NBA Rookie of the Year race

I follow Andrew Bogut on Twitter and saw a post from him earlier:

SO they got my youngfella @BJ3nnings3 at 5th in the rookie rankings? What a joke. Even though he doesnt care bout ROY. 5th?? 5th?? LIKE 5th? about 7 hours ago via web

So it got me wondering what the current rankings were so I found this article. Here's their breakdown of the top 5.

1. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
63	35.9	16.0	4.2	5.4	1.8	0.2	.455	.417	.878

Last Week: 2 | Drafted: 7
I can no longer ignore the fact that Curry is playing better than Evans. Evans may have already won over too many voters, but Curry is certainly making his case in a big way. ESPN.com's Marc Stein had an interesting column this week in which he spoke with several scout around the league. One Western Conference scout had this to say about the two: "[Tyreke] Evans is going to win it and [Brandon] Jennings was up there early, but [Steph] Curry is going to wind up being the best player of the three. He's the ray of hope in Golden State because he's got the shots, he's got the moves, he's marketable and he's only going to get better. And I think his teammates like playing with him. He's a great shooter, obviously, but he's unselfish. He's looking to get other guys involved. You can argue that [Curry's] numbers are inflated playing in Golden State's system, but you could have said that about a lot of rookies over the years. Most of the top rookies are on bad teams. Rookies of the Year aren't coming from the Lakers. The issue is what the Warriors are going to do with [Monta] Ellis, because it's obvious that that team needs to be built around Curry, and Curry defers too much when Ellis is in there."

2. Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
59	37.2	20.3	4.9	5.4	1.5	0.4	.462	.259	.744

Last Week: 1 | Drafted: 4
Evans is obviously comfortable being a leader on the young Kings. Maybe too comfortable. In the Kings' 108-102 loss to the Thunder on Sunday, Evans called out teammate Andres Nocioni after the veteran took several questionable shots down the stretch. "We were in the game, and you come down and take bad shots?" Evans told the Sacramento Bee. "That's not team basketball. Coach didn't say nothing, so I thought I had to step up (and say something)." Maybe Evans was justified -- he had 24 points and seven assists to Nocioni's six points -- but he still apologized Tuesday afternoon on a Sacramento radio station.

3. Darren Collison, New Orleans Hornets

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
58	24.8	11.0	2.3	5.0	1.0	0.0	.465	.358	.840

Last Week: 3 | Drafted: 21
One Western Conference scout, in the earlier-mentioned Marc Stein article on ESPN.com, asked the question many have been asking: How will the Hornets -- and Collison in particular -- fare when Chris Paul returns? His answer: "The rookie has been so good because he's had the ball in his hands. Collison is more of a penetrator than a shooter. He's not a guy who's going to make shots out there [as a shooting guard]. The last time they went through this, they put Collison right back on the bench. Can [Paul and Collison] play together now? I don't necessarily think so."

4. Marcus Thornton, New Orleans Hornets

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
55	22.7	12.9	2.6	1.1	0.7	0.2	.453	.400	.796

Last Week: 4 | Drafted: 43
It's amazing to me that Thornton is still not starting. He, along with fellow rookie Collison, has been one of the Hornets' most aggressive and productive pieces. Still, Morris Peterson is starting, despite shooting just 36 percent from the field (33 percent on 3s). Peterson has scored in double-digits once in the last eight games and just four times all season. Thornton, on the other hand has scored in double-digits in 25 of the last 27 games. Hornets coach Jeff Bower continues to start Peterson and prefers the jolt Thornton provides off the bench, but why not let Thornton play a consistent 30-plus minutes per game?

