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Former Oregon Ducks guard Chris Duarte may not be playing quite as well as he did at the beginning of his rookie season with the Indiana Pacers – but his most recent performances are nothing to shake your head at either.
Over his previous six games, Duarte averaged 16.7 points, five rebounds, and 3.3 assists. He tied a career-high with 27 points in a huge win over the Golden State Warriors, and has now scored in 11 of his past 13 games.
The strong showing over the past few weeks has him back in the Rookie of the Year conversation, and squarely back in the Rookie Power Rankings – done every week by the fine folks over at USA TODAY’s Rookie Wire:
Rookie Wire takes a look at the top first-year players over the last two weeks of the 2021-22 season. https://t.co/spidfd4Eie
— Rookie Wire (@RookieWire) January 26, 2022
The latest power rankings have Duarte fourth, one spot ahead of No. 5 pick Jalen Suggs and only trailing Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, and Franz Wagner.
While the power rankings are intended to be the picture of a players’ current performance, Duarte’s overall body of work this year at least has him in the conversation for Rookie of the Year.
He is now averaging 13.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game for Indiana, helping the team in a big way early in the year when they were without veteran guard Caris LeVert.
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