MTJazzv3 wrote:TheBallsDeeper wrote:Ben Simmons (Thought I'd get in before the salty Jazz fans)
Thanks for taking the lead so I didn't have too, good sir

During the NBA Finals, which will be televised Thursday night by TNT, Kevin Durant will play against LeBron James for the third time. Durant, of course, is the player LeBron trades to the Warriors for Durant before the 2017 NBA season. Like LeBron, Durant is a historically great player. One more title would give him all of the total records in the modern era. The other player is Ben Simmons, a rookie who played on the 2018 championship team but wasn’t quite as good, if he wasn’t at least as good as James or Durant.
Simmons was the 2017-18 Rookie of the Year, ending a three-year streak of the ballclub putting forward the winner of the award. All three of the previous winners had been enormous talent, too. On Thursday, Simmons will play against James again, this time for the championship. And if last year is any guide, the occasion could be good. Simmons averaged 24.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game last year; LeBron averaged 31.1 points and 11.8 rebounds, and Durant put up 28.7 points and 10.7 rebounds. Simmons also averaged a gain of 1.9 assists per game to 3.1 for James, and a gain of 2.0 for Durant.
In summary, last year’s Rookie of the Year was a worthy champion. This year’s edition of the honor will be a close race again. Simmons can’t possibly be better, and the player likely to best him, Donovan Mitchell, was quite a disappointment last year, averaging a paltry 14.2 points and 3.1 assists a game, compared to the 2.0 points and 3.6 assists he averaged this season. John Collins, who won the award in 2018, averaged 24.7 points and 11.5 rebounds in 44 games; that’s about 3.2 points and 1.4 rebounds a game more than that of Simmons. The great Ben Simmons may well prove the best rookie of the 20th century. That means we need to brace ourselves for a rematch of 2017.