The NBA Rookie of the Year race features a wide variety of players in a variety of roles. There are the obvious standouts up top — this is set up to be a two-horse race all the way, with a very strong (and borderline insurmountable at his current pace) No. 3 close behind.
Still, this was a deep draft class, and there are several rookies making an impact across the league. There are also rookies bound to surge in these rankings eventually. Scoot Henderson will figure it out at some point and Amen Thompson's rise is a waiting game as he recovers from an ankle injury.
The "value" of rookies can be difficult to judge. Some have bigger opportunities but tend to be less efficient under more strenuous conditions. Some rookies play niche roles on established contenders, and thus their efficiency profile and advanced stats pop.
Let's try to sift through it all to judge the 10 best NBA rookies to date.
NBA Rookie of the Year power rankings: Week 4
Honorable mentions: Brandin Podziemski, Craig Porter Jr., Keyonte George, Toumani Camara, Scoot Henderson
Marcus Sasser has been a serious positive influence off the Detroit Pistons' bench. Detroit's offense has been a league-worst disaster, largely due to a lack of spacing around Cade Cunningham on the perimeter. The Pistons will continue to force-feed Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes, and now is the time to do so, but there's a chance Sasser emerges as the best player — or at least the best fit — next to Cunningham in the backcourt when all is said and done. His playing time has taken a dive lately, but Sasser is averaging 8.1 points and 2.6 assists on .477/.385/1.000 splits in 17.8 minutes.
Injuries have paved the way for Jordan Hawkins to establish a significant role in the New Orleans Pelicans' rotation. He has made 16 appearances (eight starts), averaging 12.7 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists on .385/.359/.871 splits in 28.6 minutes. By sheer volume, it's difficult to keep Hawkins out of the race. He's an impactful movement shooter whose floor-stretching has made a material impact on the New Orleans offense. It's fair to question his impact beyond shooting, but reigning national champ is well on his way to All-Rookie consideration.
The Miami Heat are rolling and Jaime Jaquez Jr. has established himself quickly in the rotation. He's averaging 10.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.3 assists on .504/.385/.824 splits in 25.5 minutes. Miami is leaning into Jaquez's unique quirks, such as his playmaking ability out of post-ups, and he's scoring efficiently with all sorts of in-between shots. The 3-point stroke was a big question coming in and he has been a spot-up ace.
Bilal Coulibaly has quietly been a source of light during a dark and uncomfortable Washington Wizards season. His role tends to fluctuate, but as the third-youngest player in the NBA, Coulibaly is averaging 8.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists on .506/.439/.619 splits in 25.6 minutes. He has been a complete menace on defense (0.9 steals, 0.8 blocks) and an impressively efficient play-finisher for a Wizards team in need of both.
He doesn't have the sexiest counting stats — 7.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists on .627/.538/1.000 splits in 22.9 minutes — but Wallace has been an efficiency monster for the West's No. 2 seed. He's finishing plays all over the floor and providing invaluable connective tissue as another ball-handler and rapid-fire processor off the Oklahoma City Thunder bench. Plus, he's a legitimately impactful guard defender as a 20-year-old rookie. If OKC makes a run this season, it will be with Wallace playing key minutes.
It only took a few games for Brandon Miller to emerge as a full-time starter for the Charlotte Hornets. It has been an imperfect season, of course, but the No. 2 overall pick continues to flash the upside Charlotte was banking on. He put together an impressive 29-point performance against the Knicks on Nov. 18, the high point of his season — 10-of-15 from the field, 5-of-7 from deep, with solid defense on the side.
Miller has room to grow as a ball-handler and facilitator, but he's playing decisively off the catch with a reliable 3-point shot and enough court vision to generate looks for teammates off drives to the rim. As he gets more comfortable finishing inside, Miller's unique blend of size, shooting, and passing will start to really pay dividends for Charlotte. The Hornets have been looking for a legitimate No. 1 scoring wing to pair with LaMelo Ball. He's not there yet, and the Miles Bridges return has certainly complicated his standing in the offensive hierarchy, but Miller is well on his way to fulfilling Charlotte's wishes.
The 20-year-old has struggled with efficiency, like any rookie, but it's difficult to deny the lofty peaks of Miller's production (four games with 15+ points, two with 22+ points) and the volume of his workload for Charlotte. Among rookies, only Victor Wembanyama and Ausar Thompson are averaging more minutes per game than Miller (30.2). He's on the court often, and he's gradually earning more responsibilities in a solid Charlotte offense.
The 5-9 Hornets are still far removed from contention, but there is plenty of optimism to be derived from the performances of Miller and LaMelo Ball.
Dereck Lively II can coast on the unique merit of being the starting center for the 10-5 Dallas Mavericks. Exceedingly few teenaged centers can start for contenders, much less make a sustained positive impact to the extent that Lively has. It hasn't been pitch-perfect — he still struggles with youthful errors on defense and the occasional disappearing act on offense — but he is clearly the best big on Dallas' roster.
It's borderline front office malpractice that Luka Doncic didn't have a quality rim-runner before Lively. His catch radius completely changes the dynamic of Dallas' offense. Doncic is the master of shifting gears and generating advantages on drives, and he only becomes more difficult to contain when Lively is setting solid screens and making a beeline to the rim.
