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Austin Rivers, New Orleans Hornets
A season-ending hand injury in early March upended the first remotely successful stretch of Rivers’ season. Truly a rough break, and unfortunately one that may have disturbed Rivers’ developmental momentum. Even after picking his spots and finishing more effectively in the lead-up to his injury, Rivers still had — and has — quite a ways to go before looking the part of a viable rotation player.
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Brian Roberts, New Orleans Hornets
The undrafted Roberts is a relatively unknown 27-year-old rookie operating on one of the worst teams in the league, but he’s proved without a sliver of doubt that he’s a quality NBA player. That credibility starts in the high pick-and-roll, where Roberts brings an impressive variety to one of the NBA’s most basic sets. Even before he breaks down the defense, Roberts toys with an assortment of options — splitting defenders, darting around the screen, stringing out the defense by tracing the three-point line — as he navigates the sequence like an open question. From there, he has enough speed to beat help defenders to the rim on a fairly consistent basis, but generally opts for floaters and pull-up jumpers, both of which he hits with impressive consistency.
Roberts, who has played in Germany and Israel, isn’t a pure playmaker and has trouble keeping his man in front of him on defense. But Roberts — who, in his second career start, had 18 assists Monday when New Orleans snapped Denver’s 15-game winning streak — is an amazingly effective pick-and-roll specialist deserving of a reserve spot in a pick-and-roll league.
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