5. Brandon Jennings, Milwaukee Bucks

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
63	33.2	15.8	3.5	6.1	1.3	0.3	.368	.382	.807

Last Week: 5 | Drafted: 10
Despite all the distractions, all the Rookie of the Year talk, all Jennings wants is a spot in the playoffs. Early in the week, Jennings raised eyebrows after going just 2-for-12 in a win over the Wizards. "My offense is just terrible right now," Jennings was quoted in the Journal-Sentinel. "I don't even know if I want to shoot the ball because things are just not going my way. I'm struggling really bad right now." That drew a sitdown with coach Scott Skiles. "We're not fond of that kind of statement," Skiles said. "We know where his heart lies." Where Jennings heart is is helping the Bucks -- currently fifth in the East -- reach the playoffs. "Right now, I'm playing for something bigger. I don't even care about the Rookie of the Year," Jennings said. "Forget it. Whoever gets it, who cares? Both of their teams suck, so whoever gets it, it doesn't matter."

Unlike Bogut, I think they've actually got the rookie race pretty much right. His boy Brandon Jennings got off to a great start to the season and was definitely the front-runner but my boy Stephen Curry is the man to beat now. I'd actually put Jennings ahead of Thornton but that's the only change I'd make to the order.

Darren Collison has flown in to the top 3 due to the injury to Chris Paul. Collison (the new DC as we call him) has been putting up large numbers over the last month or so and although he turns it over far too often, its excusable from a rookie thrown in to that situation. Paul is supposed to be returning soon so DC will likely fall off and if Jennings can find his shot again he'll be back in the top 3.

Play of the year

Forget about your high-flying dunks, for me this is the play of the year so far.

As a small-man in a big-mans world, its great to see Stephen Curry going to work in the paint. Up against one of the best shot-blockers in the league, Curry shows the Birdman some of his Pistol Pete style tricks.

NBA All-Star Saturday night

I haven't seen my parents for a little while so after the Reds snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the rugby, I went round to their place and stayed the night. Other than catching up with them and doing the good son thing, they have Foxtel so I got to watch the NBA All-Star Saturday night.

Saturday's events start with the shooting stars, the skills challenge, the 3-point contest and then the dunk comp. With my focus on basketball shooting, the shooting stars was a warm-up for my favourite event of All-Star weekend, the 3-point contest.

This year's contest was very competitive. Usually someone stinks it up in the opening round but just three points separated first (Stephen Curry) and last place (Channing Frye & defending champ Daequan Cook). Paul Pierce stepped up in the final round to take the title, highlights are below.

The 3-point contest is just over too quickly for my liking. I'd like to see the contestants get 2 attempts in each round and their best score counts. This would mean that if someone stank up one go they could redeem themselves and would take out a little of the luck involved in the contest.

In other events from the night, it was good to see my boy Steve Nash take out the skills challenge and it was no surprise that the Texas team took out the shooting stars challenge. As you'll no doubt read everywhere, the dunk comp was very disappointing. G-Wallace is my boy, but he really phoned this one and just didn't seem interested. Shannon Brown didn't do much better and all the dunks throughout the contest were basically uninspired.

Stephen Curry - coming out party

I mentioned it at the start of the season that I really liked the look of rookie Stephen Curry. Sure, he has the NBA pedigree from his dad Del but he proved he could flat out shoot leading the NCAA in scoring last year.

Drafted by the Golden State Warriors, he got off to a slow start in his rookie season and there was tension with Monta Ellis before game 1 even began. Over the last month or two Curry has really come in to his own but with no Ellis today, Stephen held a coming out party of sorts.

In the first quarter alone, Curry had 17 points against the LA Clippers and finished the game with a career high 36 points. It wasn't just a scoring performance from Stephen as he also recorded his first triple-double with 10 boards and 13 assists.

Here's his line:

Starters

Min

FG

3Pt

FT

+/-

Off

Reb

Ast

TO

Stl

BS

BA

PF

Pts

S. Curry

G

45:47

11-22

7-11

7-8

+35

0

10

13

6

3

0

1

4

36

An impressive showing from the rookie and even more surprising was that he led his team to a rare win. On the back of his 7 triples, look out for Stephen in the NBA All-Star three-point contest.

Twitter ... I didn't want to, but

I've previously said I would avoid the Twitter fad but today I relented ...

