The spotlight for the NBA's 2025 rookie class has rightfully been focused on its deep collection of wings and bigs. Kon Knueppel and VJ Edgecombe are certified buckets. Ryan Kalkbrenner is already one of the better rim protectors in the league. Cooper Flagg is Cooper Flagg. Derik Queen has completely flipped the narrative around his drafting by the New Orleans Pelicans.
Less heralded, therefore, are the point guards at the top of the class. But while they might not be as flashy, there are still some stars among this group. So as the NBA season drifts into the new year, we have to ask: Who is the best floor general among this season's rookies? Let's dig in.
Dylan Harper, San Antonio Spurs
If we were deciding this year's Rookie of the Year race by the eye test, Dylan Harper would be the winner in a walk. Going into the Christmas Day slate of games, the NBA's ROY leaders had all had something to hang their hat on. Flagg had started to accelerate on his "best at everything" trajectory, Edgecombe and Knueppel had already paid dividends with high-end role player numbers, Queen had had his coming out party as a Baby Jokic (early, but pending). Where did that leave the relatively pedestrian Harper (12.2 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 3.9 APG)?
Answer: a rookie averaging double-digit points off the bench while playing alongside two other established guards, and a guy who could finish this season as the NBA's best player. So much for giving Harper time to develop. And even though he's coming off the bench, Harper is getting legitimate touches: His 25% usage rate trails only Victor Wembanyama, De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle.
But the most impressive thing is how efficient he's been with those touches: While his outside shot hasn't quite come along yet (25% from 3), Harper's above-average PER (16.2) and adjusted win shares per 48 minutes speak to a player that offers much deeper value than the good that's already on the surface. Also notable is the fact that his offensive rating alongside Wembanyama (121.4) is the highest that Wemby has with any Spur. Harper's a vet pretending to be a rookie, and he's doing it for the top-power ranked team going into 2026.
Ryan Nembhard, Dallas Mavericks
Nembhard's argument in this head-to-head-to-head also lies in what lurks underneath the surface of his modest counting stats (8.1 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 5.3 APG). Looking at the Mavericks' list of two-man partnerships, Nembhard is seemingly Anthony Davis' favorite point guard to play with (117.0 offensive rating) as well as Flagg's (112.6 offensive rating).
The iron is also very hot for Nembhard, as he is recently coming off of a second drubbing of the Denver Nuggets (19.5 PPG, 8.5 APG, 17:1 AST/TO ratio, 68% FG across two matchups). These don't seem like flashes in the pan either; while Nembhard doesn't necessarily match up well with Harper nor Jeremiah Fears in this exercise, he has looked like Dallas' long-term answer at the point guard position nonetheless
Jeremiah Fears, New Orleans Pelicans
We'll get the obvious out of the way: The New Orleans Pelicans are terrible this season. And while Jeremiah Fears has offered a glimpse of the future for New Orleans, he is the lone starter among the three point guards on this list and the only one with negative win shares on the year thus far (-0.2).
What Fears does have, though, is scoring stats, as his 14.8 points per game for the season still leads this list. But his per 36 numbers and efficiency all indicate that Fears' outstripping of Harper and Nembhard as a scorer can be simply chalked up to the volume that comes with starting for a bad team. Not empty calorie stats per se, but Fears' scoring is frankly the only reason he even made this list in the first place.