Who knows the NBA Rookie of the Year candidates better than Doin Work? Name one blog with more content about the Kings and Warriors. We’ve been gushing about Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry all season long, so now that it’s down to a two-man race for the award, who better to weigh in on the subject than us? We’re breaking down the analysis into three categories which we feel make up the criteria for the award. The first is Stats – no explanation needed. The second is Team Performance / Influence – how well has the team played and how much is a result of the player’s impact? The third is Future Outlook – meaning whose resume is going to look better 20 years from now. Most voters will probably tell you that has nothing to do with the Rookie of the Year award, but that’s not true. Sportswriters love being right. They want to vote for the guy who’s going to have a couple MVP awards in his career so they can say, “I voted for him.” You think any writers out there are watching any Wizards’ games bragging that they voted for Mike Miller for ROY? Come take a trip with us up and down I-80 to see if the trophy is going to end up in Oakland or Sacramento this year….
STATS
Tyreke Evans (MCeezy)- The numbers don’t always tell the whole story, but I think in this case they do. Evans is averaging more than 20 pts, 5 reb, and 5 ast for the season. This fact 
has been well documented, including here, but in case you missed it, the only other rookies to do that are Lebron James, Michael Jordan, and Oscar Robertson. He’s in the top 20 in the league in Points, Assists, Steals, Minutes, and triple doubles. Sure, he has one, but no one who’s not named Lebron James has more. In fact, Evans’ last outing he came up one rebound shy of his second triple double. Curry’s got a slight edge in 3pt and FT%, as well as steals, but Evans’ overall numbers definitely trump those of Curry.
Stephen Curry (Chappy)- I have to concede that Tyreke’s numbers are superior to Curry’s, but in Curry’s defense, his first two months under Nellie were inconsistent to say the least. There were games when he’d play 35-40 minutes, and the next night he’d play 10-15. I’m not sure if it was Ellis saying that they couldn’t play together, but either way Nellie didn’t seem to trust him that much. Since the Warriors were struck furiously by the injury bug, Curry’s minutes went up and so did his production. Since December, he’s had close to the same numbers as Reke averging 20 pts, 4 rebs, 4 assists, and nearly 2 steals. He’s easily been the most improved rookie over the season.
TEAM PERFORMANCE / INFLUENCE
Tyreke Evans – The Kings have overachieved this year, and you don’t have to look any further than Tyreke to see the reason why. They were 1-4 before Kevin Martin went down with a broken wrist. After that, they rattled off 5 straight wins and Tyreke Evans became the leader of the team. He hasn’t looked back since. Sacramento won just 17 games last year, but they’ve already notched their 23rd win of the season, and there’s still a month to play. Tyreke has been so good, he made the Kings’ best player expendable. It’s his team now, and they’re clearly on the rise.
Stephen Curry-
Feeding off Mceezy’s comments, Curry is slowly replacing Ellis in the Warriors backcourt as the best guard on the team. His basketball IQ is superior to anyone on the Warriors, and that might even include Nellie when he’s had a few too many beverages tailgating before games. The Warriors were supposed to see what the future held this year with a roster full of young guys, unfortunately endless injuries will have us wondering the same thing when next year begins. Only being able to muster 18 wins so far can’t be blamed on Curry, especially when they had a hand full of games with only one guy over 6’9” available to play. Curry has shown leadership skills. He runs the offense, and gets creative with his passes, ball fakes, and finger rolls around the hoop. He seems like everything you’d want in a teammate and franchise player.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
Tyreke Evans- There are few doubts about Tyreke Evans’ star potential. He can pretty much get to the basket at will, and opposing defenses have been centering their gameplan around him since December. Yet and still, Evans has continued to produce. He’s impressed on a national stage, including taking home MVP honors for the Rookie-Sophomore Challenge. He’s also a soft-spoken, mild-mannered personality off the court. He may have been an alleged accessory to murder at one time, but he figures to be a model citizen for David Stern to stand behind for years to come. On the court it’s a different story. Evans is already emerging as one of the great clutch players, and he has fun doing it. Tyreke is the kind of superstar the NBA can stand behind, and they love those guys. Don’t be surprised if Evans is a perennial all-star for the remainder of his career. He’s a consistent jump shot away from becoming a top 5 player in the league.
Stephen Curry- If his dad taught us anything, it would be, if you have a sweet and quick releasing jumper you can last in this league. Curry’s percentages speak for themselves (42% 3PT, 46% FG, 88% FT). The best thing about those percentages is that isn’t even the best part about him. He effortlessly gets where he wants on the floor, and depending on what the defense does when he gets there he makes the right choice more often than not with either a pass or that sweet jumper of his. If you didn’t catch him at Davidson, then you might not know how clutch he is. Just youtube it, I won’t explain… He has brought the Warriors back with his three pointers a few times this year, although he hasn’t hit a game winner, he’s tied a few and sent them into OT. I’d never question letting him have the last shot in a game. Curry understands what it takes to run a team, and could be as good as guys like Nash and Kidd if his career lasts as long as daddy Del’s 16 year career. The only reason I compare him to Nash and Kidd is because he never leaves his feet and is never caught in the air without a purpose. He will be a superstar and even if it ends up not being with the Warriors I’ll root for him.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
March 16th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
mceezy
Both players have ‘star potential’ . But I think that it may well come down to the aspirations of their respective teams and the front office organizations. Two years from now if the teams aren’t legitimate contenders in the Western Conference . Then neither Curry or Evans will be with their respective teams as they now stand.
