The Match-Up for NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award

As the NBA world shifts its focus from the All-Star Game in Los Angeles and towards the final stretch of the regular season, no storyline from around the league garners more debate than the race for the Rookie of the Year.

The Philadelphia 76’ers’ Ben Simmons and the Utah Jazz’s Donavon Mitchell are both having some of the most memorable rookie campaigns in recent memory, and both have their teams in the hunt for the playoffs. While both players appear to have extremely promising careers, and their respective fan bases should be thrilled, one will be left calling snub when the award is announced in the spring.

The NBA’s Rookie Of the Year Award is not always created equal. From year to year, the winner of the award can range greatly in their accomplishments, all depending on the caliber of the draft class they entered the league with. Although each team has only played about 55 games so far, the 2017-18 rookie class appears to be special.

Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics is averaging 13.5 points per game and starting nearly every night for one of the league’s top teams. Kyle Kuzma of the Los Angeles Lakers is averaging nearly 16 points per game in the league’s biggest market and giving hope to a Lakers fan base still trying to find their post-Kobe identity.

Laurie Markkanen is having the best rookie season of any Chicago Bull since Derrick Rose, averaging 15.3 points and nearly 8 rebounds a night. Still, none of these players are really in the conversation for rookie of the year, as Mitchell and Simmons serve as the primary forces on two teams deep in the playoff hunt.

Just looking at their raw numbers gives no clear indicator on who is having the better season. Both the Sixers and the Jazz have won 30 games. If the season ended today, the Sixers would be the Eastern Conferences No. 7 seed, while the Jazz would be watching from home. That being said, the West is, and has been, the superior conference for many years.

While Mitchell is averaging slightly over 3 more points a game than Simmons, Simmons has the more balanced game, putting up 7.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists a night, as opposed to Mitchell’s more modest 3.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds.

The balance of Simmons’s game is what anyone arguing in his favor would first go to. Simmons has posted six triple-doubles, while Mitchell has yet to post one. In fact, Mitchell has not even posted a double-double yet, something that Simmons has done on 22 different occasions.

While Simmons has a strong running mate in Joel Embiid, he is the engine that makes the Sixers go, and the team has seemingly gotten better as Simmons has adjusted more to the NBA. The team has been playing some of their best basketball of the season as of late, going 10-5 in the month of February and winning five games in a row heading into the All-Star break.

Where Simmons has been more balanced and has been consistently balling throughout the season, Mitchell emerged as one of the leagues premier scoring threats in December and has been the driving force behind the Utah Jazz’s competing for a playoff spot, despite a number of injuries to their more established veterans like Rudy Gobert.

Mitchell has scored 29 or more points in eight different games since early December, something Simmons has only done once all season. Mitchell’s Jazz have also been the hottest team in the NBA in February, going 14-4 so far and winning 11 games in a row entering the break.

Looking over both of their accomplishments so far this season, it’s extremely challenging to say that either of them do not deserve to be crowned rookie of the year. How they both perform over the final 30 or so games of the season will ultimately be the deciding factor.

If I had to choose one to pick today, I would be extremely tempted to ride the wave of recency bias and pick Mitchell, but Simmons has been too impressive throughout the entire season to not give him the award at this point. While Simmons would be my pick right now, both players are extremely entertaining to watch and should excite NBA fans that the younger generation of players appears to have the league in such good hands.

With LeBron James being the only player from the 2003 draft class still suiting up for the All-Star game last week, the new era of the NBA is approaching faster than many realize, and Simmons and Mitchell appear to be two of its brightest stars.