Chapter 117: NBA Rookie List
The home win over the Timberwolves is on Saturday, the next game is on Monday away against the Magic, and on Sunday, the NBA officially released the first rookie rookie list for the 2008-09 season. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Since there are a lot of potential stocks in the middle of this year's rookies, such as Rose, Westbrook, Loew, Ye Feng and others quickly became the main players of their respective teams, so the rookie list in the first phase has received a lot of attention from experts and the media. The Rookie List is an NBA list for first-year rookies, and players like Oden who missed the entire rookie season due to injury can also be included in this list, and basically the player who has been at the top of the rookie list for a long time will become Rookie of the Year.
Although Ye Feng does not have such a heavy desire for fame and fortune, this is also the biggest award he can strive for, so he naturally has to pay attention to it. But in fact, as a rookie, there are no individual awards to fight for, and now is not the time for the monsters of the sixties and seventies of the last century, and feat such as Chamberlain becoming the scoring champion in his rookie season and winning the Finals MVP in the "Magic" rookie season is basically impossible to replicate. As a rookie who has just entered the league, the best rookie and rookie teams can still compete, and the best team and the best defensive team are already relatively far away.
Rao is so, and when he saw the list, he had to sigh. To tell the truth, his performance in the first six games was quite good, averaging 17.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, a very standard 15+5+5 data, no matter how you look at it, he is the embryo of a future superstar. But there is no way, his data is really not as good as Rose, and it is about the same as Westbrook, so it is normal to be squeezed into second place, which is still stained with the light of the team's record, although the Trail Blazers are only 3-3, but it is much better than the superSonics' 1-5, so when he and Westbrook's data are indistinguishable, he is ranked second.
Ye Feng was not surprised by such a result, for rookies, personal data is largely related to the player's status in the team. He is indeed a rookie favored by the Trail Blazers management, and it took a lot of money to bring him back to Portland, but the team already has Roy and Ade, two rising stars, and Oden, who has returned from injury, has also shown good strength, basically he is the team's No. 3 or No. 4 person, and he is a little worse than Westbrook. The SuperSonics chose him because of a desperate need for a talented young point guard, and although there are still young talents like Jeff Green on the team, Westbrook is the second man on the team as a point guard, behind Durant.
Oh yes, his team shouldn't be called SuperSonic. In early July, Bennett, the new owner of the SuperSonics, announced that he had paid off $75 million in legal damages and moved the team to Oklahoma. And on September 3, he held a press conference to announce that the team was renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder, which is also the latest team in the NBA. Although the fans are not very interested in the name and logo of this new team, Westbrook, who has just arrived, feels that the new name is quite domineering and very much appetite for him, which is not on the table for the time being.
So to a certain extent, Ye Feng is ranked second not only because of the team's superior record, after all, Westbrook is a point guard and holds a lot of the ball of the Thunder, to put it mildly, the team boss Durant also has to look at his face, but in this case, he can't play more than Ye Feng's performance, that is, the gap in strength, even if it is very small, but it is also a gap. In contrast, Ye Feng is more used as an endpoint in the Trail Blazers, and his average of 5.5 assists per game is still brushed out by him in the rotation time, but fortunately, he is not an assist for the sake of assists, and McMillan went with him.
Also as the team's starting point guard, Rose performed much better than Westbrook. While there are veteran players like Ben Gordon and Salmons on top of their heads, it's clear that the Bulls want to develop him as the core of the team, and this is a homegrown talent in Chicago. Of course, Rose is not much better in his rookie season, but his average of 17.3 points, 8.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game is still quite beautiful, which also makes him firmly occupy the top spot on the rookie list. Ye Feng had to sigh: It is cool to be regarded as the core of the future, unlike the pioneers who hoarded a large number of geniuses, just waiting for everyone to break out together.
