the biased NY media. They won't vote for the obvious choice.

[Domejandro]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

Unfortunately that pseudo-intellectual, ESPN clown is voting for Nikola Jokic over Karl-Anthony Towns, so it won't be New York's fault.

[saintEscaton]

Jokic has a case to be made for coming in second

[DaGawd]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

GTFOH with that man. People love to hate us for some reason..

[CoreyGallagher]

EDIT: Idk where I've been, but I didn't realize there's been unanimous ROY winners as recently as Lilliard. Learn something new.

Point was, every team has their homers, not just NY.

[NBA Fan 1234]

Should be hearing any day now that Towns is unanimous ROY. Oh wait, NY bias gets to vote don't they?

Not sure what "NY bias" you're talking about, because most media tends to hate on NY. Why not bring up every market with its own solid rookie? Why not Phoenix? Denver? LA? Indiana? Toronto? Such garbage.

You misinterpreted what I said. The media in NY will be voting for Pork Sandwich because they're the biased NY media. They won't vote for the obvious choice.

I understood the bias and stand by what I said. Media in NY hates the Knicks, too. I would be VERY surprised if KAT is not unanimous ROY.

[I_Like_Dirt]

They don't hate Porzingis, though. That said, I don't think it's an issue with NY media in particular. This kind of thing has happened before. Like Utah's media guys trying to explain why they voted for Deron Williams as ROY instead of Chris Paul. Although we're also getting ahead of ourselves, too. We haven't seen the voting results just yet.

[pacers33granger]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/bball_ref/status/727230017776828417[/tweet]

Whiteside at 9.1% and Turner at 9.8%.

[detroitKG]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM06wHtwMQk[/youtube]

[GimmeDat]

This is going to prove to be one hell of a draft class.

Towns is quite possibly the best big man of the future generation. Porzingis obviously has massive upside.

Booker is set to be an exceptional player.

Turner I think is the future of the Pacers alongside George and will quickly be their clear 2nd best player (based on the current roster).

I would say every single other player in the lottery is bound to be a starting level player, except for Kaminsky.

Looking outside the lottery, they're all great prospects as well. In the first round, the only potential 'busts' are found at the end of the round.

Add to that 2nd round talents including Mickey, Richardson, Holmes, Harrell, Powell.

That's an exceptional hit rate.

[j-ragg]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJGOeL4uHI#t=15[/youtube]
Hezonja doesn't get talked about too much on here (for good reason, dictator Skiles doesn't play him much), but a few observations:

Pros:
-Really nice jump shot. Much better than I thought it'd be. Percentages weren't elite or anything but when he has his feet set he's really good.
-Good passing instincts. A lot of the time he tried too hard to make big plays that just weren't there, but he really doesn't have this selfish part to his game that some thought he had.
-Bigger than I thought he was, I sat courtside a few games this year and he was just as big if not bigger than Tobias Harris. Legit 6'9.
-I actually thought he was a pretty good man defender. Other teams went at him a lot and he held his own, especially considering his defensive reputation as being not so great.

Cons:
-Definitely not quite as athletic as I was expecting, not below average at all but definitely shouldn't ever enter a dunk contest (although there have been worse contestants for sure).
-Not very quick with the ball. Needs a screen a lot of the time to get by his man, doesn't have the quickness to be a great 1on1 scorer it seems, but hopefully something he can work on.
-His team defense isn't very good. Gets caught a lot watching the ball when he man doesn't have it and will get backdoor'd a lot, it's fun watching it make Skiles face turn red though so maybe that's actually a pro?
-He turns the ball over a lot, especially for a non-point guard. But like I alluded to earlier he really only turns it over trying to make a play for someone else so with that in mind, I'm okay with it. Just needs to learn not every play needs to be a home run.

All in all I'm really happy with the pick, only guy I'd really want over him that was drafted after is Myles Turner. Definitely not a bust by any means though, hopefully he works on his game in his first NBA off-season. Doubt we'll see him in Summer League due to Croatia Olympic qualifying games.

[RRFB]

Interesting SI article that uses advanced stats to not only make a case for Jokic winning ROY, but also prove that he's already an elite NBA player:
https://thecauldron.si.com/and-the-nba-rookie-of-the-year-award-goes-to-f7f48172e40d#.nbnr3qiim

I still think Towns deserves ROY unanimously, but Jokic has a very strong case to at least be the first runner up.

[ChaosHamster]

Will see, what happens to those stats, when Jokic is playing as a started whole year, and is getting 30~ mins a night.

[Quentin]

Will see, what happens to those stats, when Jokic is playing as a started whole year, and is getting 30~ mins a night.

Exactly! It takes a toll having to play 30+ minutes a night. You just can't extrapolate 20 min numbers out to 48 and expect everything to stay the same. Fatigue sets in, playing more minutes against starters, playing within your foul limit, etc.

[Manimal]

Will see, what happens to those stats, when Jokic is playing as a started whole year, and is getting 30~ mins a night.

Exactly! It takes a toll having to play 30+ minutes a night. You just can't extrapolate 20 min numbers out to 48 and expect everything to stay the same. Fatigue sets in, playing more minutes against starters, playing within your foul limit, etc.

We'll of course, and I agree. But we're also not talking about 48 mpg here. And it's also not like 20-25 mpg is a small sample size either.

With that said, if you look at Jokic's splits for the season, he gradually got more mpg as the year progressed, and with the increased minutes his relative production actually increased in almost every area. At the beginning of the year he was playing 20 mpg and averaged basically 9/6 with 2 apg. The last couple months he was playing closer to 30 mpg and averaged around 12/10 with 4 apg. The only area that actually suffered with increased minutes was his 3pt shooting. He was more efficient with less minutes/attempts. His regular FG% went down slightly, and his FT% went up. That's probably where the fatigue aspect comes into play most, but it's also something that will probably improve as he adjusts to the NBA game and an 82 game season.

In any case, obviously Towns is the ROY because you just can't argue against the hard base numbers. But I do think it's important to also appreciate how good of a season Jokic actually had. Just yesterday I read someone (who actually claimed to be a Nuggets fan to boot) saying he was trash and that Denver should trade him. Obviously anyone who watched him play this year wouldn't think that. But maybe people who just see his 10/6 averages don't realize just how good he was this year and how much talent he has. So I see that being the main reason for this particular article...make people see what may not be readily apparent.