Freshman Fluke?

[kucoach7]

I had a first sim overreaction when I looked at my team, "Frank Jackson could be rookie of the year." Now, Frank's current efficiency definitely isn't sustainable, but based on two pre-seasons and one regular sim I'm starting to think there may be something to this kid and it definitely isn't clear what it is or why it is. Anyway, I started to wonder how past rookies of the year have fared in the rest of their careers. Let's have a look those ROYs that have retired.

1991 Derrick Coleman
Rookie highlights: 23 PPG 10 RPG
Rest of career: Only averaged over 20 PPG for the first four years and then tailed off a lot. He was a 2 time All-Star. 1 time AL3. 1 time AD1.

1992 Larry Johnson
Rookie highlights: 27 PPG 10 RPG
Rest of career: Only averaged over 20 PPG two more times, never hit double digit RPG again. 2 time AS. 2 time AL.

1993 Alonzo Morning
Rookie highlights: 22 PPG 10 RPG
Rest of career: One of the all-time greats. 11 time AS. 8 time AL. 6 time AD. 2 time PMVP. 1 time DPOY. HOFer.

1993 Chris Webber
Rookie highlights: 26 PPG 10 RPG
Rest of career: Webber may be remembered as the guy picked before Penny but, man, he was really really good too. 11 time AS. 9 time AL. 5 time AD. HOFer.

1994 Jason Kidd
Rookie highlights: 15.5 PPG 7.5 RPG 7.5 APG
Rest of career: Kidd was a guy the all-star voters didn't love but the human GMs recognized as a transcendent talent. 5 time AS. 3 time AL. 8 time AD. 2 time PMVP. HOFer.

1995 Jerry Stackhouse
Rookie highlights: 20 PPG 4.5 RPG 4 APG
Rest of career: Stack's prime started and ended early but it was great while it lasted. 3 time AS. 1 time AL. 1 time 6MOY.

1996 Allen Iverson
Rookie highlights: 18.6 PPG 6.7 APG
Rest of career: Iverson was a great scorer for a long time but he was one of those guys that just never made it to elite. 3 time AS. 3 time AL.

1997 Tim Duncan
Rookie highlights: 21 PPG 9 RPG
Rest of career: Another one of the all-time greats. It is worth mentioning that he is the first rookie of the year to win regular season MVP. 12 time AS. 12 time AL. 6 time AD. 1 time DPOY. 4 time MVP. HOFer.

1998 Vince Carter
Rookie highlights: 23 PPG 4.5 RPG
Rest of career: VC had a nice career, although it was little underwhelming given the expectations. He was a number 1 pick. He had purple potential. There is little doubt though that the players selected after him (HOFer Paul Pierce and Dirk) had much better careers. 4 time AS. 2 time AL.

1999 Michael Redd
Rookie highlights: 17.5 PPG 5.5 RPG
Rest of career: Redd had one of the most bizarre careers in league history. He only played 10 seasons. He was still averaging 17+ PPG in his last couple of seasons… and then he died. No achievements for this guy. Although he was a decent scorer throughout his career, he is probably the first real bust on the list.

2000 Tony Parker
Rookie highlights: 20 PPG 4 RPG
Rest of career: I’m not sure how many of you remember Tony Parker, but he also had a really weird career. He had no outside shot. He couldn’t really pass well enough to be a legit point guard. Kind of a disappointment. 1 time AL.

2001 Yao Ming
Rookie highlights: 15 PPG 7 RPG
Rest of career: Yao had a few great years and was a really good scoring big for a time but he never really became an elite rebounder and defender. 3 time AS. 3 time AL.

2002 Chris Bosh
Rookie highlights: 25 PPG 6 RPG
Rest of career: The dearth of great ROYs ends with one of the all-time greats. Apparently he just retired last year so we can expect him to enter the Hall next year. 10 time AS. 10 time AL. 3 time AD. 3 time MVP.

2003 Kevin Martin
Rookie highlights: 18.6 PPG 4.3 RPG
Rest of career: Kevin Martin was an elite scorer for a while in this league, hitting 30 PPG. I think he’ll mostly be remembered as the guy that demanded $15 million a year well into his 30s. 4 time AS. 4 time AL.

2004 Deron Williams
Rookie highlights: 15.5 PPG 9.2 APG
Rest of career: D-Will came into this league as a pass first point guard. While he ended up as the greatest dime disher the league had ever seen up to that time (hi, Ricky Rubio) he also became one of the league’s most lethal scorers. 12 time AS. 9 time AL. HOFer.

2009 Stephen Curry
Rookie highlights: 22 PPG 4 RPG 7 APG
Rest of career: Steph had a great career, averaging over 20 points a game for the first 10 years of his career and posting a .420 3 point field goal percentage over his entire career. The crazy thing is that he was kind of a disappointment. When he entered the league he was supposed to be a world-beater. We’re talking AD, Kemp, Penny or at least KD level. Alas TC and a GM who wouldn’t fork over the points for insurance lowered the ceiling on Steph’s career. 9 time AS. 6 time AL. 1 time PMVP.

2020 Paul Lugo
Rookie highlights: 16.7 PPG 5.5 RPG
Rest of career: Okay, Paul Lugo has arguably had the strangest career of any player in league history. As an undrafted rookie he posts an ultra-efficient (TS% of about .600) 16.7 PPG for a terrible Spurs team and wins Rookie of the Year. He can’t defend but he is very athletic. He gets dinged up in the next TC and only manages a slightly less efficient 13.3 PPG the next year. And then? Mic drop. The guy just retires. No year or two sitting on the free agent page. No UFA day 3 signing and getting cut before training camp. He just walks away from the game at 25 years of age. Two seasons. One ROY trophy.

Active ROYs
The active ROYs are Rudy Gay, KD, Love, John Wall, Klay Thompson, AD, the Greek Freak, Gary Harris, Dan Ran, Hardpeck, Kight, Ulis, Jaylen Brown, Ironside, and World B. Free so I think that in the end we’ll probably say similar things about that group as the group I discussed today. Giannis has been great but not near as great as he was supposed to be. KD and Love are all-time greats, etc. I feel like the college imported ROYs have more surprise guys. This may be because the big star-potential guys are coming in so raw that the lower potential mid-round college graduates are much better in their early years.

[Darth Vegito]

Great read kucoach!

Point Czar awards kucoach 5 pts! Word Count: 1145