Rookie Ladder: Cavs’ Mobley slowly pulling away in yearlong race

When the All-Star break ended, we kind of reset the rookie ladder so it now looks like the weekly ballot for the Rookie of the Year Award. In the beginning the award looked to be a five man race between Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Scottie Barnes, Josh Giddey, and Franz Wagner, with the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ Evan Mobley the most frequent leader.

Since then, Josh Giddey has suffered a hip injury that looks like it will keep him out for the rest of the year. Franz Wagner has had an outstanding season, and we should talk about him more, but he just doesn’t have the star-power that Cunningham, Mobley, and Barnes do. Oh, and the Magic are the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

Even though guys like Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga were high draft picks, they weren’t really producing in the beginning of the season. Well now, about six months later, a lot has changed, but those slow starts still matter.

The latest edition of the Kia Rookie Ladder displays how Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes have been the favorites all year in the NBA

There have been two constants throughout the season. Both Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes have been top-3 in the rookie ladder from start to finish. Considering the talent level of this rookie class, and how tight this season has been, one of Mobley or Barnes deserves to win the award for contributing greatly on probable playoff teams.