Rookie Wire takes a look at the top first-year players from the opening two weeks of the 2020-21 season.
With the 2020-21 season now two weeks old, fans have had a chance to see the stars of the NBA take the floor in what projects to be the most unique year to date.
Of course, the start of the season also gave the basketball world its first look at the incoming rookie class of players. The group has already had its fair share of strong performances to this point with most players having appeared in at least a handful of games.
Rookie Wire will keep an eye on the class on a bi-weekly basis to keep track of the top first-year players and how they performed on the court. The rankings are not for Rookie of the Year purposes but, rather, to illustrate the hottest players week to week.
Rookie Wire decided to put on our thinking caps and predict the future so we made 10 bold predictions for the 2020-21 rookie class.
The 2020-21 NBA season officially tipped off this week with each team hitting the court to much fanfare following a historic, shortened training camp period.
With a new season upon us, there is a new opportunity for teams and players to leave their mark in the league. Organizations made plenty of changes during the offseason in preparation for what projects to be a challenging season ahead.
The incoming class of rookies look to make the most of a difficult transition to the NBA given the circumstances. The players have put forth some strong performances thus far during the preseason and look to continue that momentum into the regular season.
Rookie Wire decided to put on our thinking caps and predict the future. We made 10 bold predictions for the upcoming season for the rookie class and offer up an opinion on what we might see. To make this exercise fun, we will come back at the end of the season and see how we did.
The two Magic players had perhaps the highlight of the game after Anthony found Gordon on an alley-oop in the fourth quarter.
On Wednesday, the Orlando Magic picked up a 113-107 win over the Miami Heat to open up the regular season. Evan Fournier scored a team-high 25 points to lead the Magic while Aaron Gordon chipped in 20 points and seven rebounds over the defending Eastern Conference champions.
The game also marked the official debut for Magic rookies Cole Anthony and Chuma Okeke. Anthony produced six points, a team-high six assists and two steals in 19 minutes off the bench while Okeke had three points, five rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of the contest occurred in the fourth quarter on a fastbreak situation with Anthony and Gordon. Anthony picked off a pass from the Heat, and immediately sprinted toward the other end of the floor and hit Gordon on the alley-oop pass.
Orlando outscored Miami by 10 points in the final period to pull out the win. The Magic forced the Heat into 22 turnovers, which resulted in 24 points, and also won the second-chance points and fastbreak points battle throughout the evening.
The Magic certainly picked up an impressive win on Wednesday but the outcome was merely one game in a long season and the team stressed afterward that they can’t get too high following the first win of the year.
Orlando returns to action on Saturday versus the Washington Wizards.
Gordon believes Anthony will continue to improve each game and he wants to see him in the conversation to win Rookie of the Year.
Cole Anthony enters his rookie season with the Orlando Magic not projected as a favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award but teammate Aaron Gordon certainly hopes he will be in the running this season.
Anthony is currently outside of the top 10 in terms of odds to win the award from various sportsbooks but a case can be made that the 15th overall pick was one of the top rookies during the preseason. He led all rookies in scoring and looked noticeably more comfortable each time he stepped onto the court.
The 20-year-old averaged 13.8 points, 3.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals in four appearances, while he shot 47.1% from 3-point range. The Magic know that, given the shortened training camp period, Anthony will continue to show improvement on a nightly basis and that could play a huge factor this season.
“I’ve always known Cole is talented, very skilled,” Gordon said on Friday. “I liked his poise. Obviously, he is his own worst critic. He is going to continue to get better and better the more minutes that he gets. He is a key factor to our success and, hopefully, he is in the running for Rookie of the Year.”
Magic head coach Steve Clifford has said that Anthony will play a key role with the team this season and his success may very well dictate how successful the team can be throughout the year. The experience will enable Anthony to continually grow on the court, something he has already done in a limited preseason run.
Given his projected role, Anthony may have a tremendous opportunity to be in the conversation to win Rookie of the Year. He wasn’t highly thought of in the annual NBA GM Survey and that could motivate him to perform even better this year.
