| RANK | ROOKIE | RUNDOWN | RECENT |
| 1 |  |
DAMIAN LILLARD, G, PORTLAND: Continues to play big minutes (37.6) and produce big numbers. Gotta love the way he shook off Monday’s clunker vs. Atlanta by sparking Tuesday’s road win over Sacramento with five threes, 22 points and nine dimes. Turnovers high (3.4) but that’s to be expected. | 1 |
| 2 |  |
ANTHONY DAVIS, F-C, NEW ORLEANS: His presence is undeniable. DNP vs. Philly – loss. Returns with 23 points, 11 boards and 5 blocks vs. Charlotte – win. Ho-hum 8 points and 4 boards at Houston – loss. The Hornets are an afterthought without him. Still hasn’t played back-to-back games, though. | 2 |
| 3 |  |
HARRISON BARNES, F, GOLDEN STATE: Had been silently steady until a 19-13 coming-out party in Wednesday’s win over Atlanta. He needs more of these to truly join the ROY talk and is trying to add interior skills to his face-up game. | 4 |
| 4 |  |
DION WAITERS, G, CLEVELAND: Just eight games in, his streaky shooting already is infuriating. But he puts the ball in the basket better than every teammate except his backcourt partner. He also was the only player who didn’t panic as Cleveland blew a 26-point lead and a sure win in Phoenix. | 3 |
| 5 |  |
MICHAEL KIDD-GILCHRIST, F, CHARLOTTE: His 25-12 in the franchise’s first win over Dallas earned him Line of the Week in our column, which isn’t easy. But he had to leave Tuesday’s game with a sore back and may have been bothered by it the following night in Minnesota as he sat during the stretch. | 8 |
| 6 |  |
KYLE SINGLER, F, DETROIT: Got his first start Wednesday, which also was my first look at him. Good timing, as I was blown away by his aggressiveness, size and smarts. It was a nice bounce-back as well, coming off a donut at Houston and a Dairy Queen vs. Oklahoma City. | 6 |
| 7 |  |
BRADLEY BEAL, G, WASHINGTON: After a season-high 22 points vs. Milwaukee, he said, “If I shoot the ball two times in a row down the floor, it’s hard for me to shoot the third one because I feel like a ball hog.” After going 4-of-25 in his last two games, he appears to be over it. | 7 |
| 8 |  |
ALEXEY SHVED, G, MINNESOTA: Combo guard is a godsend for the banged-up Timberwolves, shorthanded at both backcourt spots. His per-36 numbers (14.7 ppg, 6.3 apg, 5.1 rpg) would be better if he could locate his normally reliable shooting touch. Might be benefiting a bit from unfamiliarity. | – |
| 9 |  |
JAE CROWDER, F, DALLAS: Didn’t contribute a lick during Dallas’ three-game slide and lost his starting spot. But he got his groove back with a boxscore-filling 12 points off the bench vs. woeful Washington. As long as Shawn Marion remains out, he will continue to play. | 5 |
| 10 |  |
JONAS VALANCIUNAS, F-C, TORONTO: Back after a one-week absence (edging Jeffery Taylor) with some steady if unspectacular production. Clearly can score and superb FT shooting (13-of-14) for a big. But his lack of snarl is evident as soon as Amir Johnson subs him out. | – |
DROPOUTS: Tyler Zeller, C, Cleveland (9); Pablo Prigioni, G, New York (10).
FIVE TO WATCH: Moe Harkless, F, Orlando; Andrew Nicholson, F, Orlando; Brian Roberts, G, New Orleans; Thomas Robinson, F, sacramento; Jeffery Taylor, G, Charlotte.
Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His columns appear Monday during the season. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Barnes is too high. You might note just how bad he is defensively before you rank him third. MKG deserves higher for same reason….defense. Id keep zeller in there, nice game last night. Singler is a revelation……outstanding, and maybe should be #3. Terrence ross has looked solid in limited minutes.
“Everyone and their mothers wrote stories filled with boo-hoo-hoo anecdotes that tugged at our heartstrings and asked us to squeeze another poor soul into our sympathy bucket.”
As someone who deals with depression, this is extremely offensive and disappointing that people still think this about mental illness. The Rockets knew that Royce White dealt with anxiety issues and OCD before they ever drafted him. He was completely honest about it during the entire process. If they can’t be accommodating and understanding of his condition, then why did they ever draft him? To you and complaining Rockets fans, there are things that are bigger than basketball.
I “deal with depression,” as well, so I hope you don’t think you’re speaking for anybody other than yourself. All that’s required under the Americans with Disabilities Act is to make reasonable accommodations for this guy, and they’ve done that.
No, what this guy has is a narcissistic sense of entitlement and an adversion to the reality that he’s now a deep bench player. Delonte West used to pull the same crap and still pulls the same crap, and this brand of narcissism won’t fly. Unfortunately for these types of raging idiots, narcissism isn’t considered a disability under the Act..
So the original post was right. Boo-hoo. The people really getting screwed are the Rockets, because they had an agreement.
Right, the Rockets knew and by all accounts have bent over backwards to help Royce White out. He’s throwing a fit over playing D-league and not getting game minutes and using the illness as an excuse, and it’s not going to fly. If he needs therapy then he should be attending therapy. If it’s his illness making him act like this then his agent and family need to get him help, not enable this very public tantrum. Maybe the best path for Royce White right now is to get into therapy and have the Rockets accept him away from the team in therapy for a month or something, and then come out and apologise for how he’s acted and accept earning his spot through the D-league.
I’m a little confused. In 8 games, Dion has shot 42% or better 6 times. His scoring output has been somewhat erratic, though you would expect that from a rookie (however, 5 games out of 8 in double figures is pretty good).
As a Cavs fan, I’m far from infuriated with his shooting. In fact, I’m quite pleased with it.
He does’t rebound, he doesn’t pass, he doesn’t defend, he doesn’t drive to the hoop, he doesn’t get to the free throw line, and his shot selection is as prudent as Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ when he shot 13 three-pointers during the 2009 playoffs.
But other than that, Waiters is terrific.
C’mon Chris, this website should have better quality op-ed than this. You don’t know admit you don’t anything first hand about the White’s game and you don’t demonstrate any knowledge of his anxiety disorder – you’re clearly rattling off some inflammatory paragraphs to attract some traffic, rather than actually given informed opinion. This is really lazy journalism.
Great piece on Royce White Chris. Well said. As a Rocket fan, I was very weary of picking White. It is time for him to go. I just hope for his sake that his future turns out better than Eddie Griffin’s.
I am so pleasantly surprised with how well Singler has played…even if he isn’t a long-term answer as a starter he seems like a great rotation guy. Drummond looks further along than hoped too. Maybe Pistons will actually have a future..
Angelo,
That number to the left of each player’s headshot? That’s their ranking.
CB
Once again? I don’t see any actual rankings. Just some paragraphs speaking about rookies. Where’s the page with the rankings? Am I missing something here?
There’s a “next page” button at the bottom right of the article on Royce White. Kind of a questionable change to the format of the site.
Agreed, the next page feature is incredibly annoying.
Having said that, I couldn’t agree more about Lillard. I know All-Stars usually come from winning teams, but if is averaging anywhere close to 20ppg and 8ast he has to be considered.