Rookie Leaders

 The clear-cut fav for rookie of the year thus far has for sure been Embiid, who looks better than I thought he would this early in the season with basically no basketball for him the past few years. It’s scary to think how good he can become.

Pleasant surprise for me has for sure been Malcolm Brogdon. He plays so under control that he looks like a savvy 10 year veteran out there, not a rookie. I love his game.

 Even with a minutes restriction on Embiid he should win ROY. Barring Injury of course. His numbers will likey even out to 14-16ppg 8rpg and 1.5 bpg but those should be enough to win the award this year.

 For those who love box score metrics Embiid will be a run away.   It’s too bad his team is just as poor as it has been the last few years when he was watching otherwise the advanced stats might be more favorable to him as well.  At this point they aren’t.

You know who is leading in net rating out of the rookies who are actually getting quality rotation minutes?

None other than 19 year old Brandon Ingram.  

Posting a + net rating of almost 14.  Coming in with a 106 on offense and a 92 on defense.  He is already impacting the game on both ends of the court and is already the best defender on the over acheiving team of the year thus far.  A team which is showing no signs of slowing down.  It’s looking like the pick that will convey to the 76ers will fall into the 14-18 range.

I expect his box score numbers to rise in time as his minutes will only increase as the season goes on.  Unfortunately he will never be able to match the 40% usage rate that Embiid the dream is putting up.  Of course nobody in the history of useage rate has matched that either.  

Embiid runs away in a landslide for ROY as Brandon Ingram silently progresses into some crazy hybrid of Giannis, Kawahi and a sprinkle of Durant.

That was my T-Rex take of the day on the Lakers…. expect to see a lot more of those folks!

 Embiid is a beast, he looks the sort of prospect we thought he promised to be before he missed two seasons. 

Ingram has been developing quietly but is already proving to be a very good intangibles player, his numbers may not be striking but Luke Walton is giving him nice minutes, gradually building him up and making him earn his dues by coming from the bench. The pressure and hype has been taken off Ingram, he hasn’t even been given the star bench role, he has been slotted in around scorers like Clarkson and Williams. He has Deng, Young, Williams and MWP as veterans in the locker room so can learn from them.

I’ll be interested how Luke Walton looks to slot him in as a starter eventually given they have Deng and Mosgov on big deals and Randle to accomodate too. I’d guess they might start Ingram at SG and he’d play some SF when Deng is on the bench. KD played SG for his first couple of years and Ingram’s length would be a great asset guarding SGs until he has bulked up and could guard SFs.

Curious when people say something about a player playing shooting guard instead of small forward, what is the actual difference in their eyes between the two positions? 

There is almost no difference between SGs and SFs. SGs guard opposing SFs all the time and vice versa. They are wings. C’mon people, stop thinking so video-gamey

 Not a huge amount of difference between the position, maybe just a size thing almost. SF is perhaps the most flexible position in the NBA given the amount of swingmen and combo forwards we see in the league. 

Nice to see that Embiid is doing so well, although I don’t think anyone doubted his talent. This kid has all the talent in the world, and most teams knew he would become a dominant player in a couple of years. However, there remains an injury risk with Embiid, larger than for your average rookie. For the 76ers the potential reward of Embiid offsets the risk that he might get hurt again. Considering the 76ers are bottomdwellers hoping for that one unique talent to build their team around for them it makes sense to take their chances on Embiid becoming a superstar!

 Basketball shape yet & he’s on a minutes restriction & even with all that he is Averaging roughly 1pt & .5 rebounds per Minute against some of the top Bigs in the NBA – think about that

but when he Gets in shape, knocks off the Rust from a 2.5 year lay-off & has the minutes restriction lifted, so he’ll play More

But people think his #’s are going to go DOWN!?!?!?