Steve, Elton Brand, and Lamar Odom immediately established themselves as the top rookies early last season, and when Odom faded mid-season, Francis and Brand put on one of the best rookie shows since Jason Kidd and Grant Hill were named Co-ROY's back in '95... Which brings me to the question...where are the rookies this year? I have a hard time remembering who the rookies ARE off the top of my head sometimes...It's been three weeks, and nobody has stepped up and shown themselves to be tops of the rookie class... Dare I say...Jason Collier, rookie of the year?? ------------------ If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!!
It seems like none of the rookies are in a position to succeed. Swift is behind Othella, Fizer plays scant minutes, Miles just got a DNP against NY(?). The only guy getting the minutes right now is Martin. I suspect Swift's minutes will change as the Grizzlies' Ls pile up. Either way this class is just weird... the potential ROYs aren't putting up the stats like past candidates did. A 15ppg, 10rpg would seem to do it, but noone's even close to that. ------------------ It just goes to show how skewed our priorities are when Mo Taylor makes millions of dollars while some high school teacher, that can actually rebound, scrapes to make a living. If Mo were half the power forward that Charles Barkley was, he'd be 3'2" and still board more than he does now.
Oops... Kenyon is getting 3 blocks a game, so he does seem to have some distance between himself & the others. ------------------ It just goes to show how skewed our priorities are when Mo Taylor makes millions of dollars while some high school teacher, that can actually rebound, scrapes to make a living. If Mo were half the power forward that Charles Barkley was, he'd be 3'2" and still board more than he does now. [This message has been edited by Achebe (edited November 20, 2000).]
Definitely looks like a weak class. I think Fizer is getting PT, but he's shooting 36 % ? Of course, Brand isn't shooting well either. And Artest. And El-Amin. And...... ------------------ "There are two players carrying the Rockets right now. Hakeem and Olajuwon." Isiah Thomas
Mateen Cleaves is working his way into a starting spot in Detroit and Mo Peterson is doing ok for Toronto (in addition to those already mentioned), but this isn't a terribly good class immediately. However, many of the players were viewed as projects going in and should eventually blossom. Swift, for one, has a nice future ahead of him. ------------------
I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the players the NBA teams are drafting are getting younger and younger, so they still need a year or two of seasoning to make a difference. Did any of these people finish college? ------------------ My dream job is to be a Houston Rockets towel boy.