Interestingly, Loew, who had just suffered a defeat in Portland and was pressed to the bench by the head coach, was also ranked fifth, and his performance was also remarkable when the Timberwolves already had Jefferson as an inside killer. Of course, the loss to the Trail Blazers was a rare stain, with all 7 shots missed and 2 of 4 free throws, but isn't that what the rookies look like? It's understandable to play out of shape once in a while. In fact, the management of the Timberwolves is also very proud of being able to pick Loew in the draft, because his technical characteristics are too suitable for a traditional interior partner like Jefferson, and if Loew can practice his strategy and mid-to-long-range shooting, he and Jefferson will be important cornerstones of the team's rise.
In the middle of Westbrook and Loew is Beasley, who went to Miami, this is another acquaintance, Ye Feng still remembers the scene of Loew's fight with him. Interestingly, Beasley is the only substitute player in the top five rookie list, in fact, he can't do it without playing as a substitute, and the Heat's captain Haslem is in the prime of life, playing more than 30 minutes per game, and he, the swingman in the third or fourth position, can only rub some bench time. However, Beasley also has his own killer feature, compared to the captain who has excellent defense, his offensive ability is stronger, and his shooting percentage is also impressive, so when the team needs to score, head coach Spoelstra simply put him and Haslem on the field together, let O'Neal rest, and the two complement each other with one attack and one defense.
Coming in sixth to tenth place are Mayo, Oden, Eric Gordon, Brooke López and Jason Thompson, with Auden coming in seventh to surprise many. Last season, when Oden was out for the season and Durant showed great potential, many people secretly laughed at the Trail Blazers and looked away. Why do you say again? Well, the fact that the Trail Blazers missed Jordan in favor of Sam Bowe in the 1984 draft was considered the biggest joke in NBA draft history, and it's still talked about today. So now Oden is in the top 10 of the rookie list, which is undoubtedly fighting for the team's management.
However, the most eye-catching thing on the list is the "UCLA Trio", that is, the 2007-08 UCLA troika: Westbrook, Ye Feng and Loew. All three of them finished in the top five of the list, and while no one could beat Rose to the top of the list, they were second. The third and fifth can't be said to be bad. The three of them have undoubtedly advertised their alma mater in the best way to advertise their alma mater, and if one of them can be named the rookie of the season, it will be easier for UCLA to recruit high school basketball stars next summer.
Thankfully, all three players are now in the West, much to the relief of UCLA fans, who are planning to see the UCLA Troika back together at the Rookie Challenge! If one of them had gone to the east, their wish would have been frustrated. Indeed, it's too early to talk about who will win the Rookie of the Year award, and if you seriously say that any of these players in the top 10 have a chance to win that award, it can only be said that the top five or even top three players have a better chance of winning the award. Although Rose was held in the palm of his hand by the Bulls, he was not able to crush the other rookies of the same class.
On the contrary, the All-Star Weekend Rookie Challenge is much more popular than the Rookie of the Year, and the All-Star votes do come much earlier than the selection of other individual awards. And there is no need to vote for the Rookie Challenge, as long as the coaching staff of the improvised first-year and second-year rookie teams feel that you have what it takes to be selected, you can play in the Rookie Challenge. It just so happens that Westbrook, Ye Feng and Loew play point guard, small forward and big forward respectively, and there is no one who affects whom, so they can join forces again at this season's All-Star Rookie Challenge.
However, Ye Feng's thoughts did not drift to the All-Star Weekend, he felt that the most important thing at the moment was to play a good game, and by the way, play a brilliant individual performance, and strive to squeeze Rose down in the next rookie list. UCLA and the University of Memphis competed twice last season, each with one win and one loss, but unfortunately the one that the University of Memphis lost was the NCAA Finals, and Rose is also worried about this matter, after all, they have always been the No. 1 super team in the United States, and missing the championship did make their strength questioned, but fortunately, he was talented and a native of Chicago, which was included in the Bulls without hesitation, but there was always a thorn in his heart.
Ye Feng wants to overtake Ross to reach the top of the rookie list, how can Ross not want to suppress these three rookies from UCLA and win the best rookie award? But in the final analysis, it all depends on individual performance, and the team's record does not add much in this regard, but Ye Feng is still very confident that he can beat Rose, you must know that he has a group of teammates who are more willing to share the ball, as for Rose, are you talking about Gordon and Rohr Deng, the two big players in the ball?