The Cavaliers beat Western Conference side Spurs at home, and rookie center Evan Mobley still had a good performance. Only 20 years old, he played 33 minutes in this game, shooting 6 of 15 shots, 6 of 7 from the free throw line, contributing 18 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, with only 1 turnover. Look at Mobley's personal data this season, he averaged 15 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.7 blocks and 0.7 steals in 46 games, shooting 50% from the field and 27.9% from three-point range.
Although not a center who shoots from the outside, Mobley's all-round ability, especially his first-class interior defensive ability, has basically lost suspense in the competition for the best rookie this season. If Mobley does not miss the game for a long time due to injury in the future schedule, then the latest rookie of this year, nine times out of ten, will be Mobley's personal belongings. This is also a small irony for Jaylen Green, who always likes to talk big before this season, but now Jaylen Green seems to be much more low-key, he no longer says big words, and from the perspective of mentality, Jaylen Green has gradually matured.
In the latest rookie rankings, Jaylen Green returned to the top 10 positions, but the Rockets' other two rookies, Shin Kyung and Christopher, unfortunately did not make the list. In fact, before the 2-3 period, the Rockets' Shen Jing has always been the 6th and 7th player in the rookie list, but with Shen Jing having been absent due to injury for about a week, coupled with Shen Jing's poor state at that time and the Rockets' sluggish record, it has adversely affected Shen Jing's listing.
As for Christopher, he has gone low this season and has now become the main core player of the Rockets' No. 2 Team after Garrison Matthews. In fact, in the past week, whether it is TOEFL or Shenjing, it has a fairly stable performance from the data alone. TOEFL had 23 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in the game against the Spurs, and also got 2 figures in the games against the Warriors and Pelicans.
Shin Kyung did not shy away from Mowbury in the game against the Cavaliers, who contributed 9 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block and 3 assists to help the Rockets beat the Cavaliers; he also contributed 18 points in the game against the Spurs, and also contributed 11 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks of quasi-double-double data in the game against the Pelicans. So why are the 2 newcomers to the Rockets ignored by the rookie list? In fact, in the end, the Rockets' poor record is on the one hand, and another more important reason is that Shin Kyung and TOEFL are not "good enough" yet.
Of course, the lack of excellence here is compared to the rookies who have performed well this season. Although there are no superstars like Doncic and Trae Young in this season's rookies, the overall strength is very good. The so-called "draft year" does not mean that several superstars can be produced in a rookie, but focuses on the "success rate" of this rookie.
Cunningham, Mobley, Barnes, Gidey, Green, Wagner, Cuminga, Dawsum, Mitchell... A long list of outstanding rookies can be described as "the crowd rises together", in contrast, Shin Kyung and TOEFL are slightly inadequate. The reason why Shin Kyung and TOEFL are not on the list is not that they are not good enough, but that there are too many rookies who are better than them. Therefore, this year's draft is called "the big year of the draft", which is not an exaggeration.