Post by Ian Noble on Jun 13, 2018 21:31:49 GMT
Dynasty Five's
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
JAYSON TATUM
Utah Jazz
The 2018 Rookie of the Year is awarded to Jayson Tatum of the Utah Jazz!
In what could be the most controversial Rookie of the Year decision in D5 history: Tatum narrowly edged out Kyle Kuzma for this year's award in an extremely close-to-call contest!
With respect to player ratings Jayson represented the only major improvement for this season's D5 Jazz roster and the team capitalised on his leadership by a margin of 12 extra wins compared to their woeful past performances of cellar dwelling, plateauing at a reasonable 31 wins, the team's highest mark since 2013! A win total so high it caused tankophile GM Billy King to resign his post as GM of the Jazz mid-season!
The Suns Kuzma led all rookies in scoring (19.3ppg) and rebounding (9.6rpg) but Phoenix's regular season win-total dropped 16 wins from the already dire year which preceded into an anti-UnbeataBulls 72 loss season of epic proportions, bested only by the NBA equivalent of a live human sacrifice - the Detroit Pistons (10 wins). Both players led their teams all season long but only one of them showed evidence of actually improving their team, and with Tatum's fellow highly-drafted colleague, Markelle Fultz, out almost all of the season with 'injury', he remains the only major change on a Jazz roster that lifted itself out of the league's basement thanks primarily to his leadership.
Here at D5 Tatum fell one spot lower than his draft position in real-life and joined the Utah Jazz mere months before GM Billy King 's resignation. After a draft day trade from the Sixers to the Celtics in real-life he went on to become one of the dominant faces of the Celtics starting lineup that reached the Eastern Conference Finals, showcasing a vast offensive repertoire and excellent mental approach that give him an All Star calibre career trajectory that will no doubt anchor the D5 Jazz's success for years to come.
Not far behind Tatum and Kuzma was one of the real-life ROTY hopefuls, Boston's Ben Simmons led all rookies in assists (632 total, 7.7apg) and displayed a semblance of his real-life output scoring almost 10ppg and grabbing 5.5rpg for a Celtics team that improved by a 16 win margin. Even more successful in the win/loss column, Memphis's Donovan Mitchell managed 11ppg for the Grizzlies during the regular season and started every playoff game, averaging 13.8ppg in the playoffs, whilst taking the Warriors all the way to 7 games in the Western Conference Semi Finals! Last but not least the man who will make you say 'who?!', Matthias Lessort of the beleaguered Detroit Pistons put up an astounding 12.8ppg and 8.2rpg, numbers that Reddit's recency bias would label him another Nikola Jokic in the making, but here at D5 we see the Pistons 10 wins and perhaps know better. Simmons and Mitchell's rating changes perhaps were too little too late this year to give them a chance, but with his electrifying real-life Playoff performances it's quite natural now, at this later point in the season, to speak of Tatum in that same rarefied air, a true star in the making leading one of the strongest rookie crops of all time!
Congratulations to Elton Brand and the Utah Jazz!
2017/18 Stats - 17.2ppg | 6.9rpg | 1.6apg | 1.4bpg | 1.1spg
Also in contention:
Kyle Kuzma - 19.3ppg | 9.6rpg | 2.3apg | 0.9bpg | 0.9spg
Ben Simmons - 9.7ppg | 5.5rpg | 7.7apg | 0.4bpg | 1.6spg
Donovan Mitchell - 11.0ppg | 2.9rpg | 2.7apg | 0.3bpg | 1.1spg
Matthias Lessort - 12.8ppg | 8.2rpg | 1.6apg | 1.3bpg | 1.1spg