The ROTY/Rookie Discussion Thread, Part III

[Kolkmania]

Why not? Take a look at Anthony Davis', Karl-Anthony Towns' or Blake Griffin's second years in the league. This is a strong rookie class, so the notion that you don't see that happening is conjecture at best.

I can easily see guys like Mitchell, Smith Jr., Kuzma and Markkanen being 20/5/5 guys next season.

You makes it sound like 20/5/5 is an apple on the tree ...

Let me tell you the truth there are only SIX guys who can put 20/5/5 this season and Three who can put 15/7/7 (and Ben is one of them).

And Ben can easily be 20/8/8 next season as well following your logics here.

Markkanen is already posting 15/8. Mitchell with 19/3/3. Kuzma wiht 17/7. What are you talking about?

You're reaching here clyde, the difference between 1 or 2 assists per game and 5 is absolutely massive. Who are the non-PG's that have that many assists, James, Butler, Jokic, Cousins, Green, Horford and Griffin? Thinking that Kuzma or Markannen joins that group next year is kind of delusional.

Let alone averaging 20, 5 and 5. Only 7 players average that right now.

[JohnWillow]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

[LordCovington33]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

[LakersSoul]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

[Kings2013]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

So what if they did? I think Fox can be one of the better players in the draft, including Ball with the holes in his game (id take many over Ball). Mitchell, is the only one who has proven himself to be an all star lock but we have SGs we like and PG is an important position

[cool007]

Durant didn't average five assists per game until his 7th season, and that was his MVP year where Russ was injured. Are we really expecting Kuzma and Markkanen to average that next season?

As a Bulls fan and I love Markkanen but I highly doubt he is going to average 5 or assists per game. Maybe in his prime but at this time, I don't see it happening anytime soon. Same with Kuzma.

Mitchell maybe. I think he has potential to do that in the next couple of years and for his star status sake, he better. Otherwise, pretty soon people will call him just a chucker and doesn't improve the team etc.

[draftnightsuit]

Not a Fox fan at all, but I’ll give credit where it’s due. He’s actually picked up his play lately. He’s averaging 14/5 on 43% from 3 in his last 13 games.

I still think he was overhyped and have doubts about his PG abilities.

[JohnWillow]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

I would take Fox over almost everyone you listed there tbh, I said ''almost'' because only one I would need to think about is Mitchell...
but I'm good with Fox tbh.

[Kings2013]

Not a Fox fan at all, but I’ll give credit where it’s due. He’s actually picked up his play lately. He’s averaging 14/5 on 43% from 3 in his last 13 games.

I still think he was overhyped and have doubts about his PG abilities.

I respect your opinion and wouldn’t want to change it.

I see motor, competitive spirit, speed, excellent defensive instincts, can take it to the hole, good mid range.. I think he can be great. I understand some of the piss poor advanced stat (the RPM in particular), but as a Kings fan I see the team makeup as largely responsible.

Everyone feels that way about their rookies though. I’d think hard about who I’d take over him

[Michael Lucky]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

All Fox has to do is develop an average 3 point shot and would immediately become a better player than all four of them outside of maybe Mitchell, who is older anyways.

[City of Trees]

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

All Fox has to do is develop an average 3 point shot and would immediately become a better player than all four of them outside of maybe Mitchell, who is older anyways.

Fox is shooting 36% from 3 this season. League average 3pt% is currently 36%.

Sent from my LG-H872 using RealGM mobile app

[Michael Lucky]

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

All Fox has to do is develop an average 3 point shot and would immediately become a better player than all four of them outside of maybe Mitchell, who is older anyways.

Fox is shooting 36% from 3 this season. League average 3pt% is currently 36%.

Sent from my LG-H872 using RealGM mobile app

yes after a one game performance where his three point shot went up 5% points. I want to see him maintain 36%. He's also only averaging 1.8 Three point attempts a game. I want to see that doubled with the same consistency.

[City of Trees]

All Fox has to do is develop an average 3 point shot and would immediately become a better player than all four of them outside of maybe Mitchell, who is older anyways.

