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Despite the popular belief that Dallas Mavericks stud Luka Doncic will run away with this season's Rookie of the Year Award, Atlanta Hawks rookie point guard Trae Young refuses to count himself out of the race just yet.
Speaking to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, Young explained why he believes that he still has a shot of upsetting Doncic for this season's ROY honor:
“I want to be the best rookie in my class – this year and beyond,” stated Young. “Of course I want to win it, and I still think there’s a chance. Luka has had a tremendous year. He’s played well all year and done a lot of tremendous things, and I’m really pulling for him because I want our rookie class to look good. But I think I’ve had a pretty good year as well. And with the way I’ve been playing lately, I think if I continue to play this way, there’s definitely a chance that I’ll win it. Both of our teams are sitting in 12th or 13th in our conference, so it’s not like making the playoffs or winning is going to be a [deciding] factor, but I obviously want to win games as well. We’ll see.”
Young has a valid argument here. Over the past month, Young has been averaging a highly impressive 24.8 points (on 42.1 percent shooting), 3.0 3-pointers, 4.7 rebounds, 9.5 assists, and 0.8 steals per contest. Young would have been a shoe-in for the ROY award in most other seasons, but given how Doncic has been having a truly remarkable year, the Mavs rookie is still widely regarded as the favorite to take home the award at the end of the season.
Nevertheless, as Young said, what is abundantly clear is that this is definitely one of the most talented rookie classes we've come across in a long time.
