Kia Rookie Ladder: Top 3 hold steady as Maxime Raynaud keeps rising

The nearer we get to the tip of the common season, the extra we hear from varied precincts concerning the extra deserving alternative for Kia Rookie of the Year.

The two favorites, as they’ve been a lot of the season, are the Charlotte Hornets’ Kon Knueppel and the Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg. After the previous Duke teammates, the Philadelphia 76ers’ VJ Edgecombe has been a fixture on the Kia Rookie Ladder’s No. 3 rung, neither rising nor dealing with any critical problem for that spot.

Several NBA heavyweights reported in just lately, sharing their takes on the hotly contested rookie race. A panel on Amazon Prime featured John Wall, Steve Nash and Blake Griffin all making arguments on Knueppel’s behalf.

“No one expected him to be as good as he is. He surprised everyone,” Wall mentioned. “He should be clear-cut Rookie of the Year.”

Many, nonetheless, do not concur. Former NBA wing Iman Shumpert appreciated this yr’s Flagg-Knueppel battle to the one in 2004 when LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony each had been placing up deserving numbers.

One parallel he famous: Knueppel helps his staff chase a playoff spot, just like what Anthony did for Denver. Flagg’s staff is lottery-bound, identical as James’ Cavs on the finish of his rookie season. Shumpert was hardly definitive in his breakdown of the race.

“I get that they have similar numbers,” he mentioned, “and then you have to say that Kon, man, is in a different position where they are in a win-now. And that’s going to look a lot better. But all I’m going to say is when a race is like this, we’ve seen this similarly before, and… let’s be consistent when we start talking about it, because we gave it to Bron-Bron.”

A way of James’ boasted greatness received out over Anthony’s staff influence. Anthony scored extra, rebounded extra, and shot higher throughout the board than James. The Nuggets received eight extra video games than Cleveland. Yet James bought 78 first-place votes and 508 factors to win the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy to Anthony’s 40 and 430.

Here is the most recent version of the Kia Rookie Ladder:

Weekly recap

• When Flagg put up 27 factors, six rebounds and 10 assists at Cleveland on Sundayhe grew to become the second-youngest participant in NBA historical past with such a efficiency (25+ factors, 5+ rebounds and 10+ assists). James did it in December 2003, 10 days earlier than turning 19.
• Just as some rookies have pale – or been waylaid by accidents or held again by the max-games restrict on two-way gamers – so have others perked up or seized alternatives down the stretch. Sacramento’s Nique Clifford and Washington’s Will Riley have logged essentially the most minutes since Feb. 1. Utah’s Ace Bailey is the fifth in factors per recreation (15.1) since that date. Kings’ heart Maxime Raynaud (9.1) has grabbed essentially the most rebounds, and Walter Clayton Jr. (6.2) has been the highest help man.
• New Orleans heart Derik Queen has seen his stats dip since Feb. 1right down to tenth in rebounding, twentieth in assists and tied for 18th in scoring. I’ve ranked first, second and seventh in these classes through Jan. 31. But the Pelicans’ 8-4 run of their final 12 video games has a few of the potential warmth off their younger taken large. Everyone is aware of the Pelicans traded their first-round decide to Atlanta for the possibility to maneuver as much as choose Queen. But as their lottery odds go down, there may be much less stress on Queen to repay like a No. 1, 2 or 3 decide.

Storyline to look at

From Flagg to checked flag. Whatever lead Knueppel has in voters’ minds for ROY in all probability is a slim one, identical as on the Ladder. Flagg missed eight video games with a left foot sprain by means of and previous the All-Star break, however now he is been again for eight (18.9 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 6.6 apg, 2.2 spg+bpg). Both the Hornets and the Mavericks have 13 video games remaining, as of Wednesday, loads of time for one to get scorching or overachieve sufficient to swing votes their method.

(All stats by means of Tuesday, March 17)

1. Kon Knueppel, Charlotte Hornets

Season stats: 19.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg
Last Ladder: No. 1 ↔️
Draft pick: No. 4

Knueppel continued his environment friendly methods within the Hornets’ blowout of Miami Tuesday, scoring 22 factors in 23 minutes whereas making eight of his 14 pictures. It was his twenty eighth recreation this season, scoring 20+ whereas taking pictures 50% or higher. The Charlotte ahead added two extra 3-pointers to his league-leading total of 238at 43.7% accuracy.

2. Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks

Season stats: 20.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 4.5 apg
Last Ladder: No. 2 ↔️
Draft pick: No. 1

With guard Kyrie Irving ruled out For the rest of the season, Mavs followers will not get to see any two-man magic between him and Flagg. But Flagg advised ESPN in an interview this week that Irving has been a beneficial useful resource for him off the court docket, commiserating concerning the quantity of losses most No. 1 picks are likely to endure. “I’d never lost that much in my life,” Flagg advised Malika Andrews. “But just to hear him… tell me that I’m doing everything I need to be doing and just to stay with it and stay positive, it definitely helped me out a lot.”

3. VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia 76ers

Season stats: 15.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.9 apg
Last Ladder: No. 3 ↔️
Draft pick: No. 3

Edgecombe finds methods to contribute nightlywhether or not scoring, defending or doing one thing else. Some extent of emphasis recently has been rebounding, and he is averaging multiple additional board per recreation because the All-Star break. After he grabbed his season excessive of 12 towards Portland Sunday, the rookie mentioned: “They get on me about it. [Assistant coach Doug] West especially tells me I got to rebound. He’ll be like, you jump too high not to be able to grab rebounds. And that allows me to get into transition, or at least create something for someone.”

4. Maxime Raynaud, Sacramento Kings

Season stats: 11.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.3 apg
Last Ladder: No. 5 ⬆️
Draft pick: No. 42

Raynaud has inspired some comparisons to former Kings large males who introduced their NBA arrivals with robust rookie seasons, such as DeMarcus Cousins, Marvin Bagley, Brian Grant and Jason Thompson. And the truth that he has completed it out as the No. 42 decide makes it all of the extra spectacular. His 23 factors on 11-for-12 taking pictures Saturday, adopted by a career-high 32 factors Tuesday, are simply the most recent examples.

5. Dylan Harper, San Antonio Spurs

Season stats: 11.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.8 apg
Last Ladder: No. 4 ⬇️
Draft pick: No. 2

Harper missed two video games with a proper calf contusion and was lively Tuesday to face Sacramento. Teammate Victor Wembanyama just lately paid Harper a praise when addressing a legendary “re-draft” of the Class of 2025. “I have zero doubt that if there was a re-draft today, we would take it,” Wembanyama mentioned. “He’s so good, so composed, I’m so happy that Dylan is super young and can be there for years and years because I want to share the court with him for as long as possible.”

The subsequent 5

6. Cedric Coward, Memphis Grizzlies

Season stats: 13.3 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 2.8 apg
Last Ladder: No. 7 ⬆️
Draft pick: No. 11

The Grizzlies’ deal with the draft lottery and subsequent season have prioritized growing the Washington State rookie’s talent set. “At his size, he is able to do some intriguing things,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo mentioned. “He is an efficient on-ball creator. You’ll see him go full court docket, get the rebound, which he is excellent at for his place, [and] push down in three seconds. He’ll get to the rim on the opposite finish and end. Athletically, defensively, he makes some actually uncommon performs for a 2-guard the place he’s coming from the weakside and blocking facilities which are making an attempt to complete inside.”

7. Ace Bailey, Utah Jazz

Season stats: 12.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.7 apg
Last Ladder: No. 8 ⬆️
Draft pick: No. 5

Bailey was off to a quick begin towards Portland on Friday (eight factors in seven minutes, flawless taking pictures) when he suffered a concussion and was misplaced for the night time and for Sunday’s recreation at Sacramento. He was nonetheless listed as questionable for the Jazz’s recreation on Wednesday at Minnesota.

8. Derik Queen, New Orleans Pelicans

Season stats: 11.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 3.8 apg
Last Ladder: No. 6 ⬇️
Draft pick: No. 13

It was a tough week for Queen, who averaged simply 4 factors, 5 rebounds and 15.8 minutes whereas taking pictures 30% total. If solely New Orleans performed Dallas extra typically — Queen averaged 14.8 factors, 7.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists of their 4 conferences with the Mavs.

9. Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans Pelicans

Season stats: 13.1 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.2 apg
Last Ladder: No. 9 ↔️
Draft pick: No. 9

Fears turned in one in every of his greatest video games Monday vs. Dallas, with 17 factors, six boards, 5 assists and a plus-18, one in every of solely seven in double digits within the black (in comparison with 23 within the minus pool by 10 or extra).

10. Javon Small, Memphis Grizzlies

Season stats: 8.9 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.8 apg
Last Ladder: Not ranked ⬆️
draft pick: No. 48

A moribund season for Memphis hasn’t gotten in the best way of Small’s improvement. The 23-year-old level guard from South Bend, Indiana — together with three excessive colleges and three school groups — has made essentially the most of his reps. He has had 11 of his 13 double-digit scoring video games and logged 401 of his 607 minutes since Feb. 1.

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Steve Aschburner has written concerning the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him herediscover his archive here and follow him on.