Darth's Bi-Weekly Rookie Watch (Day 1-20)
Hey everyone! Tim Cowlishaw here. I was approached by the big wigs to do some type of rookie watch every few weeks. I gladly accepted. It is a privilege to say the least. I will do my best to not let you down!
So every two sims which equate to 20 days, I'll rank the top ten performing rookies in the league. I'll put it in a power rankings format and evaluate the rookies performances to decide whether they move up, down, or stay the same each week. So without further ado here it is:
Bi-Weekly Rookie Watch (Day 1-20)
1. Chris Paul 36.6 mpg - 18.2 ppg - 10.1 apg - 2.4 spg
So this guy is the reason I couldn't name this the "Rookie of the Year" watch. CP3 has wrapped that award up already. And well everyone knew he would. He was the clear diamond in the draft. Sure lots of talent has emerged in this year's rookie class but Paul is on another level. He has single-handedly revived Ray Allen. Allen is showing improvement in almost every stat column including 5 more ppg. Chris Paul is exactly what Seattle needed. Needless to say I don't think he'll be moving from this top spot all year.
2. David Lee 34.4 mpg - 14.3 ppg - 12.3 rpg - 2.1 spg - .5 bpg
This young man has definitely impressed. Picked 5th overall by the Raptors, David Lee was thrown into the fire and has responded beautifully. Looks like those 4 years at Florida really paid off and helped him to be better prepared for his NBA career. He is a double-double machine already. What's amazing is that David wasn't really a great rebounder in college, his defense was very mediocre, but a hustle player with great athleticism. The Toronto front office saw something in him that warranted that 5th pick and they obviously knew exactly what they were talking about. Have fun trying to grab boards against this guy. Oh and did I mention he has a True Shooting% of 50%. Very impressive.
3. Andrew Bynum 33.7 mpg - 14.1 ppg - 11.7 rpg - 1.3 bpg
Drew was edged out of the 2nd spot barely by Lee, but he is putting on his own little show in Miami. The 3rd overall pick, who decided to forego college and head straight to the NBA, is simply proving all his detractors wrong. There was much talk about how long it would take for this kid to produce at a high level, to mature and be ready to put a team on his shoulders. Well folks...he is proving every night that he is more than ready. Sure there will be growing pains here and there, but he is already averaging a double-double and is a force to be reckoned with on the defensive end.
4. Raymond Felton 30.9 mpg - 10.9 ppg - 6.8 apg - 4.2 rpg - 1.8 spg
So I heard rumors that Starbury was not very happy when the Minnesota brass made their 9th selection in this years draft. And it has shown in his stats. They went with Felton as their starting point and moved Stephon to the 2. But any decrease in production by Marbury is NOT because of their new point guard. Felton has been simply great to start off the season. He has been pretty efficient and is shooting the ball at a very high percentage. His eFG is 53% and his TrueShooting% is 54%. It certainly appears this guy will have a productive career in the NBA.
5. Sean May 29.7 mpg - 15.3 ppg - 8.6 rpg - 1.6 bpg
I think it's pretty safe to say this was the steal of the draft. San Antonio either did their homework or got extremely lucky. While one Spurs rookie struggles a bit in his role as the 6th man, May has been brilliant as a starter thus far. Looking forward to seeing if this team can figure it out as the season goes on as they have a great mixture of youth and veterans.
6. Deron Williams 33 mpg - 8.8 ppg - 6.8 apg - 3.2 rpg
There has been much chatter about this young man in the first few weeks of the season. Being in Dallas I am very close to knowing how much panic was going threw the Dallas front office. In one word, "LOTS". Deron did struggle his first week as an NBA player. But it is to be expected. This team is young, the coach is young. It's going to take some time for Deron to settle in and the coach some time to get his lineups right and gameplan tweaked. Although he struggled in week 1, Week 2 was a different story. In his 2nd week he averaged 11.6ppg, 7.8apg, and 3.8rpg, not including the two games he was injured. So the panic has subsided in Dallas and all is well...Or is it?
7. Channing Frye 17.1 mpg - 10.3 ppg - 5.6 rpg - .8 bpg
The production that Milwaukee is getting out of Channing is simply fantastic. There are 7 other Bucks players getting more minutes than Frye yet he takes what he is given and is proving himself every night on the court. I'm sure he has been a very pleasant surprise. We'll see how long the Bucks keep up there winning ways. If there are any bumps in the road, we could definitely see Channing's minutes go up a bit.
8. Brandon Bass 16.6 mpg - 9.2 ppg - 4.6 rpg - .8 bpg
This was the guy Dallas HAD to move up to get. He was on there draft board from Day 1, and they made it happen. I must say it was a great move. He has taken a role behind Kenyon and is simply flourishing. Dallas plans on keeping him right where he is. After the Week 1 struggles Dallas focused on an inside game and Bass is loving it. We expect more of the same from this young talent.
9. Ian Mahinmi 16.1 mpg - 7.3 ppg - 4.4 rpg - .8 bpg
With only 16 mpg, Ian is giving solid production coming off behind Curry. He is nearly outdoing his fellow rookie team mate on the stat sheet even though Villanueva is getting 10 more minutes a game. Mahinmi is definitely someone we want to keep an eye on.
10. Granger/Ilyasova/Calderon/Amir Johnson/Lou Williams
As hard as ranking these players were, putting only one of these guys at #10 was even harder. So...I didn't. Any of them could go there honestly. These rookies are all performing pretty solid. Some having struggles but there rookies. Every rookie can't be CP3.
Well guys I hope you enjoy these rookie reports and rankings. This was much harder than I expected and took into account many different aspects when ranking them. Hope I didn't miss anyone, if I did sorry. I'll be back in 2 weeks with an update and we'll see which rookies are stepping it up and which ones are falling off!
Cowlishaw out!!
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Originally Posted by TrayWithAnA
