Luka Doncic and Trae Young. Trae Young and Luka Doncic. If you've tuned into NBA League Pass at all during the 2018-19 season, odds are you have those two 1-2 in your personal NBA Rookie of the Year voting ballot in some capacity.
The two dazzling rookie guards have become households names not a full year into their first NBA season, and some of that may have to do with the fact that their respective franchises thought that their man was better than the other, as a draft night trade confirms.
Sure, you know Young as the Hawks' lightning fast point guard and Doncic as the Mavericks' dazzling scoring machine, but it was Atlanta that selected Doncic with the third pick and Dallas who grabbed Young with the fifth pick. Then, they swapped spots. Now, with just weeks remaining in the regular season, the race to the Rookie of the Year Award is officially on.
The two have essentially been dueling it out since Opening Night back in October, but from what has seemingly been Day 1, Doncic has had the inside track on winning the honor. As it stands, he very well may. But to say that it will be unanimous, or that Young hasn't significantly closed the gap as of late, would be a failure to give the Hawks' 20-year-old wunderkind his due.
Since traditional statistics remain in vogue, let's take a quick look at the Tale of the Tape, entering play on March 27:
Luka Doncic: 21.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 5.9 APG, 42.6 FG%, 32.7 3P%, 69 GS, 19.5 PER, 22 double-doubles
Trae Young: 18.9 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 7.9 APG, 41.9 FG%, 33.7 3P%, 75 GS, 16.6 PER, 24 double-doubles
The discrepancy isn't all that wide, even if public perception seems to be so. This doesn't go without reason: Young shot 35.5 percent overall, including 19.8 percent from behind the arc, through 16 November contests. In that same span, he turned the ball over 67 times. The Hawks' rookie was learning nuances of the league, while also scuffling through an early season slog in which the Hawks opened the year with a 3-16 mark.
To doubt that Doncic got off to the better start would be disputing reality. As a means of arbitrary date selection, as of Dec. 14, Young had played in 28 games and was shooting 37.7 percent overall and 23.7 percent from deep, while firing up nearly six triples per game. Doncic through 28 games was averaging 18.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest, shooting 43.1 percent overall and 35.7 percent from long range, while attempting six triples per game.
Then came the All-Star break. The two were peppered with questions during NBA All-Star weekend about the other and how they viewed the fact that the league was captivated by their seemingly parallel starts. Neither earned NBA All-Star honors, but they did appear during the Skills Challenge, hungry to put their arsenals on display. Young lost in the finals to Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics on a heave, but the switch had been flipped.
In 17 games since returning for the unofficial “second half” of the season, Young has averaged 25.8 points, 9.0 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game. He has shot 45.4 percent from the floor, 40.5 from behind the arc and the Hawks have gone 8-9. Young has nine of his 24 double-doubles in this small sample size; he has reeled off four consecutive points/assists double-doubles through play on March 26.
Meanwhile, Doncic certainly hasn't been basking in a victory lap, but there have been red lights amidst a season of nothing but green. He has posted similarly gaudy stat lines since returning from the All-Star break — 22.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 7.0 assists per game — but has shot 41.4 percent, including 25.2 from three, including 21.5 percent in March. He is undoubtedly carrying the load for Dallas (with injuries keeping him out on occasion), but Young has been doing the exact same in Atlanta.
To assume that public perception doesn't play a role in voting would be tomfoolery, but what might be even more confounding is why the voting was essentially deemed over by February. Trae Young has come on as one of the league's premier players, let alone rookies, which has vaulted him right back into the conversation. Atlanta has seven games left; Dallas eight. Despite the feeling that the race has been long over, the NBA's two rookie thoroughbreds are due for a photo finish.
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