Minnesota Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards vs. LaMelo Ball

The Rookie of the Year Race

Taking a look at previous Rookie of the Year winners (the last five being Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, Malcolm Brogdon, and Karl-Anthony Towns), the list is stacked of really good players – but regardless of who wins, both have really promising career outlooks ahead of them.

This season, the ROTY favorite has heavily been Hornets guard LaMelo Ball – at least – until he sustained a wrist injury shortly after the All-Star break. Due to missing an extended period of time, Ball’s odds fell dramatically, although with him returning to the Hornets very soon, it looks as though he may still be able to win the award.

In his 41 games, Ball is averaging 16 points, six rebounds, six assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Ball has a positive net rating on a team that was among the six best seeds in the Eastern Conference prior to his injury.

That is… well… really good. And frankly, the only reason he isn’t the runaway favorite for Rookie of the Year at this point is because of that injury. He has done more to impact winning for his team than any other rookie this year. Being able to contribute to winning basketball at 19 years old is a feat in itself, especially playing in the role that he has.

Edwards, on the other hand, leads all rookies in scoring (by a solid margin) at 18.3 points per game. That said, Edwards’s splits are significantly worse than Ball’s this season, although that is somewhat mitigated due to Edwards being on the unluckiest team in professional sports this calendar year. He has had to deal with inconsistent lead guard play, a change in system midway through the season, as well as an entire coaching change.

Honestly, though, voters won’t care about that, because the Timberwolves were downright awful. They are much more inclined (and rightfully so) to pick a player that affected winning at a high level over a player whose game could be rationalized as “empty statistics on a bad team.”