On his couch, drinking a beer and watching the Dallas Mavericks probably

Jury still out on Clifford but I think he’ll be a good rotational guy at the very least. Maybe a fringe starter at the 2. Especially if he improves his shot

I would be more optimistic about their future if they weren’t the Sacramento Kings

Incredible. Even San Antonio’s fanbase is smarter than the Kings FO.

Don’t worry, Vivek will find a way to fuck it up.

Completely forgot Taylor was out there. Yes please

Enes Kanter played for your team

Not really since you’re used to looking at 2 very good defensive big men on a nightly basis. Raynaud is awful on defense but he moves like a gazelle, so he’s got half the tools to at least be serviceable. There are defensively bad big men who are also slow. He’s a rookie who was also told NOT to block shots at Stanford and play conservatively on the defensive end to stay out of foul trouble, so give him time. Doug Christie also says he’s the most vocal on the defensive end.

It’s funny I’ve been watching Sabonis on my team for years and there’s moments where I feel Max is an improvement defensively. Being 7’1 helps a lot. He really needs to get stronger…badly.

Even if that’s true (I’ve seen some pretty bad ones over the years), getting all rookie first team as a second round pick alongside the top 4 picks is pretty good

I’ve give the rookie some slack. Maybe he’ll improve

There are so many “one of the worst” defenders in the league according to this sub lol

Somehow I don’t think it’s very relevant to judge the defense of a rookie on a dysfunctional team. I see no reason why he can’t be serviceable on defense, he has the size and mobility.

Bruh has only watched Kings games I’m assuming 

Far as i know defensive rebound is part of the defense, and he does that. Not good yet but not “worst i’ve ever seen” level. Were you even alive when haseem thabeet played on your squad?

Any big man is gonna look bad when guards are blowing by the first level. When the overall team defense improves, Maxime’s defense will improve.

Cooper is a fraud.  Might as well trade him to his hometown team (whoever that might be) and let him play out the rest of his career for them.  It probably wont even be that long, since he’s a fraud and all.

Cooper turned a team that was the defending western conference champion into a lottery team and yall think he’s good 😂

Mavs fans down bad man. We have cooper flagg and we love him. So roty is pretty big deal right now around here

Cool and all but your whole team is solely revolving around making cooper win ROTY while the stats aren’t even far apart due to Kon’s efficiency, add in that the way kon contributes actually wins games…

I really don’t think it will. Kon has a lot going for him. He broke the rookie record for 3’s by a mile, he’s currently the leader in 3PM across the league, and he’s shooting at an efficiency pretty much unheard of from a rookie. All around, Cooper Flagg has a game that will probably make him one of the best in the league, but as the archetype of player Kon is, we haven’t seen a prospect like him since Klay Thompson. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to account for wins, specifically because Kon has contributed so much to the turn around that the Hornets had. I mean, no one expected the Hornets to be one of the better teams in the league, that’s why it’s captured so many people’s attention. I also think there is something to be said about this kind of performance being expected from Flagg because he was such a generational prospect, as unfair as that is, but that does happen sometimes with these awards

I still think they should do a double ROTY award like they have done in the past, because both deserve it honestly

the other guy being the first rookie since MJ to lead his team in all four major statistical categories,

I think the problem with this is that you can’t argue that this is super impressive but also that the record doesn’t matter. Either Flagg has the worst teammates of all time, in which case it’s not very impressive that he’s beating them in statistical categories, but we can safely ignore his record (I take this view) or his teammates are actually decent, in which case we can give him praise for beating them statistically but the Mavs’ record is now a problem.

I think Flagg will end up the better player by the end of it, but imo, Flagg being put in a position to rack up counting stats on bad efficiency doesn’t give him an argument over Kon putting up slightly worse stats on much better efficiency, because his team is actually trying to win and won’t let him chuck it 17 times a game to get his PPG up.

You say the media gave him the award 2 months ago, but that’s because it wasn’t even a conversation 2 months ago. The race has only gotten close because of the recent tear Flagg has been on while Kon’s gotten into a slight slump recently.

It actually reminds me a lot of when Melo won over Ant. Melo started the year off a lot stronger while Ant finished a lot stronger, but Melo still won the award.

