We’ve heard about the “Rookie Wall” and how it can sneak up on players midway through the season and their production, efficiency and impact go down. But what about the opposite happening? We might call it the Rising Ladder or the Rising Juggernaut, you know like the superhero from the X-Men whose biggest scene was literally breaking through a set of walls. Maybe this visual will jog your memory:
The name may still need a workshop, but the point I’m trying to make is that there are quite a few newbies out there right now who are breaking through this bullish wall and putting together some of their best offerings. Arguably the perfect example right now, Keegan Murray is a guy having the best month of his young career, while also being a positive influence on a winning team. Walker Kessler is another newbie that comes to mind who may not be putting up monster numbers but stars in his own role in Jazz, while being the best rookie defenseman in the league. You can also add AJ Griffin to that list who shoots over 50 percent from the field and 3-point territory. These three men are role models for rookies who instead of hitting the rookie wall managed to climb over it or attack it head-on and as a result, made some of the biggest positive impacts on their teams.
Now it’s time to analyze this week’s rookie rankings. Keep in mind that these ratings will only reflect the rookie’s performance on a weekly basis, not the collegiate season. These are not the Rookie of the Year rankings, but a reflection of the player’s performance over the past week.
Murray will be one of the best players out of this draft. It hasn’t garnered as much attention as some of the other top picks, but in terms of month-to-month growth, no newbie has been more impressive. In January alone he averaged 14.5 points while shooting 52.8 percent from the field and 51.8 percent from depth. He’s rebounding the ball at a more aggressive rate than he was at the start of the season, and he’s looking for his shot more as he develops in his role as a complement to this surprising powerhouse. Kings a crime.
This week, Murray scored a career-high 29 points in a win over thunder, needing only 12 shots to get there, and only missing two of them. He also finished with 14 boards to help the Kings achieve their sixth straight win. Murray’s improvement in moving off the ball opened new layers to Sacramento’s offense, and his two-man game with Domantas Sabonis blossomed.
Murray takes advantage of the defensive attention Sabonis attracts, and as a result, he gets a lot of open looks and turns.
There are not many pluses pistons Can take away from their loss from 150 to 130 dollars, because when you allow a team to drop so many points on you, it’s worth forgetting. But Doreen’s finish around the rim was definitely a point for the Pistons to be excited about. Duren is a physically large and athletic guy who can play over the edge but has some finesse in his movements as well. It was all on full display against the Bucks, even if the game was already within Milwaukee’s grasp for most of the contest.
His chemistry gets ahead with the guards, he has good hands when getting the ball under the basket and he always finishes strong, even with his defense.
Duren also always smashes the glass on the offensive end, and when he does a rebound smash it always results in something like this:
The Pistons have found their big man of the future, and I can only imagine how impactful it will be when Cade Cunningham returns next season.
After a short spell in the starting lineup last week, Mathurin has returned to a substitute role, and he’s helped almost single-handedly Pacers Coming back from a 21-point deficit to shock bulls. Mathurin finished that game with 26 points, 15 of which came in the fourth quarter to help his team come back. He went 6 of 7 from the ground, with each shot being made more difficult than the last.
Mathurin was living up to Chicago, baffling every Bulls defender in front of him after every bucket. For the month of January, Mathurin makes 54.7 percent of his shots five feet from the rim, his highest mark of the season since October. It shows that after two months of low performance for a rookie, he is able to bounce back and help his team win.
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Despite another strong week from Banchero, the highlight Charm It centers around the return of Jonathan Isaacs, who has been sidelined with an ACL tear since 2020. He returned to the NBA after a lengthy rehabilitation process when he took over Orlando Celtics And she highlighted this cuteness with Banchero during the third quarter of that game:
Hear the pop of the crowd as Banshiro finishes drowning in the robbery and helps out from Isaac. This single play sums up a lot of potential for the Orlando team going forward. It’s still too early for Isaac to return to make any big pronouncements, but just imagining the decks magic can throw in there that have so much height and variety is a scary thought. Between Banchero, Issac, Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr., and Paul Ball, Orlando has a long, bright future ahead of him.
We’re starting to see Suchan drop 3s with some regularity at the moment, as evidenced by his three straight fights this week where he knocked down two triples. For a kid who shot 29.6 percent from depths his only season at Baylor, that’s a significant improvement, and we’re likely to start seeing more of him. If Suchan can develop that 3-point shot into a consistent weapon, he’ll be a dangerous 3D player in this league. He’s already demonstrated his defensive abilities against some of the best teams in the league, and with some polishing, he could make All-Defensive teams on the road.