Atlanta Hawks: Ben Simmons is Wrong about Rookie of the Year Race
By Chris Guest
A quick response to Ben Simmons’s thoughts on the Rookie of the Year race, featuring Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.
In recent weeks, Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks has whittled away Luka Doncic’s lead on the Rookie of the Year race. Over the course of the past 3-plus months, Young has clearly outplayed Doncic, and, as such, the two of them should be named Co-Rookies of the Year.
However, one player who knows a thing or two about the Rookie of the Year race chimed in with his own thoughts on the subject.
Reigning Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons believes that Luka Doncic should win the award, according to a video released by Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
#Sixers PG Ben Simmons said he would vote for #Mavs G Luka Doncic for NBA rookie before explaining why: pic.twitter.com/HShEKi1bt6
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) April 1, 2019
Sure, Simmons has the right to his own opinion, especially considering he won the award last year. But, really Trae Young has sorely outplayed Doncic down the end of the season and currently has a higher three-point percentage and free throw percentage than Doncic. Doncic has also missed 7 games and his team only has 3 more wins than the Atlanta Hawks – which was a major reason why Simmons believed Doncic should win the award.
Of course, one of the reasons why Simmons might be caping for Doncic is because of last year’s supposed “feud” with Donovan Mitchell, who was also in contention for the Rookie of the Year award. Mitchell has already put himself in the Trae Young camp for ROY, as this Tweet entails:
ROY @TheTraeYoung https://t.co/PyFrKVaB6v
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) March 24, 2019
To Mitchell’s credit, Young is having the best offensive season of this rookie class. According to BBall Index’s Offensive Player Impact Plus/Minus metric, Young is in the top 35 of all players in the NBA with a 2.2 OPIPM.
It is also higher than Doncic’s 1.8 OPIPM, though that number is still in the top 50 across the NBA.
Next. Trae Young, Luka Doncic: Co-Rookies of the Year. dark
Listen, both Trae and Luka are incredible talents that deserve a ton of praise. While Simmons’s claim that Luka is the Rookie of the Year isn’t wrong, the truth is both players should be named as ROYs, making them the 4th pair of players to be co-winners of the award in NBA history.