Fox is shooting 36% from 3 this season. League average 3pt% is currently 36%.

Sent from my LG-H872 using RealGM mobile app

yes after a one game performance where his three point shot went up 5% points. I want to see him maintain 36%. He's also only averaging 1.8 Three point attempts a game. I want to see that doubled with the same consistency.

his % went up 3.7, but your point remains valid. His 3PA is trending upward in Jan up to 2.8 attempts while shooting I think 42%. Small sample size I know.... With that said I think there is some truth here

Read on Twitter

[Kings2013]

I think folks also focus on Fox’s APG, without maybe understanding we have to sit through a high post offense through bigs that doesn’t accentuate De’Aaron

[Jkam31]

Watch on YouTube

Fox to all the haters out there.

Spoiler:

He was one of my prospects from the last draft. He has a bright future ahead of him. Young guards just take time .... and patience. A real diamond in the rough.

What diamond in the rough? Fox was picked #5 in a deep draft while the Kings passed on Lauri, DSJ, Mitchell and Kuzma.

Kuzma hahaha embarrassing man


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[commentatorer]

The Simmons stat that blows me away is his clear lead over the entire league in touches per game.

The old story about how PGs need time to get used to the NBA game is run out regularly when looking at rookie guards. Simmons has stepped in for the Sixers and they are over .500, looking good for the playoffs and have been the hottest team in the east in January; all that while he's got the ball in his hands a dozen more times than Harden per game. The Sixers game is based on Simmons having the ball as many times as possible and it's working well, which is amazing.

I really wonder if people don't realize how unusual the combination of skills Simmons is displaying are for a rookie (or any player, really). ROTY or not he's exceptional.

I agree, and hats off to Brett Brown for giving Simmons the freedom to run this team so thoroughly.
Touches Per Game
Ben Simmons 99.5
Russell Westbrook 95.3
DeMarcus Cousins 89.5
Dennis Schroder 89.4
LeBron James 87.7

[ThePooh]

Durant didn't average five assists per game until his 7th season, and that was his MVP year where Russ was injured. Are we really expecting Kuzma and Markkanen to average that next season?

Consider their positions and not only stats...Markkanen can average 20/8/3 as a PF don't you think it would be dumb to only consider the 20/5/5 mark for every position ?

[Kolkmania]

New York media did a nice job hyping Frank Ntilikina earlier in the season, but he regressed to being one of the worst offensive players in the league, 40.3 eFG% and .426 TS%.

Somehow basketball reference won't let me see his advanced stats compared to other players with significant minutes, but a -3.6 OBPM and -0.5 WS must be among the worst, right?

[PLO]

New York media did a nice job hyping Frank Ntilikina earlier in the season, but he regressed to being one of the worst offensive players in the league, 40.3 eFG% and .426 TS%.

Somehow basketball reference won't let me see his advanced stats compared to other players with significant minutes, but a -3.6 OBPM and -0.5 WS must be among the worst, right?

It made little sense for the Knicks to pick him ahead of DSJ and then straight afterward fire Phil "Triangle" Jackson. Now, having reverted to a more modern offense they need a true offensive initiator to play alongside Ntilikina; it was clear the lack of offensive talent in that back-court was going to overly affect the very young, offensively challenged Ntilikina. Passing on Donovan Mitchell was understandable but Frank N is a complimentary piece and you don't pass on a guy with DSJ's offensive potential, even given Ntilikina's unreal defensive potential.

Having said that DSJ is as bad defensively as Ntilikina is offensively, and they are both very young. As you know one and done guards (or guards of that age as Ntilikina is) take a while to get up and running in the league but until the Knicks get a legit PG to play alongside Frank N his offense will continue to be offensive. Trae Young, Luka Doncic or even a Kemba alongside him and you'll see a lot better player on that end.

[SmartWentCrazy]

Solid game for Tatum last night— 20-6–4-1-1 on good shooting %’s. Been solid for 2 of the last 3 games, hopefully hes breaking through the rookie wall.