Rookie Ranks: Luka Soars Above the Rest

Luka Doncic was picked by many (including myself) to be the 2019 NBA Rookie of the Year.  His fellow rookies, however, did not have so much faith in the young Slovenian to make a big impact in his first year as they had him Tied for 3^rd alongside Kevin Knox and behind #1 overall pick Deandre Ayton and Cleveland point guard Collin Sexton in the preseason Rookie Survey.

This ROOKIE RANKS series will track the Rookie of the Year race and give monthly updates on the top candidates.  This first article will be a summary of rookie ranks among each statistical category, going forward, articles will be updates and analysis on the top 3-5 candidates (with an emphasis on Luka, of course).

Luka is off to an amazing start this season, while watching him play it is easy to see he is a great player and will be one of the front-runners for NBA Rookie of the Year.  Even with Luka’s great start, there are several other rookies that are keeping this Rookie of the Year race interesting.

Summary of 2018 Lottery Picks:

Pick	Player	Team	Age	G	MP	PTS	REB	AST	BLK	STL
1	Deandre Ayton	PHO	20	12	33	16	11	3	0.8	0.7
2	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	13	23	12	5.8	0.8	1.2	0.5
3	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	12	34	20	6.5	4.5	0.3	0.8
4	Jaren Jackson	MEM	19	11	25	12	4.5	1.3	1.5	1.0
5	Trae Young	ATL	20	12	30	18	3.4	7.8	0.3	0.3
6	Mohamed Bamba	ORL	20	12	19	6.8	5.3	1.3	1.7	0.3
7	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	13	26	12	7.7	2.4	2.1	0.7
8	Collin Sexton	CLE	20	12	26	12	2.4	2.2	0.2	0.4
9	Kevin Knox	NYK	19	6	16	7	1.3	0.3	0.3	0.5
10	Mikal Bridges	PHO	22	12	18	6.7	1.3	0.8	0.1	1.2
11	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	12	27	9.6	3.2	3.3	0.8	0.8
12	Miles Bridges	CHA	20	11	20	7.8	3.9	1.1	0.5	0.6
13	Jerome Robinson	LAC	21	7	5	2.9	0.4	0.1	0.0	0.0
14	Michael Porter Jr.	DEN	20	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Quite a few productive players were added to the NBA.  We have been able to see a lot of these players filling significant roles to start the season such as Ayton, Bagley, Doncic, Young, and Carter.  There have really only been two of the lottery picks who have yet to make an impact, those being Jerome Robinson and the injured Michael Porter Jr., who has yet to make his debut from rehabbing his back surgery.

To better find out which players are excelling relative to their peers, lets look at the rookie rankings by stat category.

Points per game leaders:

Rk	Player	Team	Age	PTS
1	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	20.3
2	Trae Young	ATL	20	18.4
3	Deandre Ayton	PHO	20	16.1
4	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	12.3
5	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	11.8
6	Collin Sexton	CLE	20	11.7
7	Jaren Jackson	MEM	19	11.6
8	Allonzo Trier	NYK	23	11.5
9	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	9.6
10	Josh Okogie	MIN	20	8.5

Rebounds per game leaders:

Rk	Player	Team	Age	REB
1	Deandre Ayton	PHO	20	11
2	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	7.7
3	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	6.5
4	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	5.8
5	Mohamed Bamba	ORL	20	5.3
6	Omari Spellman	ATL	21	5.1
7	Jaren Jackson	MEM	19	4.5
8	Mitchell Robinson	NYK	20	4.4
9	Josh Okogie	MIN	20	4.1
10	Miles Bridges	CHA	20	3.9

Assists per game leaders:

Rk	Player	Team	Age	AST
1	Trae Young	ATL	20	7.8
2	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	4.5
3	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	3.3
4	Deandre Ayton	PHO	20	3
5	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	2.4
6	Collin Sexton	CLE	20	2.2
7	Elie Okobo	PHO	21	2
8	Kevin Huerter	ATL	20	1.7
9	Donte DiVincenzo	MIL	22	1.6
10	Devonte’ Graham	CHA	23	1.5

Field goal percentage leaders (minimum 30 attempts):

Rk	Player	Team	Age	FG%	FG	FGA
1	Mitchell Robinson	NYK	20	62.2%	23	37
2	Deandre Ayton	PHO	20	60.4%	84	139
3	Mohamed Bamba	ORL	20	55.2%	37	67
4	Miles Bridges	CHA	20	54.5%	36	66
5	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	50.8%	61	120
6	Allonzo Trier	NYK	23	49.0%	50	102
7	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	48.9%	88	180
8	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	47.9%	58	121
9	Chandler Hutchison	CHI	22	47.1%	24	51
10	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	45.5%	40	88

3 point field goal percentage (minimum 12 attempts):