For the moment the writers may well favor Evans.
Alan Parkins
March 17th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Future prospects and whose resume will be more impressive 20 years from now is not how ROY ballots should be counted. It’s strictly a rookie-year basis, or at least it should be. If I wanted to read something from a media member, whose ideologies on voting you’ve adopted, I would not have come here. “Et tu, Brute?”
Since I don’t accept that standard, I toss it out, and am then left to vote off stats and team performance/influence. You’ve (un)justifiably left Brandon Jennings off the list. He trumps both in team influence(they’re closing in on locking down the 5th seed), and his start to the season was every bit as impressive as Curry’s finish to the season. That makes it a wash, because both were off the charts for a similar amount of time. That leaves Reke with the edge over both of them because he’s been a model of consistency, despite his team’s losing record. However, you mention the list of greats who have accomplished what Reke did as a rookie, yet not only one, if memory serves, accomplished what Jennings did as a rookie, which was score 50+ points. He also did it AGAINST Curry.
I am only saying all this to mess with your guys’ heads. I’ll just vote for Reke because he doesn’t look like a 12 year old boy.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Hahaha, we actually discussed Jennings before we wrote it, but my reasoning for not putting him in the race was his awful shooting percentage, sure those six assists are nice, but not compared to a 35% FG percentage over the last three months…
And to the double nickel game that you say Jennings got on Curry, in his defense he only played 25 minutes, and wasn’t in during crunch time because he was still getting forgotten at the end of Nellie’s bench, so he probably scored more of those points on Ellis…
Anyways, we’re heavily Norcal biased, so it only seemed natural to debate about the top two rookies from Norcal…
March 17th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
And personally, I would include Jennings in the discussion, but the national debate primarily centers around Tyreke and Curry, so that’s who we talked about.
March 17th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
chappy 81
A Wasteland Of Despair And Ineptitude …………..
After that 38 pt loss lost night don’t you think that Kurt Rambis yearns to be back in LA ? My God the T’wolves looked bad !
Call ‘em Out Or Call ‘em Off ! The NCAA Continues To Be Just One Big Joke !
Alan Parkins
March 17th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
The shooting percentage has to be compared to the winning percentage, in my mind. Mceezy, refer to the opening paragraph of my comment. “Et tu, Brute?”
I feel betrayed by you guys. Betrayed.
March 19th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
The fact that he wasn’t guarding him is a non-issue, btw. And Jennings just tore Sacto a new one. Ouch. This is where I rub it in, as you have done to me on rare occasions when I’ve been wrong 😀
March 20th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Hahaha! Yeah, everybody likes being right 🙂 I missed the game, but that box was pretty impressive…
April 7th, 2010 at 9:58 am
It doesn’t matter what Sacramento, Golden State, or Bucks fans think. They are going to be biased. As a Lakers fan I hate the kings and nobody cares about the bucks and nobody and I mean nobody cares about Oakland. That said, any sane person who doesn’t have a dog in this fight likes Curry, likes Jennings, and thinks Evans is a absolute freak of nature. The award goes to the beast. Don’t cry. Act like a man and watch Tyreke become a force in this league. Not an All-Star, an absolute force. Like 20+, 7+, 7+ kind of FORCE. Since Feb 1rst he’s averaged 19+, 7rpg, and 7.5apg. In fairness, Curry has come close to avg. those numbers in March, but Evans has had entire defenses keyed on him and been guarded by the other teams best defender, Artest, Battier, Ginobli, etc. every single night and Tyreke has only gotten better. As far as Jennings team record is concerned, it’s a non issue. Team record has never had anything to do with ROY. The bucks have only won seven more games than last season as have the kings but that doesn’t even matter because it doesn’t matter. The Bucks are a better team. They were better last year and they are better this year. So what. The Kings won 17 games last year and would have to win 50 this year to make the playoffs. With out Evans they might have won 10 or 12 games this year and Oakland Sucks; that’s not Curry’s fault. So Jennings is done. How long can he milk his 55 point game. It was wicked but that ship has sailed.
April 8th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Now that the Kings and Warriors have the same record would you change your opinion? I know that Reke is a physical freak, but is he really a point guard? I don’t think so, so I have a hard time believing he will be averaging 7 assist per game. So you don’t think defenses are keying on Curry now? He’s pretty much the only non-Dleaguer on the court for them with all the injuries. At least Sac has a few guys that weren’t pulled off the scrap heap… I’m leaning towards Curry more than ever seeing how he’s pushed this D-League squad to wins in four of their past six! Personally I haven’t had Jennings on my list since January…
April 27th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
[…] other news broke out today on the rookie MCeezy and I debated about, Tyreke Evans. He’s another Norcal baller that will put Sac on the Map again. He didn’t […]