The Battle at the Top: Stephon Castle and Jaylen Wells Shine on the Kia Rookie Ladder

Two conferences, over four months, and eight deserving winners. The NBA's monthly rookie awards showcase the incredible depth of talent in the league, with a diverse group of first-year players proving themselves on the court. Whether you see the cup as half-full or half-empty, one thing is clear - the future of the NBA is bright with these rising stars.

If you’re a half-empty soul, you’ll probably focus on the fact that none of the new guys has asserted himself enough to even win the award twice.

Last season, four rookies – Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and San Antonio’s Victor

Wembanyama

– all were repeat winners and divvied up all 10 honors across the 2023-24 season.

This year, eight different winners have popped up and then dipped down like some Whack-A-Rookie arcade game.

The East winner for February was Atlanta’s

Zaccharie

Risacher

, the No. 1 overall pick. The honor comes after Philadelphia’s Jared McCain, Washington’s Alex

Sarr

and Miami’s

Kel’el

Ware had snagged it previously.

Utah’s Isaiah Collier was best in the West,

on the heels of Jaylen Wells, Yves

Missi

and Stephon Castle earning the first three awards.

Here is the latest edition of the Kia Rookie Ladder, with its ever-fluid rankings of the Class of 2024:

Weekly recap

Storyline to watch

Five weeks to go.

The battle at the top of the Ladder, and thus for Rookie of the Year supremacy,

will demand fans’ attention – at least in San Antonio and Memphis, anyway. Stephon Castle and Jaylen Wells could just as easily be listed as 1 and 1A, and in either order, with a bit more than a month remaining. One edge for Castle to this point: He ranks No. 1 in usage (24.2%) among all rookies who have appeared in at least 30 games, his role with the Spurs asking a far amount from him. Wells currently is 14

th

(

16.0%), starting but filling a more narrowly defined role for the Grizzlies.

Latest ranking

(All stats through

Tuesday

,

March 4

)

1

. Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs

Season stats

: 1

3.2

ppg,

3.1

rpg

, 3.

5

apg

Last Ladder

:

1

Draft pick

: No. 4

Castle shook off his

Pelicans slump by scoring 95 points with 12 boards and 21 assists in his past four games. That includes 32 against OKC’s defense, Castle’s second 30+ scoring night in five weeks. He shot 50% (37 of 74) in the hot stretch, too.

2

. Jaylen Wells

, Memphis Grizzlies

Season stats

: 11.4 ppg, 3.2

rpg

, 1.

7

apg

Last Ladder

2

Draft pick

Mr. Consistency of the Class of 2024 keeps plugging along, scoring in double figures in six of his past eight games. His most obvious edges over Castle as the ROY chase continues: Wells is

starting

and his team is winning, though that’s not traditionally given much weight in evaluating rookies.  

3

. Zach

Edey

, Memphis Grizzlies

Season stats

: 9.

4

ppg, 7.

7

rpg

, 1.2

bpg

Last Ladder

3

Draft pick

The big guy has impact at both

ends but

has found himself to be a situational player at times. Losing games has limited his court time –

Edey

ranks 20

th

in total fourth-quarter minutes among rookies, and his defensive efficiency soars to 117.3 (109.6 overall).

4.

Kel’el

Ware, Miami Heat

Season stats

: 8.

7

ppg, 6.

4

rpg

, 1.

1

bpg

Last Ladder

4

Draft pick

Ware had been in an alternating single-double mode, switching from 10+ points to 10+ rebounds in four straight games. He was listed out (knee) to face Cleveland Wednesday.

5

.

Zaccharie

Risacher

, Atlanta Hawks

Season stats

: 11.6 ppg, 3.6

rpg

, 1.3

apg

Last Ladder

Draft pick

The top pick in June pops back into the Top 5 with his award as the East’s best rookie in February. And that doesn’t even include the 27 points he dropped on Memphis Monday, shooting 11-of-13 in the Hawks’ narrow victory.

The Next 5

6

. Isaiah Collier, Utah Jazz  

Season stats:

7.

2

ppg, 3.1

rpg

, 6.

1

apg

Last Ladder:

7

Draft pick:

No. 29

Collier’s 123 assists in February were not only the most by a rookie in a single month since Minnesota’s Pooh Richardson in March 1990, as dug up by The Athletic. His turnovers dropped from 49 in January to 44 even as his usage ticked up.

7

.

Yves

Missi

, New Orleans Pelicans

Season stats

: 8.6 ppg, 8.1

rpg

, 1.4

bpg

Last Ladder

Draft pick

Playing alongside Kelly Olynyk in a two-big lineup has meant some adjusting.

Missi

has grabbed just 14 rebounds in his past three games.

8. Bub Carrington, Washington Wizards

Tops all rookies in court time (29.4 mpg) and ranks second in assists, with 13 games so far in which he’s had 5+ assists with one or fewer turnovers.

Season stats

: 9.

2

ppg,

4.0

rpg

,

4.0

apg

Last Ladder

8

Draft pick

9

. Alex

Sarr

, Washington Wizards

Season stats

: 11.

6

ppg, 6.

5

rpg

, 1.5 b

pg

Last Ladder

9

Draft pick

Momentum has fizzled as the East’s top rookie in January has played in just four games since due to injury.

10.

Kyle

Filipowski

, Utah Jazz

Season stats: 7.6 ppg, 5.2

rpg

, 2.0

apg

Last Ladder: Not ranked

Draft pick: No. 32

Edged out Portland’s Donovan

Clingan

with his best week yet (14.8 ppg, 8.3

rpg

, 3.3

apg

, 50% FG), though he lugged a minus-20 in Jazz’s 1-3 week.

* * *

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

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