Sacramento Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton continues to stand out among the league’s top rookies. In the latest update to the NBA Rookie Ladder, Tyrese Haliburton sits at the top. LaMelo Ball had led most of the season before suffering an unfortunate wrist injury. In the immediate wake of the injury, Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves was at the top of the ladder last week, but Haliburton earned the top spot this week.
NBA.com’s Steve Aschburner discussed the Kings’ play since Haliburton moved into the starting lineup:
Since then, the Kings have gone 7-1, outscoring rivals by 5.8 points and shooting 50.6% to their foes 48%. As for Haliburton, the No. 12 pick from Iowa State has averaged 15.8 ppg on 11.8 shots, hitting 51.1% overall and 42.5% of his 3-pointers. His 4.5 assists have come at the expense of only 1.6 turnovers. He even has been talking like a veteran in addressing Sacramento’s improved play.
Despite the team and Haliburton’s recent success, Tyrese failed to earn his third consecutive Rookie of the Month honor. This month’s Western Conference Rookie of the Month award went to Edwards.
NBA Rookies of the Month for March: Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards and Hornets guard LaMelo Ball.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 1, 2021
As of right now, Edwards is favored to win Rookie of the Year honors, with Haliburton a close second. If Ball manages to return before the end of the season, he’d likely jump right back into contention as well.
As Kings fans know all too well, Rookie of the Month and Rookie of the Year honors mean very little in the grand scheme of things but it’s still nice when a Kings player gets recognized. Regardless of the awards, Kings fans know that Sacramento has one of the top rookies in this year’s class, and that’s worth celebrating.
He missed the first two games of March and had a rough stretch of around the next six games, averaging around 11 / 3 / 3 over that period. He caught fire again over the last six games for the month (19 / 2 / 4).
Looking like a steal at #5, and absolute highway robbery at #12. Maybe the best thing about this season, and perhaps the best rookie season since Tyreke Evans. Love watching him play. There’s a little Brandon Roy to his game.
A little Richard Hamilton too…and a little of Kevin Martin
I love Haliburton. They are so lucky the got him. If not for Hali this team wouldn’t look like it had any future. He’s so damn good.
And as I’ve said before, I loved him so much from the first moments I saw him in pre season I bet $100 on ROY.
He is different, dynamic and skilled. My favorite King for sure.
Haliburton makes Hield look like a scrub……oh wait…he is a scrub.
Wut.
Hield is a scrub..what didnt you understand?
April Fool..
If Haliburton doesn’t get ROY it better just be LaMelo. Edwards is a low efficiency volume shooter, he will be good but Melo and especially Haliburton have shown more complete skillsets and have been more impactful running their offenses like they are multiyear vets.
Indeed. He’s jacking up shots on a terrible team and only shooting 39% from the field. Tyrese is shooting a whopping 48% and his assist to to ratio is much better.
I encourage everyone, especially the idiots ranking Edwards so high, to look at this:
https://hashtagbasketball.com/nba-rookie-rankings
It opens at a default setting, but if you add in turnover/assist ratio, and 3ptFG percentage, it ain’t even close. Edwards barely cracks the top 20. The guy is a chucker, and doesn’t do anything consistently other than score a lot of points while taking a ton of shots.
If Edwards wins, it’ll be about draft position, and little else. Haliburton may not have the highest ceiling, but he sure as hell is the best rookie.
Hali should win ROY. It’s Ridiculous. Edwards is going to be special though. He’s inefficient now, because he’s currently Option 1A or B. He really doesn’t have a lot of help around him. DLo and a high draft pick will help Edwards a lot next year.
I agree, Edwards will definitely get better, he’s still pretty raw. He could be exceptional someday soon.
But not this year. There were two exceptional rookies, and one is out for the season.
On Canis Hoopus a member posted a gif showing Edwards stealing the ball for a fast break to the hoop profiling his speed but also traveling about 5 steps. Ironic.
Honestly who cares about ROY. If he can sustain and get better from year 2 onward, which I have no doubt he can do, then that’s far more meaningful in my opinion
The only relevant individual award is Finals MVP, from my perspective.
I emailed the writer of the NBA Rookie Ladder a few times already in Rese’s defense. Rese is far more efficient than Edwards, has higher player rating stats, and plays better defense. The media wants the flash and storyline of Ball and Edwards but Rese is a more complete player than Edwards and will be just as good as Ball in the long run.
When do I pick up my Commenter of the Month award?
I guess I can let you have it this month. I’m moving to an apartment this month. I really don’t want to have to pack all these damn Commenter of the Month trophies I already have, let alone one more.
Player A: -0.014 WS/48 TS%: 47.8% USG: 23.4% TOV: 16.4% AST: 24.6 % ORtg: 94 DRtg: 113
Player B: -0.024 WS/48 TS%: 48.7% USG: 27.1% TOV: 10.1% AST: 13.1% ORtg: 96 DRtg: 116
Player A is De’Aaron Fox’s rookie year. Player B is Anthony Edwards. FWIW.
At least I have the SF Giants to pick up my sports ball misery … (watches opening game) … oh wait.
I love the “command over stuff” mantra, followed by the bullpen giving up 7 walks plus a hit batter in 2 1/3 innings.
Yeah, that was so deflating. I was all pumped up after the massive sample size of the first 6 innings of the season!
Buster hitting bombs again, solid starting pitching, contributions up and down the line up, I was sure they were winning the title this year! 😉
But that bullpen …
Well, you can write bullpen’ without a pen…
The mlb requiring a pitcher to face three batters hurt the giants yesterday. In previous years, those guys would have been pulled when you saw their command wasn’t there after the first guy or two.
Also, random diatribe I am more convinced than ever that all reply should be nixed from every sport. I just don’t think it offers enough value to justify the delays and continued mistakes even with replay.
Those reviews were slow and I thought they ended up getting both calls wrong after the review (one went for the Giants and one against). I thought the Mariners dude was safe at first (tie goes to the runner) and that (can’t recall if it was Longoria, maybe?) was clearly safe at second upon review. So, if review is still often wrong then just get rid of it.
Yeah, I won’t respond to this.
And yet you replied!
Badge Legend