Not because of Oden, though. See, for example, http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=thorpe_david&page=Rookies-081202 A certain player is the starter on a 13-6 team. He has the 13th highest PER of all rookies.... but he's not in the top 20 The Blazers are starting to get respect, but Batum isn't.
It's probably because he plays so few minutes at 16 per game. In any case, it's his on court contributions I care about. ESPN is hardly the be all end all sports authority.
I agree. Batum's value doesn't always transfer to the stat sheet, and there are several rookies who are making an impact, including starting, on their team. I don't know if I'd have him in the top 10 due to his minutes played, but I think he deserves to be above a bunch of the players listed 10-20. For example, outside of those two games where he blew up, Anthony Morrow has done nothing.
nba.com doesn't put him in top 20 either: http://www.nba.com/rookies/ In fact, not only is he not in the top 20, he's not even "noteworthy".
All things considered, he has done better than we had any right to expect......but let's stay real. He is playing limited minutes and isn't even the top rookie on his own team!
He's definitely been a pleasant surprise, one that makes me think just by watching him that he's the glue guy at the 3 for us in the future. Hell, he's in the starting lineup and he might not even end up being the first or second best rookie on this team.
When all is said and done (in terms of career), Batum may have been a very good NBA player and not even the third-best of the team's rookie crop. Of course, that depends on what Bayless does, and he's quite an unknown quantity. It just goes to show what an amazing rookie crop this team has.
To be fair, as good as this rookie crop is, it's really two years in one. We got GO and Rudy last year and Jerryd and Nico this year. Still, it will be looked at as one of the greatest rookie hauls ever.