The defense has also been impressive. Lively is averaging 1.1 blocks in 24.1 minutes, using his 7-foot-7 wingspan to change the geometry of shot attempts in the paint. He tends to crash the boards effectively — 3.6 offensive, 4.6 defensive per game — and he's extremely efficient as a finisher, averaging 8.1 points on 69.6 percent shooting, with practically all his shots coming in the paint.
Lively's role is extremely streamlined, as Jason Kidd doesn't always trust his young center. If anything, Lively's role should expand as the season progresses, which could strengthen his case in the months to come. He doesn't score a bunch, but he contributes amply as a play-finisher who processes the game effectively and defends his tail off.
Here's a hot take. Cade Cunningham is going to be good. The efficiency concerns are valid, but he's situated in the worst possible setting with Detroit, a team stubbornly committed to rostering the minimum amount of shooting required to sustain an NBA offense. And, he's another hot take — Ausar Thompson is the Pistons' best young prospect.
A mega-athlete on the wing, Thompson has immediately earned starting duties in the Pistons' wonky outfit. He doesn't help on the shooting front, but Thompson has been prolific in just about every other category. He's one of the top rookie scorers (11.1 points), board-crashers (9.8 rebounds), and passers (3.2 assists) in 30.4 minutes per game. He also dominates dirty-work categories; he's leading the NBA with 25 loose balls recovered, for example. He's averaging 1.1 steals and 1.8 blocks, flying in from the weak side to blow up shot attempts and phasing into passing lanes to kickstart transition offense.
He has legitimate All-Defense upside, maybe as a rookie. That's absurd for a 20-year-old wing who spent last season facing high school-level competition in the Overtime Elite league. The shooting splits are ugly (.450/.138/.698) but Thompson is a walking paint touch and he's getting better as a finisher. Lost in the shadows cast by Cunningham and Hayes is the fact that Thompson is a legitimately advanced ball-handler with exceptional passing vision. He collapses the defense regularly despite posing no threat from 3-point range and he's great at leveraging his gravity as a driver to create for teammates.
The Pistons have a lot to figure out on the personnel front, but Thompson was the absolute right pick at No. 5 and he's going to be a foundational piece of the Pistons for years to come.
The San Antonio Spurs are 3-13. Only the Pistons and Wizards have worse records. The Victor Wembanyama era isn't off to the smoothest start. We're starting to hear grumblings about Gregg Popovich's outmoded tactics and the Spurs' lack of proper talent around Wemby.
Thing is, the Spurs' god-awful record almost feels like it's by design. The decision to start Jeremy Sochan over Tre Jones at point guard has been catastrophic. The Spurs are fairly competent when Jones shares the floor with Wemby. When it's Sochan and not Jones, San Antonio's offensive rating plummets. It's a simple, obvious adjustment. If not to tank, there's no justifiable reason for the ongoing commitment to Point Sochan.
But, the Spurs probably deserve patience. Rookies hardly ever lead contenders out of the gate. Wembanyama is clearly the best player on the team and he's going to be a superstar before long. The defense is mind-bending (2.6 blocks and 1.0 steals), and the offensive flourishes are unlike anything we've ever seen.
The Spurs often rely on Wembanyama to bail them out of poorly manufactured situations, but he's averaging 19.0 points on .431/.267/.821 splits to lead all rookies in scoring. The 3-point efficiency is going to come around eventually and he will get better inside the arc once the Spurs decide to pick his spots better. Wemby deserves leeway to test his limits and explore the breadth of his shot-making, but asking him to constantly create from scratch after the halfcourt offense stalls is a flawed recipe.
In terms of volume of production, Wembanyama easily clears his peers. It's a simple matter of efficiency and, frankly, team context holding Wembanyama back. If he were in the same position as his No. 1 counterpart in these rankings, he would probably look a whole lot more polished.
It's probably a stretch to say Chet Holmgren has the award locked up — Wembanyama is too good, and there's more than enough time for the Spurs to make prudent adjustments — but right now, the race isn't particularly close. Wemby has the counting stats, but Holmgren is smashing the efficiency categories for the No. 2 seed in the West. He is the second-best player on a genuine contender, with his experience as a "redshirt" rookie clearly paying off.
Holmgren had a year to learn OKC's system and his fit within it. It's difficult to overstate the value that holds, especially when Holmgren has so much talent around him. The Thunder are flushed with quality ball-handlers and decision-makers who can set up Holmgren in advantageous positions, unlike his 7-foot-plus counterpart in the No. 2 spot.
For the season, Holmgren is averaging 17.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on .557/.434/.877 splits in 29.7 minutes. Even after a recent fall back to earth, his shooting numbers are through the roof. He's a legitimate sniper from 3-point range, with the skill flexibility to attack errant closeouts, penetrate on drives, and make decisions on the move. He loves to grab-and-go in transition. In the halfcourt, he's a potent lob threat when paired with OKC's myriad playmakers.
The defense is also beyond comparison as far as rookies are concerned. Both Wemby and Thompson deserve legitimate All-Defense consideration at their current pace, but Holmgren is a finely-tuned rim protector with the mobility to swallow space and the instincts to consistently alter shots in the paint. His 7-foot-7 wingspan has been put to stellar use, averaging 0.9 steals and 2.3 blocks per game.
The Thunder are a postseason threat from the looks of it, and Holmgren's arrival has been the primary reason for their leap.
