Summer league is over, and Lonzo Ball is still the favorite for Rookie of the Year. The pass-first Lakers guard has a 28.6 percent chance of winning the award, according to Bovada, the same odds he had on draft night. There have been some notable changes in the rankings, though, so here's a look at where things stand along with projections from SportsLine:
June 23 | Current | Odds% | Fantasy projection | FP rank | MIN | PTS | REB | AST | FG% | 3PT | 3PT% | STL | BLK | TO | |
Lonzo Ball | 5/2 | 5/2 | 28.6% | 33.8 | 1 | 34 | 14.4 | 3.9 | 8.2 | 44.6% | 1.5 | 35.4% | 1.5 | 0.2 | 2.6 |
Dennis Smith | 16/1 | 3/1 | 25.0% | 28.1 | 4 | 31 | 13.8 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 43.3% | 1.8 | 35.9% | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.7 |
Ben Simmons | 3/1 | 7/2 | 22.2% | 32.0 | 2 | 34 | 12.0 | 7.3 | 6.3 | 49.5% | 0.6 | 34.1% | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
Jayson Tatum | 9/1 | 5/1 | 16.7% | 16.0 | 10 | 20 | 10.3 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 45.8% | 1.7 | 39.3% | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
Markelle Fultz | 5/1 | 9/1 | 10.0% | 29.6 | 3 | 32 | 15.4 | 4.0 | 5.5 | 43.1% | 2.2 | 36.0% | 1.5 | 0.3 | 2.5 |
De'Aaron Fox | 7/1 | 9/1 | 10.0% | 24.1 | 5 | 27 | 10.4 | 3.1 | 5.3 | 43.9% | 0.6 | 32.5% | 1.6 | 0.2 | 1.8 |
Josh Jackson | 9/1 | 16/1 | 5.9% | 20.3 | 6 | 29 | 9.6 | 6.7 | 1.5 | 48.2% | 0.4 | 31.4% | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.4 |
Malik Monk | 16/1 | 16/1 | 5.9% | 17.8 | 8 | 24 | 10.6 | 1.6 | 3.0 | 42.5% | 1.4 | 36.1% | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 |
John Collins | 20/1 | OFF | --- | 18.0 | 7 | 24 | 9.0 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 47.4% | 0.6 | 33.9% | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
Jonathan Isaac | 16/1 | 33/1 | 2.9% | 17.6 | 9 | 24 | 9.3 | 4.6 | 1.4 | 46.8% | 0.6 | 32.8% | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.9 |
Lauri Markkanen | 22/1 | 33/1 | 2.9% | 12.6 | 11 | 20 | 8.0 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 42.7% | 0.9 | 35.3% | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.6 |
Justin Jackson | 22/1 | 33/1 | 2.9% | 5.9 | 12 | 13 | 4.2 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 42.7% | 0.4 | 32.7% | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
Notes:
- Ball was the biggest attraction in Las Vegas despite shooting 8 of 42 (19 percent) on jump shots, as CBS Sports' Matt Moore pointed out. The oddsmakers don't appear too worried about his form, and neither did the media in Vegas: He was named Most Valuable Player on Monday. If his almost-unparallelled vision translates to the NBA as well as it did to summer league, then he'll put up big assist numbers and help Lakers coach Luke Walton establish a system based on unselfishness, pace and ball movement.
- Smith made the biggest jump, and he was arguably the most impressive rookie at summer league. No one could match his athleticism, and his averages of 17.3 points and 4.2 assists in Vegas don't quite capture how easy it was for him to get in the paint and make plays. He's going to have the ball in his hands all the time in Dallas, and you can make the case he should actually be ahead of Ball in these rankings. If Smith outperforms his SportsLine projections offensively, it will be because the Mavericks will provide him with spacing and perfect pick-and-roll partners, which he did not have at NC State.
- It's funny that Simmons' odds took a hit while he did absolutely nothing. The 76ers held him out of summer league, so everybody has to wait and see how much (if at all) his shooting has improved after missing what was supposed to be his rookie season. Simmons looks significantly stronger now, so he'll have an advantage over the guys from the 2017 draft class. The question for both him and Fultz, though, is how the two of them will share playmaking responsibilities. Fultz played just three summer league games split between Utah and Vegas, but showed an ability to get wherever he wanted on the floor.
- Tatum is still an underdog for ROY, and that's mostly because of where he was drafted. If he was on a rebuilding team, there would be buzz about his ability to create his own shot at will. As polished as he is as a scorer, though, it's unclear how many minutes will be available for him and what his role will be for the Celtics. Are they going to use him as a go-to guy when he comes in off the bench? If not, can he help the team in other ways without scoring? In Vegas, Tatum averaged 17.7 points and 8.0 rebounds but only managed three total assists in three games.