We’ll see what actually ends up happening, but I’d rather just get to see them share the award at this point. Especially because I remember how hostile Timberwolves fans got over that lol.

i remember being mad that they gave the roty to simmons instead of mitchell back in the day, i though mitchell was the better player (and look at that, i was right), this is the same thing, the better player will lose, they should just be co rotys and called it a day. This wont matter when knuppel sings with dallas and wins a chip with cooper

Winning matters…. Until it doesn’t. Then popularity matters. Until it doesn’t. Then it’s just politics. Until it’s not… 

Pretty silly that the best teenager to ever play in the NBA

The award is for the best rookie, not the best teenager.

Kon shot only .7% better from the field (47.8 vs 47.1)

Now do TS%

Putting aside that rookie of the year is as meaningless of an award as it gets, it’s a borderline travesty if Kon wins over Flagg.

Flagg is better than Kon at literally every part of the game except distance shooting.

Like - what are we even doing here having a debate about this award? One guy is winning 9 out of 10 meaningful categories, most by a considerable margin. The other is an elite shooter.

And on top of that, Flagg is just getting better and better as the season goes on, putting even more distance behind him. Whereas Kon has hit a bit of a rookie wall.

Why are half your posts and comments about this lmao. Cooper isnt even your rookie. Go promote VJ.

(And the fg% gap is very impressive considering 60% of kons shots are 3s)

Kon was killing it the majority of the season the past 2 weeks shouldn’t win cooper the roty, leading the league in 3s made as a rookie and breaking 3pt records at this age is just as impressive as what cooper is doing because both are 19 and 20 literally babies in NBA years

Is this “Best Rookie Shooter Of The Year” or best rookie?

Are rebounds, assists, blocks and steals completely irrelevant?

Which advanced metrics? Do those metrics take into account being a first option and a third option? Or do they take team structure and personel into consideration?

it’s funny because every person that says this also ignores the same advanced stats showing that kon’s team is markedly better and he benefits from his team having higher gravity

I don’t think a lot of people in 10 years will be looking at the advanced metrics of 2 player’s rookie seasons when one is 13th seed and the other 9th seed tbh

Bingo. Everyone acts like Kon is the only thing that changed from last year for the Hornets, so they attribute all of the success to him.

Their two best players have played 20 and 40 more games this season than last and soon as both came off of their injuries/minute restrictions this season, the Hornets started stringing wins together. 

Kon is a great contributor, no doubt there, but some perspective needs to be kept.

I hear you. I am simply saying “interesting” in lieu of much more critical language. I think it is a very questionable thought and very poor analysis on the part of this writer. I am confident both of our personal top picks are the same for this particular award.

People keep saying this like Cooper wasn’t on a heater before his injury. He was -1100 to win before that. Came back and struggled but has done enough to retake the award imo. Kon has been pedestrian for a month, really.

kon is objectively not more valuable than coop is to his team’s success, he can drop single digit numbers or like 10-15 points on bad efficiency and his team will still win games, as seen multiple times this season

what kon is better at is playing an immediately nba ready style of basketball than cooper, and in his smaller role i think he executes on it better than cooper does in his significantly larger one

It’s a rookie award, not valuable award. Cooper was by far the better rookie. Your argument is valid if it was a most valuable rookie award.

😂😅

He shot 61% from the floor in his 51 point game and 52% in his 45 point game. This isn’t Bam level point chasing. He’s the best player on the team and takes a share of shots that aligns with that. 

Who should be taking shots away from him? PJ Washington? 😂😅

He was supposed to be ours, closest thing to a hometown kid.

The entire top 3 was rigged, I’d be more upset if we didn’t end up with Kon from it, but having none of the teams with the worst records not get a top 3 pick was total bullshit.

You can never convince me the NBA didn’t gift the top pick to the Mavs for letting the most prolific franchise in the NBA get Luka for the next 10 years. Part of me wants Flagg to not get ROTY for that reason alone.

Yeah Adam Silver rigged it obviously

I mean its a hot take for a reason. But I think he could put up Flagg’s current numbers with better playmaking and interior scoring efficiency. Flagg has a lot more potential overall but he’s younger and not the on ball player Harper is

Flagg is shooting 29% from 3 so thats not really a requirement

I mean you can name atleast 5 more rookies in the past 10 years that didn’t make an all rookie team but deserved too, Atleast 5 this year that won’t make it should

Okay but that same argument that is being used for Kon impacting winning can also be used against him. They were terrible to start the year and put themselves in a huge hole. Now they only have a better record than 1 team in the east that isn’t tanking despite how well they’ve been playing lately