The calendar has now rolled over into 2024, and while we’re still a couple weeks away from the midway point of the NBA season, it’s still worth thinking about which of these first-year players will thrive and who will slow down as the new year carries on. Right now it seems like many rookies are just starting to hit their strides, like Scoot Henderson in Portland, who had a slower start than most due to an injury at the beginning of the season. But just as there is every season, there’s sure to be players who slow down as the games pile up, and other guys who continue to thrive as we get deeper into the schedule.
Now let’s move on to this week’s rankings. Keep in mind that these rankings will reflect a rookie’s performance on a week-to-week basis only, not the collective season. These aren’t Rookie of the Year standings, but rather a reflection on what the player has done over the past week. With that straightened out, here is a look at the top five performers from the NBA’s freshman class:
That progress was to be expected, but those numbers really don’t do justice to the massive strides he’s taken since opening night. His shooting is more efficient, but it’s more than that. He’s become better about knowing when to attack and knowing when to get his teammates involved. He’s a monster rebounder, that hasn’t changed, and neither has the blocks, in fact in the latter category he just keeps racking them up. He’s cutting down on the turnovers and he still isn’t fouling a ton, and while Chet Holmgren may have the edge for Rookie of the Year right now by my standards, Wembanyama is creeping up behind him on that list.
Against the Grizzlies this week, while the highlight that has made the rounds him kind of, but not really getting “dunked on” by Ja Morant, that ignores the truly awesome performance he turned in. Wembanyama and the Spurs feasted in pick-and-rolls to open the game as the slower Bismack Biyombo was tasked with guarding the No. 1 overall pick. And it went just about as well as you’d expect. In back-to-back possessions Wemby skied for alley-oop dunks with little resistance in the paint.
Biyombo was the primary defender on Wemby for most of the game, and the Spurs unicorn took complete advantage of every situation where the two were matched up. It wasn’t just in pick-in-rolls either, the rookie was taking him to the rim with ease and had one of the most absurd shots you’ll see this season.
Henderson was bound to get his attention, it just took a little longer than most had anticipated given the injuries to start the season. The efficiency is still lacking, but that’s not something he or the Trail Blazers should be all that concerned about right now. What matters is he’s producing in a variety of ways. He nearly had a triple-double against Wembanyama and the Spurs this week, putting up 22 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. What’s been really cool to see is how Henderson is using his speed and ability to shift gears at a moment’s notice to pull off some impressive passes.
He’s shown great improvement from where he started the season, and he’s developing into the exciting player everyone predicted he would be.
When asked this week what he thinks he’s proven so far this season, Holmgren gave one of the funnier and rather self-aware answers you’ll hear.
“I haven’t proven shit, I’ve played 30 games,” Holmgren said.
Gotta love the honesty. But despite the short resume, Holmgren has proven quite a bit in such a short amount of time. Before the season started many assumed that Wembanyama would be the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year, and yet if it was awarded today Holmgren’s name would be etched on that trophy (Holmgren is the current betting favorite at -250). His numbers rival Wemby’s in every way, but he’s doing it with far more efficiency on a team that should be considered a real threat in the West right now. No one saw this type of production from Holmgren this soon, and even if he is taking fewer shots than Wembanyama in a smaller role, he’s excelling and has come up clutch on more than one occasion for crucial wins for OKC.
Miller had three tough matchups this week with games against the Lakers, Suns and Nuggets and while all three resulted in losses, they were all incredibly valuable learning experiences for the rookie. He put up good numbers against the Suns, and he shot the ball even better against the Lakers, but in all three games he had tough defensive assignments that will only help him in the long run. Against the Suns he struggled a bit with knowing when to show help defense against Devin Booker, which led to a lot of easy and open looks for one of the best shooters in the league. And against the Nuggets, while being tasked with guarding Michael Porter Jr., Miller got caught a couple times losing him on off-ball screens.
You can’t afford to lose focus like that on defense, especially against the defending champions and against a player like Porter Jr. whose quick to get the ball up as soon as he catches it. All things that can be improved upon, and Miller is such a dedicated defender that I won’t be surprised if he immediately takes those lessons and applies them to his next game.
The starts keep piling up for Jaquez as the Heat continue to deal with injuries to Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson. His scoring has been needed, but so too has his passing. He’s shown great court vision by fitting passes through tight windows, placing the ball where only his teammate can get it in the low post and whipping passes to the corner for 3-pointers. If this were last year’s Heat team they would’ve struggled heavily with the injuries their dealing with, but Jaquez has been the perfect band-aid while players get healthy.