For the third straight year, the Detroit Pistons will have at least one player, and maybe more, on the All-Rookie team.
Both Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren have shown signs of big potential this season and look to be part of a trio the Pistons will build around when Cade Cunningham comes back next season.
They’ve been mainstays on the KIA Rookie Ladder and neither has fallen out of the top-10 since very early in the season, and Ivey has risen has high as second in the weekly rankings.
But there are still games left to play and there could be more shuffling, as some rookies continue to rack up big stats on bad teams and others make contributions on teams fighting to get into the playoffs or to get a better seed.
This could make things tough for voters.
Detroit Pistons: Choosing the All-Rookie teams
Traditionally, most of the top rookies end up on bad teams, but that hasn’t been the case over the last few seasons. Last year we saw both Scottie Barnes and Evan Mobley help their teams make the leap in the standings, and they were rewarded with the top-2 spots in the Rookie of the Year voting over Cade Cunningham, who arguably put up better stats but on a terrible team.
Paolo Banchero is pretty much a lock for Rookie of the Year, but beyond that, it will be interesting to see if voters reward some of the players who are on better teams over those that are getting their stats on bad ones.
I predict it will be a little of both, so here is my early prediction for the first and second All-Rookie teams.