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No one is escaping with the NBA’s rookie race, which is a change of most of the years

By Tim Reynolds Ap Basketball writer

At this point, there is no Victor Wembanyama in the NBA rookie class of this season. There is no Paolo Banchero. And there is no Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Karl-Anthony Towns, Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Blake Griffin, Brandon Roy, Derrick Rose or Chris Paul, either.

They were all unanimous, or almost unanimous, rookie selections of the year. Everyone knew long before the ballots were broadcast that were going to win the award that season. There was no mystery.

If this season’s vote was celebrated today, good luck discovering what would happen.

No rookie has become the leader of this year’s class. There is not a single first -year player in rhythm to average 15 points and appear in sufficient games to qualify for the league classification table; The last time it happened was 2016-17. And at this time, according to Betmgm Sportsbook, the favorite to win the rookie of the year is someone who has started four games throughout the season, all of them in the last week more or less: Kel’el Ware of Miami.

“It means I’m doing something well on the court,” Ware said.

He is not mistaken, but he also talks about how nobody in this group of newbies has not gone to the front of the class either.

Here were the current leaders in terms of rookie probabilities of the year, according to Betmgm, starting Monday night: Ware (+200) heads the list, the Stephon Castle of San Antonio (+275) is second, and Jaylen Wells of Memphis and Washington’s Alexandre Sarr (both +350) are tied thirdly.

Grizzlies Center Zach Edey (+1400) is fifth. After that, everyone is at least 40-1 at this time.

If Castle wins, the Spurs would have done something that has been handled only once in the last half century, with consecutive rookies of the year. It happened in 2015 and 2016 when Andrew Wiggins and Towns won for Minnesota.

“He really has the opportunity to be special,” Paul said on Castle, his Spurs teammate.

Ware is clearly developing as the season progresses. The Indiana center did not have its first double figure score game for the Heat until January 1. He had three consecutive 20-point games last week for Miami, the thrust that uploaded him to the favorite place in Betmgm Borda’s rookie, and now it looks like a lock that goes to the All-Star Weekend in San Francisco for the Rising Stars games ( and potentially the game of stars itself, if your team Rising Stars wins).

Everything happened very quickly for Ware. A couple of weeks ago, it didn’t even seem like a legitimate rookie candidate of the year, much less the favorite.

“You believe it or not, it has been ready since it came here,” said Heat Tyler Herro teammate. “When I was not in rotation, I was too communicative about how he wants to be in the rotation and how he feels he can help. I always felt that I could help. And now, he only has his chance, I think everyone begins to see what he is capable of. “

At least, there could be a true rookie race of the year when it is time to vote in April. There have been very few of those in the last two decades, with most winners in that period obtaining 90% or more of the votes of the first place.

A rare exception was in 2022, when Scottie Barnes de Toronto won by obtaining 48 first votes at the 43 of Evan Mobley. All other winners in the last 20 years have obtained at least 60% of the votes in the first place; The last “closed” real race was for the 2002 award, when Amar’e Stoudemire obtained 59 votes in the first place, just 50%. Yao Ming obtained 45 that year and Caron Butler obtained 13.

No one is dominant in this class yet. That could make the awards season very interesting.

Associated Press contributed to this article