Here we are two weeks into the NBA season and the youngsters have already taken over.
Bill Simmons recently said that Karl-Anthony Towns might be one of the best 25 players in the league already. That’s saying something.
Is there a chance that Towns might not win the Rookie of the Year award? Well, that’s a good question.
Like most people, I haven’t watched a lot of Philadelphia 76ers games this season (sorry, Philly). But by just looking at the numbers, it looks like the Towns and Jahlil Okafor battle will be a good one this season. Towns is a much better defensive player, but Okafor, like we knew, is more advanced in his low-post scoring.
Here are our power rookie rankings two weeks into the 2015-16 season.
Towns is averaging 16 points (2nd among rookies), 10.4 rebounds (1st), three blocks (1st), 1.3 steals and is shooting 48.7 percent from the field and an impressive 91.7 percent from the free-throw line. Just from watching him night-in and night-out, he’s the most NBA-ready rookie I’ve seen in a while. He certainly passes the eye test. Once he gets more comfortable in the offense and launches a 3-ball or two, watch out. He’s averaging less points than Okafor, but he gets the nod because of everything else he does on both sides of the ball.
Out of the rookies, Okafor is the guy who is going to get the most looks at the basket. And it’s already showing. Okafor is averaging 20.6 points (1st), while shooting 50.7 percent from the field. The knock on him is that he’s only averaging 6.9 rebounds per game (Brook Lopez territory) and shoots just 59 percent from the free-throw line. His offensive game is going to continue to keep him in this race, though.
I was at the Barclays Center after Porzingis was drafted with the fourth pick by the Knicks. Fans acted like Derek Jeter put a Mets cap on.
So far, those fans have been wrong. Porzingis is averaging 11.6 points, nine rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He’s shooting just 39.2 percent from the field, which is a bit concerning for a big guy, but he is shooting 82.1 percent from the free-throw line. So far, though, P-Zing is better than we thought.
Muddiay has been so-and-so in his rookie season. His all-around averages of 13.1 points, 6.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds are impressive. But he’s shooting just 32.7 percent from the field, 64.7 percent from the free-throw line and is turning the ball over 4.4 times per game. That’s not good.
