NBA ROOKIE WATCH: ALL-STAR EDITION
- Updated: February 19, 2011
All-Star Weekend is here, and this season’s best rookies got the chance to battle against last year’s draft class in the T-Moblie Rookie vs Sophomore game.
The Rookies won 148-140 (the highest scoring game in history) and there were dunks a plenty – 22 in the first half alone! We saw DeJuan Blair throw himself an oop off the backboard, a John Wall bounce pass to reverse alley-oop by big Blake and much more. Sunday’s All-star game has a lot to live up too now, these kids showed how it’s done.
So here is MVP’s Rookie Watch, top five rookies of the Rookie vs Sophomore game.
Rookies (starters in bold): Blake Griffin, Landry Fields, DeMarcus Cousins, Gary Neal, John Wall, Derrick Favors, Wesley Johnson, Eric Bledsoe, Greg Monroe
Sophomores: Taj Gibson, DeMar DeRozan, DeJuan Blair, Stephen Curry, Wes Matthews, Brandon Jennings, Serge Ibaka, James Harden, Jrue Holiday
1 | John Wall | PG | Washington Wizards | 1st Pick 2010
12 PTS, 22 ASTS, 2 STL, 28 MIN
Wall made Wizard fans wish they had a legit power forward – someone to dunk all those nice passes. He had a Rookie vs Sophomore game record 22 assists (previous record 17), mainly from alley-oops. The duo of Wall and his former college team-mate DeMarcus Cousins was like they’d never been apart.
2 | DeMarcus Cousins | PF | Sacremento Kings | 5th Pick 2010
33 PTS, 14 REB, 1 BLK, 26 MINS
It’s not bad playing with former rookie of the year Tyreke Evans, but it must have been nice to play with his old Kentucky Wildcat team-mate John Wall. Cousins had a game high 33 points, and seemed to slam the ball down every time he got near the hoop. Despite the chants of “We want Blake†Cousins showed that BG isn’t the only power forward to be excited about. And how about those passing skills for the big man, throwing Wall an alley-oop. Nice.
3 | Blake Griffin | PF | Los Angeles Clippers | 1st Pick 2009
14 PTS, 3 REB, 1 BLK, 14 MINS
Griff has a very busy All-star weekend ahead of him. He’s headlining in all three main events: Rookie vs Sophomore game, Dunk contest and All-star game. It was no surprise that he played limited minutes, despite the home crowd chanting his name. Who could blame them. For every minute he was on the floor he was stunning. Doing his job dunking those alley oops, the human highlight reel didn’t disappoint. Could you imagine Wall and Blake on the same team? The stuff of dreams.
4 | Wesley Johnson | SF | Minnesota Timberwolves | 4th pick 2010
25 PTS, 1 REB, 1 STL, 25 MINS
Another player who made the most of his playing time, scoring a point every minute he was on the floor. Johnson was amazing off the bench. His shooting was great: 10 makes on 15 attempts including three 3-pointers. His energy was emphatic, running by the defence and slamming it home. If only he played like that all season.
5 | Gary Neal PG | San Antonio Spurs | Undrafted 2010
20 PTS, 4 REB, 4 ASTS, 26 MINS
If you told anyone at the start of the season that the undrafted Neal would make the team, they would of laughed. Well the Spurs have the best record in the league and Neal has played his part. He deserved a spot on the Rookie roster, and proved himself by shooting well, scoring 20 points on 9-15 shooting. There must be something in the San Antonio water that makes players over-achieve, because…
BEST SOPHOMORE PLAYER
We gotta show some love to the Sophomores. The 2009 rookies played a nice game, and it was close in the end. The best Sophomore was no doubt San Antonio Spur and 2nd round near reject DeJuan Blair. After suffering frequent injuries, Blair dropped all the way to the second round in 2009. Blair had 28 points and 15 rebounds in 26 minutes in the game. The highlight of the night was him throwing himself a dunk off the backboard, proving you apparently don’t need ACLs in your knees to have major hops.
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