Dallas Mavericks forward Luka Doncic was considered a runaway favorite to the 2019 NBA Rookie of the Year award earlier in the season. However, Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young is making a strong case for himself with his performance since the All-Star break.
Young has already earned the support of several players like Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma, and Detroit Pistons superstar Blake Griffin. Mitchell, Kuzma, and Griffin expressed their support to Young via a Twitter thread, as reported by Dan Favale of Bleacher Report.
Brad Townsend of Dallas Morning News asked Doncic about the support Young is getting from fellow players about the Rookie of the Year race. The Mavs rising star admitted that he is aware of it, but the 20-year-old forward insisted that he is not interested in the debate for the coveted award for rookies.
“I have, but as soon as I see that on Twitter, I just close it,” Doncic said when asked by Townsend if he has seen the recent social media push for the Hawks guard. “For me, the Rookie of the Year of course is important, but there's a lot more things going on. It's a long season here in the NBA. A lot of talking about that, and I'm just not interested in it.”
In terms of statistics, Luka Doncic is still ahead of Young despite the latter's improvement in the last two months. The Mavs rookie sensation is averaging 21.0 points to go along with 7.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game this season. Young, on the other hand, is tallying 18.7 points on top of 7.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game.
Both teams failed to make the playoffs, and their current records are almost identical – 27-48 for Atlanta and 29-45 for Dallas. It would be interesting to watch out how the Rookie of the Year balloting will wind up after the 2018-19 NBA regular season.
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