Rk	Player	Team	Age	3P%	3P	3PA
1	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	50.0%	7	14
2	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	50.0%	7	14
3	Allonzo Trier	NYK	23	42.9%	9	21
4	Rodions Kurucs	BKN	20	41.7%	5	12
5	Omari Spellman	ATL	21	40.6%	13	32
6	Collin Sexton	CLE	20	40.0%	6	15
7	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	39.5%	30	76
8	Kevin Huerter	ATL	20	39.3%	11	28
9	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	38.5%	5	13
10	Kevin Knox	NYK	19	37.5%	6	16

Free-throw percentage leaders (minimum 10 attempts):

Rk	Player	Team	Age	FT%	FT	FTA
1	Elie Okobo	PHO	21	92.9%	13	14
2	Collin Sexton	CLE	20	91.9%	34	37
3	Allonzo Trier	NYK	23	87.2%	41	47
4	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	84.8%	28	33
5	Josh Okogie	MIN	20	81.0%	17	21
6	Trae Young	ATL	20	80.7%	46	57
7	Landry Shamet	PHI	21	78.6%	11	14
8	Grayson Allen	UTA	23	76.9%	10	13
9	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	76.7%	33	43
10	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	76.0%	38	50

Minutes per game leaders:

Rk	Player	Age	G	MP
1	Luka Doncic	19	12	34.4
2	Deandre Ayton	20	12	32.5
3	Trae Young	20	12	30.3
4	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	20	12	26.9
5	Josh Okogie	20	11	26.4
6	Wendell Carter	19	13	26.2
7	Collin Sexton	20	12	25.5
8	Jaren Jackson	19	11	24.9
9	Allonzo Trier	23	13	24
10	Marvin Bagley	19	13	22.6

Blocks leaders:

Rk	Player	Team	Age	BLK
1	Wendell Carter	CHI	19	2.1
2	Mohamed Bamba	ORL	20	1.7
3	Jaren Jackson	MEM	19	1.5
4	Marvin Bagley	SAC	19	1.2
5	Mitchell Robinson	NYK	20	1.2

Steals leaders:

Rk	Player	Team	Age	STL
1	Mikal Bridges	PHO	22	1.2
2	Jaren Jackson	MEM	19	1
3	Josh Okogie	MIN	20	1
4	Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	LAC	20	0.8
5	Luka Doncic	DAL	19	0.8

A Closer Look at Luka

As I am sure you noticed, Luka doesn’t only show up on a lot of these lists, he shows up near the top.  Some of a rookie’s performance has to do with playing opportunity, but Luka doesn’t only do great in the counting stats, he is very efficient as he racks up his numbers.  Here is a summary of where he stands in each category:

Category	Luka	Rookie Rank
Minutes	34.4	1
Points	20.3	1
Rebounds	6.5	3
Assists	4.5	2
FG %	48.9%	7
3P %	39.5%	7
FT %	76%	10
Blocks	0.3	T-13
Steals	0.8	5

Look at that all-around game!  Efficient scoring, excellent rebounding for his position, and elite playmaking, Luka can do it all!

It almost seems unfair to compare to his fellow rookie peers.  He has an all-around game that hardly any veteran NBA stars can match.

So, just for fun, let’s take a look at how Luka’s stats stacks up against some of the greatest players of all time in their rookie or age 19 season.  The following shows the Per 36 minutes numbers for several players in their either their rookie season or their age 19 season, meaning, nobody in this comparison is younger or less experienced than Luka.

Player	Age	G	FG%	3P%	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PTS
Kobe Bryant	19	79	43%	34%	79%	4.2	3.5	1.3	0.7	2.7	21.4
Larry Bird	23	82	47%	41%	84%	10	4.5	1.7	0.6	3.2	21.3
Luka Doncic	19	12	49%	40%	76%	6.8	4.7	0.9	0.3	4.4	21.3
LeBron James	19	79	42%	29%	75%	5	5.4	1.5	0.7	3.1	19.1
Magic Johnson	20	77	53%	23%	81%	7.7	7.3	2.4	0.5	3.9	17.9

Kind of scary how well he looks here…scoring as well and as efficiently as anyone.  His 3 point percentage is great and he is making 2.3/game compared to Larry Bird’s 0.7/game.  Can you believe Larry was pulling down 10 rebounds/game in his rookie year? I don’t care if he was 23, that’s impressive.  I know it is only 12 games into his career, but make no mistake about it, Luka Doncic is SPECIAL!

One area that you can see Luka needs to improve is with the turnovers.   4.4 per game is definitely too many, this has been a Mavericks team problem all season and Luka is the main culprit. He is such an efficient scorer, 40% from 3 and a giant-killing floater in the lane, if Luka can be come a more efficient passer he will be absolutely unstoppable off the pick-and-roll.  It is early, but right now there is no ceiling for Luka.