The MVP race this season likely won’t be anywhere near as divisive as last year’s incredible four-way battle between eventual winner Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and even LeBron James.
Harden, barring disaster, appears to have that award all but sewn up thanks to the Cavs’ disastrous month of January severely hurting LeBron’s case. This year, the race to watch will be in the Rookie of the Year voting, as there are two clear frontrunners emerging as the All-Star break nears.
Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell are the clear cream of this year’s crop, with the Sixers and Jazz both employing two budding stars in the league. Simmons has been on top of the proverbial rookie ladder for the entire year, averaging 16.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, but amid the Jazz’ recent hot streak, Mitchell has closed that gap. Mitchell is averaging 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game on the season as the leading scorer on a Utah team that was desperately in need of that kind of punch off the wing in the absence of Gordon Hayward.
Both Simmons and Mitchell have the benefit of great big men next to them and both are on teams fighting for an above .500 record and a playoff spot. This makes it hard to split hairs, and it will inevitably lead to plenty of debate and argument over who is more deserving of the award. On Monday night, Mitchell’s case got some serious support in the form of a pair of All-Stars on Instagram, as DeMarcus Cousins and DeMar DeRozan commented on a post that he is definitely the Rookie of the Year.
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 13, 2018
Simmons will surely have some support from other stars, but it certainly shows how other stars around the league are taking notice of what Mitchell is doing. The one thing that I hope we can do as basketball fans, which seemingly rarely happens, is discuss their Rookie of the Year campaigns and debate who has been better while also appreciating how incredible both have been in their first season in the NBA. So often these debated devolve into people trying to take slights at the other, and in this case both have valid cases and have been legitimately incredible.
