Stating the case for every Rookie of the Year candidate

Can Trae Young upset Luka Doncic for the 2019 Rookie of the Year award?

Let’s face it, the Rookie of the Year race has been between two players the entire time, and the fact that these two rookies were traded for each other on draft night just makes it even more dramatic.

When that draft night trade was made many declared the Dallas Mavericks the winners of the trade, getting the heir apparent to Dirk Nowitzki 20 years after his debut, speeding up their timeline to playoff contention with the 6-foot-7, 19-year-old Slovenian genius that was the worst kept secret in the basketball world.

It was declared so early on that Doncic was Rookie of the Year that there wasn’t even really time for a discussion about it. With every stepback 3, no-look pass and late-game heroics he displayed, that sentiment only grew stronger throughout players and coaches around the league.

I’ll admit my bias, I was one of those in the fray that shouted Luka Doncic for ROY from the mountaintops very early on in the season, however unlike most people that didn’t mean I wrote off Trae Young after his first poor shooting performance.

Unfortunately for Young, and the rest of the rookie class, they were overshadowed by Lukamania as soon as he went on a personal 11-0 run against the Houston Rockets to solidify a comeback win in early December.

It wasn’t until post-All Star break that Doncic had any significant competition against him for the award, and while it might be too late to dethrone his historic season, Trae Young has been making a late push to at least make Doncic sweat to the finish line. If Doncic controlled the narrative at the start of the season, Young has been dominating the conversation since mid-February.

Trae Young

Since the All-Star break, Young has been on a tear. He’s averaging 25 points and 9 assists on 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3, and whether the Twitter-verse wants to admit it or not, Young has been putting up Rookie of the Year numbers throughout the season.

It took Young awhile to get adjusted to the NBA, in fact when Young and Doncic faced off against each other for the first of what will surely be many matchups between the two, Young went scoreless from the field in the first half.

He went into the locker room with only two points — both free throws — while his counterpart already racked up 12 points in the first half. It was the perfect fuel for Doncic fans who were gearing up to press send on the requisite “Luka Doncic was passed on twice and traded,” tweets. I know this because I was one of them.

By the end of the game Young was up to 17 points, 10 of which came from the free-throw line, and more importantly, the Hawks walked away with the win. Early on in the season, it wasn’t pretty for Young.  His poor shooting numbers, he shot 19 percent from 3 in November, fed into the narrative that the Hawks lost the draft night trade and Doncic was the clear and away Rookie of the Year.

However, since the All-Star break, it’s undeniable that Young has been balling. His shooting that made him a household name when he was at Oklahoma has been more consistent, launching 3’s from just about anywhere on the court, his court vision has drawn more comparisons to Steve Nash lately and his play has earned the Hawks some huge wins over playoff teams recently.

While it’s unlikely that Young will take home the hardware over Doncic, saying this is a runaway win is no longer a valid argument.

Luka Doncic

You’ve seen all the stat threads showing how historic Doncic’s rookie season is when measured against the greats, you’ve seen the highlights of him hitting his quickly patented stepback 3, last second buzzer-beaters and several “wait no don’t pass it” turn into “wow what a find.” Since his second game of his NBA career when he finished off his first 20+ point performance in a win over the Timberwolves, Doncic has shown glimpses of just how special he is, and will be for years to come.

Everything that scouts and European basketball aficionados praised about Doncic before he was drafted has held up throughout the entire season. His ability to showcase guys around him has been on display all season, especially after the Mavericks traded four of their starters before the trade deadline.

His size makes him a threat from just about anywhere on the floor, whether it’s pulling up for 3 against a taller, slower defender or backing down a small point guard who can’t handle his 6-foot-7 frame. Those concerns about him being too slow or not athletic enough for the NBA were quickly thrown into the garbage as he’s shown time and time again that argument had no weight behind it.

When he’s not recording another tripe-double, he’s either one rebound or one assist away from it, and he’s been given the keys to the Mavericks despite coach Rick Carlisle having a history for not trusting younger players. Young might be on a hot streak since the All-Star break, but Doncic has been putting up similar, and better, numbers all season long.

Doncic’s rookie season has been held side-by-side to LeBron James’s historic first year in the league, his most recent triple-double — his seventh on the season — put him in elite company tying Magic Johnson for the third-most triple-doubles in a rookie season. Despite his recent shooting slump, he’s still stuffing the stat sheet on a nightly basis proving that even during poor shooting performances he’s still a valuable piece on the floor.

If both of these rookies were in separate classes each of them would be walking away with the Rookie of the Year award, but unfortunately, barring a co-Rookie of the Year moment, only one of these memorable seasons will get rewarded.

Fortunately for us basketball fans we’ll get to see these two players, as well as the rest of this unusually deep rookie class, for a long time.