NBA Rookie of the Year race: The favorites and other possible candidates
By Nate Friesen
Current favorites
1. Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies
As mentioned above, Ja Morant is currently leading the Rookie of the Year race in most people’s eyes. He’s got off to a pretty great start with averages of 18.3 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.3 rebounds per game while shooting 48.8 percent on 2’s, 44.4 percent on 3’s and 73.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Ja Morant is currently leading all rookies in both PPG (18.3) and APG (5.8), while leading this Memphis Grizzlies down the stretch of some pretty entertaining and close games. This was seen, most notably, in the game against the Nets where Ja Morant had the last-second block on Kyrie Irving in regulation and then the game-winning assist to Jae Crowder in overtime.
One number that stuck out to me was the fact that Morant is shooting an astounding 44.4 percent from 3-point land to start this season. Albeit, Morant is only shooting 1.8 3-point attempts per game, which isn’t an enormous sample size. Considering Ja only shot 34.3 percent from 3 in his college career, it is surprising that he is shooting so well to start this season, regardless of the limited number of attempts.
Ja Morant certainly isn’t running away with the rookie of the year award. Although, if he is able to keep up this production, he will be in a great position to win the 2019-20 Rookie of the Year award.