Prompted by a post from John Rillie about his trip to Darwin to follow the Top End Challenge I decided to take the step and sign up. It seems that if you want to stay up to date with what's really happening, especially in the sporting world, Twitter is now a must have. The crew at Dime virtually fill half of their off-season smack with Twitter updates from players.

After "following" JR, I tagged a number of others in the basketball world (both NBL & NBA) to keep up to date with. So far I have:

• Patty Mills
• Kevin Garnett
• Shaq
• Stephen Curry
• Steve Nash
• Mark Cuban
• Andrew Bogut
• Big Joe
• Joe Ingles
• Shawn Marion
• Troy Murphy
• Luke Schenscher
• Chris Webber
• Kevin Durant
  

Speaking of Luke Schenscher, its great to see that he's just signed with the Perth Wildcats instead of heading to Europe. He had a great season and I'm looking forward to seeing him build on that this year.

I'm getting a new mobile within the next week so I'll now make sure I can get one that I can tweet from.

Stephen Curry

Coming in to the draft, I'd heard about Stephen Curry. He was described as the "best shooter" in the draft and that's probably when I started to take a bit more interest in him. I've mentioned it before but a good basketball shooting tip is to watch great shooters in action, success leaves clues.

As I don't get to watch college basketball (although with One HD now I will be able to next season) and I tend to follow the NBA from a fantasy basketball perspective, I don't usually take too much interest in rookies until they have proved themselves in the big show. I didn't even realise until last week that Stephen is the son of former NBA great Dell Curry.

As mentioned last week, I was able to watch the NBA draft for the first time and heard the angry NY crowd go nuts as Curry was drafted by the Warriors, who got to pick before the hometown Knicks. I heard Dickey Vitale numerous times throughout the coverage shower praise on Stephen and say that the team's who didn't draft him were crazy and that he would definitely win Rookie of the Year.

So today, with the phone not ringing in the office, I decided to do some more research in to Stephen Curry.

Firstly, here's an excerpt from a great article by the crew at Dime (click on the title to read the full story):

Stephen Curry: Lethal Weapon | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

“Nothing about my success here over the last three years has changed me at all, because I live in the moment,” says Curry. “I’m not worried about what’s going to come next. I’m not worried at all. I do everything one step at a time, and I try to be as confident doing so as possible.”

For Stephen to achieve everything he sets his mind to, he needs to believe it completely. And right now, he believes that he can do anything. That mantra is inscribed on the forefront of his sneaker, penned as “I Can do all things…” (Editor’s note: The full quote is “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13) Tomorrow won’t come across his radar until tomorrow. But when it rolls around, know that he’ll have the same confidence and faith that he has today.

And here's some video footage of him in action:

Draft ‘09 Stock Watch: Patrick Mills

Nice to see Patty Mills getting some love on Dime today. With all the hype in the draft going to Ricky Rubio, Austin sticks up for Mills who has seemingly been forgotten about heading in to the NBA draft.

Patty started slowly in the draft camps but dropped 30 points at the Reebok Eurocamp that should see his stock rise again.

Click on the title below to read the full article. Good to see some Aussies in the comments representing Mills.

NBA Draft ‘09 Stock Watch: Patrick Mills | Dime Magazine (www.dimemag.com) : Daily NBA News, NBA Trades, NBA Rumors, Basketball Videos, Sneakers

By Austin Burton

Here’s what I don’t get: While you can’t make it five minutes into a Ricky Rubio argument without somebody supporting his case with the concept that he “held his own” against grown men overseas and against Team USA in the Olympics, Patrick Mills gets zero credit for not just holding his own, but putting in serious work against the Redeem Team and other international juggernauts.

In almost every major test he’s faced, Mills has proven himself. As the focal point of each NCAA defense that went against his Saint Mary’s squad this year, the sophomore Mills averaged 18.4 points on 40% from the field and 85% at the line, plus 2.2 steals per game. Mills got the better of Stephen Curry in their NIT matchup, putting up 23 points and 10 dimes in a blowout win. Before that he dropped 27 points in an NIT win over Washington State, and despite missing nine games during the season due to injury, still clocked 10 games of 20-plus points.