20 NBA rookies who caught my eye this season

Paolo Banchero caught my eye because of his Jayson Tatum-type trajectory.  It took all of one game for Paolo Banchero to catch the eye of the entire NBA with a 27-point, nine-rebound, five-assist game in which he looked like a veteran in terms of his physicality and poise. It was clear from that moment that Orlando had not only made the right draft choice (recall they were expected to take Jabari Smith Jr. or possibly Chet Holmgrem until moments before the draft), but they had landed a franchise cornerstone. His combination of size (6-foot-10, 250 pounds), scoring (19.9 PPG) and playmaking (3.6 APG) project a future All-NBA player.

Bennedict Mathurin caught my eye because he is the prototype for an All Star shooting guard.  Bennedict Mathurin came out of the gates blazing hot through his first 11 career NBA games, averaging 20.4 PPG on 46-44-85 shooting. If it weren't for Banchero, he'd be the Rookie of the Year frontrunner and still has an outside shot at taking home Sixth Man of the Year honors. Mathurin has great size for a two-guard (6-foot-6), good athleticism, and plays his tail off - he could develop into anything from JR Smith to Ray Allen, especially considering he'll be playing next to one of the best point guards in the league (Tyrese Haliburton) for the foreseeable future. 

Shaedon Sharpe caught my eye because of his Vince Carter-esque gravity-defying dunks. If eye-catching ability could be quantified into a statistic, then Shaedon Sharpe would lead the league in that category. The way this kid can levitate is otherworldly. Although the rest of his game remains very raw and his stats do not exactly jump off the page the same way his dunks do (7.9 PPG on 47.9 percent shooting), just keep in mind that he's only 19 years old and didn't even play college basketball last season, so he's still figuring things out. The sky is literally the limit for Sharpe.

Walker Kessler caught my eye because he's already impacting games the same way Rudy Gobert did for the Jazz.  Minnesota T'Wolves fans may want to skip ahead to the next slide...because Walker Kessler, the big man the T'Wolves selected with the 22nd pick last June, and just one of the five first round draft picks that were dealt for Rudy Gobert this offseason, is already almost as impactful as Gobert. While Gobert has higher per game averages, he plays about 10 more minutes a game than Kessler. The two have almost identical per-36 averages in points, rebounds and Kessler averages 3.5 blocks per-36 compared to Gobert's 1.5 blocks per-36. And the two have a similar positive on/off court impact for their respective teams as well. Kessler is a centerpiece of the future for Utah and should only get better considering he's only 21 years old. 

Jalen Williams caught my eye because of his GoGo Gadget wingspan and feel for the game . As the national audience learned the night that LeBron James set the scoring record, the OKC Thunder have two rookies - Jalen Williams (aka "J-Dub") and Jaylin Williams (aka "J-Will") - with the same exact name. Jalen is the better of the two, as seen by his 25-point, 7-rebound, 6-steal performance in the national spotlight against the listless Lakers. In addition to his feel for the game and versatility, the 6-foot-6 wing has a massive 7-foot-2 wingspan and projects to be an elite player with a Mikal Bridges or OG Anunoby caliber ceiling.

Jaden Ivey caught my eye because there aren't many 6-foot-4, 195-pound guards with elite athleticism on this planet.  When the season is over, we're going to look back at the rookie class and have no idea what to make of Ivey. On one hand, he's going to have some impressive traditional statistics for a rookie guard - 15.2 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 4.6 APG in 30.1 MPG. On the other hand, once Cade Cunningham got injured for the season, the Pistons' season was over and he's basically been given carte blanche to do whatever he pleases on the offensive end, which has predictably led to uneven results (for example, his net on/off rating is negative-11.0). Ivey's size, athleticism and pedigree are rare for a point guard, so I'd still expect him to end up being closer to Jrue Holiday than Kris Dunn, but we're most likely not going to get a good understanding of his ceiling until the Pistons are able to roll out a more competitive roster in the coming seasons.

Keegan Murray caught my eye because he was ready to contribute for a playoff team from the minute his NBA career began.  Remember when almost every NBA pundit was bashing the Kings for selecting Keegan Murray over Jaden Ivey on draft night? Not hearing much of that noise anymore, are we? That's because Murray has been everything Sacramento expected him to be - a ready-made, versatile forward who could contribute from day one. Murray's started 53 of 55 games he's played, plays 29.5 MPG, and averages 11.9 PPG with 41.5 percent shooting from three. He could very easily have a similar career to his veteran teammate, Harrison Barnes, and be a high-level role player for a decade in the NBA. 

Jeremy Sochan caught my eye because everything he does - good, bad and otherwise - jumps off the screen. He's the inverse of most modern-NBA players in that his entire game flows from his hustle. Yes, he's a great athlete and has some creativity with the ball in his hands, but the thing that makes him stand out is that he simply plays harder than almost everyone else on the court...kind of like Dennis Rodman, whom he pays homage to and has openly invited comparisons to with his colorful hair designs. While he's got a very long way to go before he's anywhere close to having the type of impact Rodman had on games (seriously, go look at The Worm's rebounding numbers during his prime), I really like how Sochan, who struggle mightily at the free throw line at Baylor (sub-60 percent), has fully embraced the unorthodox one-handed free throw and has shot nearly 80 percent since adopting the new stroke. 

Jalen Duren caught my eye because he is an absolute man-child despite being the youngest player in the NBA. He's a 6-foot-10, 250-pound chiseled Adonis whose body reminds you of a young Dwight Howard. While he isn't the surefire Hall of Fame-level prospect Howard was, the Pistons have to be thrilled with Duren's progress thus far, as he's averaging 8.6 PPG and 8.7 RPG with a solid 16.8 Player Efficiency Rating.

