Rookie

You have basically been able to count on three things in the NBA over the past half decade plus, LeBron James will be in the NBA Finals, the Sacramento Kings will be bad and the 76ers 1st round pick will miss part or all of his rookie season. The last part is no different for [...]

We are about a month out from the 2018 NBA Draft class making their NBA debuts after being highly touted prep, collegiate and international players. Soon we will start to see who some of the stars of tomorrow may be. Who from this class will have the best rookie season and who will have the [...]

Every year the NBA surveys the rookie class to see how they feel about their peers, it gives an interesting view into how players analyze each other as opposed to scouts. The 2018-19 rookie survey was released last week and some of the results are eye-opening. The most surprising: Wendell Carter Jr was voted by [...]

Utah Jazz star guard Donovan Mitchell celebrated his rookie season with hundreds of fans at the adidas Sport Performance store in Santa Monica on Tuesday night. Mitchell recently transitioned from wearing his adidas “Rookie” gear to apparel featuring “Spida” as Dictionary.com added Spida as an official entry on Tuesday with the definition: “A basketball species [...]

Joel Embiid doesn’t seem to have a better handle on the Philadelphia 76ers’ Markelle Fultz situation than any of us. And that’s left him concerned. As the first-time All-Star and arguably Defensive Player of the Year favorite recently told NBA TV (via Philly Voice‘s Kyle Neubeck): “I don’t know what the origin of the problems [...]

Building up self-esteem is part and parcel of mentoring young NBA players. And, well, Ramon Sessions is doing one helluva job boosting the ego of New York Knicks rookie Frank Ntilikina. Although training camp is barely underway, and although Ntilikina is just 19 years old, and although Sessions hasn’t really spent that much time around [...]

Ben Simmons doesn’t care about being the NBA’s best rookie. He has his sights set on something bigger. Like the league’s (unofficial) best-player crown. As he told ESPN.com’s Niall Sewang: “My goal is to be the best in the league,” he told ESPN. “I’m not worried about other rookies — I’m worried about the guys [...]

The Philadelphia 76ers are very high on their prized rookie and No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft Markelle Fultz. They traded three 1st round picks to move up two spots to draft him and are clearly convinced that he is the biggest star in the 2017 draft class. Apparently Fultz’s peers don’t agree. [...]

When anyone talks about the 2017 rookie class in the NBA, a few players and discussions are always brought up: How good will Lonzo Ball be and how annoying his dad Lavar Ball is, how good “The Process” can be now in Philadelphia with No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz joining Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, [...]

Go ahead and pencil in Frank Ntilikina, the No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft, as a bust. Relax, I’m kidding. But someone on the New York Knicks better talk to him, or stop talking to him, or something. The rookie guard is already talking about how he’d welcome having free agent Derrick Rose [...]