NBA rookie rankings 2024: Before the Rising Stars match, Brandon Miller breaks into the top 10.
As All-Star Weekend gets underway in Indianapolis on Friday, the NBA’s Rising Stars Challenge, or as it is officially named this year, the 2024 Panini Rising Stars, is scheduled. This is a fantastic time to evaluate the best young players in the league. The best rookies and second-year players in the NBA have been featured every year through the Rising Stars Challenge.
We will thus delve into those topics before Friday night’s game by first going over the 2022 and 2023 drafts and then taking stock of each player’s current position.First up is a rookie ranking that evaluates each rookie based solely on their performance thus far this season, ignoring their unrealized long-term potential.
First, give credit where it is deserved. As promised, Victor Wembanyama’s skill appears to be generational even halfway through his rookie campaign. The nicest surprise thus far is that durability hasn’t been a problem. So far, he has appeared in 48 of the Spurs’ 54 games.
Along the road, there have also been more and more indications of magnificence. Every time you see him play, you can be sure you’ll see something you haven’t seen before. Simply put, he is too large, too long, and too coordinated for his stature to not significantly alter the court’s topography.
Since he plans to spend the majority of his NBA career at center, the Spurs’ decision to give him more playing time there has also been encouraging. The Spurs have not been excellent, of course, and are currently experiencing yet another losing run (before to Monday’s 122-90 victory at Toronto 122-99, the Spurs had lost seven in a row). In the victory, Wembanyama finished with 27 points (10-for-14 FG) and 14 rebounds.
San Antonio is three games into a nine-game road stretch that may put Wemby’s resilience and ascent to the top to the test.
For someone who turned 20 last month, it’s almost amazing that he’s been able to live up to the unparalleled, generational hype thus far.
Nobody could have predicted six months ago that Wemby would be competing for the NBA Rookie of the Year title despite being healthy and doing as well as promised. However, that is the current situation and a testament to how excellent Chet Holmgren has been thus far in his first campaign.
In addition to being incredibly effective on both ends of the court, Holmgren was selected with the second overall choice in the 2022 NBA Draft. With an overall record of 36-17, OKC is second in the Western Conference, and he has led the team to victory. Holmgren, a mismatch five-man, has drawn the opposition’s big men away from the paint with his 39% 3-point shooting. His ability to attack those less mobile big players off the dribble has been an ideal fit for OKC’s offense, which relies heavily on repeated inside touches.
Similar to Wemby, concerns existed regarding Holmgren’s resilience upon entering the league. The murmurs only grew stronger following the injury from the previous year. He has therefore participated in all 53 of OKC’s games, which is an important milestone.