Jabari Smith Jr. caught my eye because, despite being in a terrible situation for his basketball development, he really, really cares. There was clip of the Rockets bench that went viral earlier this season because it captured a heated argument between Smith and Jalen Green while veteran Eric Gordon stared into the abyss. I filed that clip away in my head because you usually don't see a rookie in one of his first NBA games standing up to the franchise player like Smith was with Green - that showed me that, no matter how Smith's career plays out, he is the type of player you want on your team. And while his rookie season has been fairly rocky (12 PPG, 7 RPG on 39-30-79 shooting splits (yuck!)), he's flashed enough two-way ability that the Rockets should feel comfortable having him as a building block moving forward.

Andrew Nembhard caught my eye because he took down LeBron James and out-dueled the Splash Brothers on the same road trip.  One way to stand out as a rookie is to bury a game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat the LA Lakers at the start of a West Coast trip, then light up Steph Curry & Co. with 31 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds in a win over the Warriors at the end of the road trip. And that's exactly what Nembhard, the 31st overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, did earlier this season. No one outside Indiana was expecting much from the Gonzaga alumni going into this season, but he's played well enough to garner some second-team All-Rookie consideration.

Tari Eason caught my eye because he's already a "winning" player. Granted, because the Rockets are the worst team in the NBA, the team still loses when he's on the court, but when he's off the court, the Rockets are much, much worse. In fact, Eason has an impressive plus-6.7 net on-off rating, which is unheard of as a rookie. He averaging just under 9 PPG and 6 RPG while shooting nearly 35 percent from three. Assuming he improves his shooting efficiency, he'll be an impactful three-and-D wing for years to come.

AJ Griffin caught my eye because he became the first rookie since 1993-94 (Toni Kukoc) to have multiple game-winning shots as a rookie. The first, which came against the Raptors, was a nice alley-oop layup on a great pass from half-court by Trae Young. The second, which came less than a month later against the Bulls, was an incredibly athletic cut, catch and spinning alley-oop layup off an inbound pass. Besides the clutch play, Griffin has had a solid rookie campaign, averaging 9.3 PPG on 48-39-87 shooting in 55 games.

Mark Williams caught my eye because he's huge, even by NBA standards, and he projects to be a perfect lob threat for LaMelo Ball.  Williams stands 7-foot-1 and has an enormous 7-foot-7 wingspan. After essentially not playing at all for the first 33 games of the year, Williams burst onto the scene in late December with some impressive rim-running and rim-protecting. He spent most of that time behind the recently traded Mason Plumlee, so it'll be interesting to see whether he can come close to replicating his excellent per-36 numbers (17.2 PPG, 12.7 RPG and 2.7 BPG on 64.6 percent shooting) with extended playing time the rest of the season.

Malaki Branham caught my eye because he appears to be making a second-half leap similar to the one he made in his sole season at Ohio State. While it's difficult to project young players on tanking teams, Branham has really taken off since February. In those eight games, he's averaging 18.1 PPG on 52-41-71 shooting splits and in 32.6 MPG - marked improvement compared to the 7.1 PPG on 41-28-81 shooting in 19.7 MPG he was averaging through his first 37 career games. At 6-foot-5, he'll need to continue to improve on his playmaking and decision-making if he's going to be a start-level wing in the NBA, but he's on the right track as of late.

Jaden Hardy caught my eye because it took him only half a season to wipe away the memory of the underwhelming G-League season that cause his stock to plummet in the Draft. Ranked as high as the second player in the 2021 high school recruiting class, Hardy was supposed to go tear up the G-League for a season, then be a lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned in the G-League and Hardy was an inefficiency mess, then slipped to no. 37 in the Draft. Instead of letting that failure define him, Hardy worked on his game, excelled Dallas' G-League system and has been a nice spark plug for the Mavericks when they've given him big minutes, scoring at least 15 points in four of the six games where he played at least 20 minutes (with a high of 29 points).

Dyson Daniels caught my eye because he's already a good defender as a 19-year-old. At a rangy 6-foot-8, Daniels is the perfect blend of size and athleticism to guard the NBA's most dangerous offensive players and was frequently being tasked with marking other team's top players before an ankle injury knocked him out in late January. Daniels is more of a pass-first connector on offense and has a long way to go in terms of shooting. That being said, the Pelicans have one of the deeper rosters in the league, so the fact that he was playing 20 MPG before his injury is a testament to how good he already is on defense.

MarJon Beauchamp caught my eye because he was more NBA-ready than I ever expected him to be. After bouncing around multiple high schools, junior college and the NBA G-League, Beauchamp was a late riser in last year's NBA Draft, where he was selected with the 24th pick by the Bucks. Everything about his past screamed "project". Yet, he's appeared in nearly 40 games thus far this season, and even started in nine, including an impressive 20-point, 8-rebound game against the Hawks in November. 

Christian Braun caught my eye because he fits in perfectly with a Finals contender's rotation.  Anyone who watched Braun during Kansas' national title run last season saw a prototypical NBA three-and-D wing, so it came as no surprise when the Nuggets selected him in the middle of the first round. And while the Nuggets are a deep team with plenty of wing options, Braun performs adequately in his role when called upon - he shoots the ball well (49.5 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three), has a sense when to cut for Nikola Jokic. He defends well enough to play 15-plus minutes every night for one of the league's top teams.

With apologies to a couple of other more impactful rookies like Jaylin Williams, we're going to have a little fun with this one. David Roddy caught my eye because he looks like he should be a pulling guard in the NFL . Known as "Big Body Roddy," the Colorado State product stands out mostly in appearance at this point in his career than in production (6.3 PPG on 42-29-63 shooting). However, he's got an intriguing offensive arsenal and plays more like a two-guard than a power forward - Memphis could be grooming him to replace Dillon Brooks should he leave in free agency this summer.