What a great week of basketball it has been across the country. Before the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Lakers on Monday, they had won two straight at home, one coming in overtime. On top of that, we also got to watch some of the best young NBA prospects during the opening weekend of March Madness. But, it’s time to break down another rookie ladder, and you’ll never guess who was number one this week? If you guessed Evan Mobley, you are a winner!
For the seventh straight week, Rookie of the Year frontrunner and Cleveland Cavalier forward Evan Mobley is atop the rankings on the rookie ladder. After averaging 16.3 points per game this past week, along with collecting nine rebounds per game, he is still the clear leader of this year’s rookie class.
Mobley played a big game against MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets over the weekend, pulling out an overtime win. The rookie had 27 points and 11 rebounds. Against the LA Clippers last Monday, the big man out of USC put up the first 30-point performance of his career. Mobley will need to continue to play well down the last stretch of the regular season.
Filling out the rest of the top five was pretty simple for NBA.com writer Steve Aschburner. Coming in at second for another week in a row is the Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham. The good news for Cade is that his field goal percentage got above 40% this week. He has been good when healthy this season, it’s just hard to know when he’ll be healthy.
Coming in below Cunningham is the Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes. The wing from Florida State, averaged over 16 points per game this past week, and he has a huge test against Evan Mobley and the Cavs on Thursday night.
Rounding out the final two of the top-five are Franz Wagner and Jalen Green. Wagner really does have a case for being one of the most under-the-radar players in the entire NBA this season. Now, Jalen Green has been a pleasure to watch since his disastrous All-Star Weekend. Hopefully Green is able to close out this season on a strong note.
With all that being said, let’s take a look at the full Rookie Ladder Rankings with only three weeks left to go in the regular season.