Orlando kicks off the season on Wednesday vs. the Miami Heat.
“They’re literally being placed right in the middle of the fire. That learning curve is going to be very steep.”
Cassius Stanley has known this day was coming, and he’s long dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player. He just never expected it to happen in a year unlike any other. None of his fellow rookies foresaw it playing out like this.
Stanley, selected by the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the 2020 NBA draft, was a standout high school basketball player at the powerhouse Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles before playing a one-and-done season at Duke University. His path hasn’t always been clear, but he’s reached the place he wanted to be.
It’s just that, thanks to COVID-19, nothing feels normal. At all.
Yet Stanley, 21, said he’s feeling mostly settled as his pro career begins. He was still moving into a new apartment when he recently spoke with For The Win, but credited his teammates and the NBA’s virtual rookie transition program for helping him navigate a process that is inherently chaotic during a year in which every normal rhythm has been knocked off beat.
The rookie program put him at ease as he reconnected with old friends, teammates and opponents.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
“Everyone is going through the same thing,” said Stanley. “It was pretty cool to scroll and see who was on and everyone was active. We were all turning on our mics and asking questions and it was really good to see some of the guys that I knew in high school and in AAU and college. Now, seeing all of us together in the same program and going through the same thing as rookies, I think that calmed a lot of nerves.”
The rookie program is important every year, but making sure its lessons carried through virtually was of vital importance as the NBA worked toward starting a new season today. Greg Taylor, the NBA’s Senior Vice President for Player Development, leads a team responsible for helping players navigate life in the NBA — and professional basketball in general — off the court. Taylor knows that maintaining an elite basketball career, even without the strange circumstances of an ongoing global pandemic, is a stressful job.
He told For The Win that his department exists to give players the tool kit to help navigate this in a healthy manner, both mentally and physically.
“Our goal is to prepare them for what to expect as they enter the league and to just let them understand that we are here both to support them and also to provide them with resources,” explained Taylor. “There is no question or experience or challenge that they will have that we haven’t had a chance to understand and see over the years.”
The rookie transition program, which has existed in an official capacity since 1986, is the main event for Taylor’s team. What previously occurred over four August days in New Jersey was abridged this year via Zoom over two days at the beginning of December.
Taylor recognized that the program missed the fraternal bonding aspects that come with the in-person setting of previous years. But he said the league was able to open invitations to a wider group of rookies and, for the first time, include several undrafted free agents that have signed two-way deals in the programming as well.
During the sessions, incoming rookies heard from the NBPA’s Dr. Bill Parham and NBA Mind Health’s Dr. Kensa Gunter. The NBA and NBPA also had medical experts on hand to discuss COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Rookies also joined various peer-to-peer panels hosted by three-time NBA champion Dwyane Wade and current players in the league including Karl-Anthony Towns, Tobias Harris, Danillo Gallinari and Pat Connaughton.
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“With someone like Karl-Anthony Towns, he did a great job of relating because he was in our shoes just a few years ago. He went through some of the exact same things like EYBL, AAU, college,” said Stanley. “He made sure that we knew he was one of our guys, that he is definitely someone we should reach out to if we have any questions.”
Stanley, who averaged 7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 14.3 minutes over three preseason games, has also been able to forge strong relationships with Pacers teammates. He specifically mentioned Victor Oladipo, Malcolm Brogdon, Jeremy Lamb, TJ McConnell, Doug McDermott, Aaron Holiday and Justin Holiday as players who’ve guided him. That’s part of the rookie program: Young players are taught how to befriend veterans and lean on them for mentoring and insight.
Taylor described the engagement on the Zoom sessions as “phenomenal” and enjoyed listening to the rookies talk to the current players about topics including what to expect on and off the floor, how to take care of their bodies, the value of sleep and hydration and nutrition, how to navigate the rookie wall, how to get in good graces with coaches and how to reach out for help.
He highlighted Tyrese Haliburton, James Wiseman, Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Cole Anthony as those who took the time to ask very thoughtful questions.
Meanwhile, as these individuals receive significantly large paychecks for the first time in their lives and suddenly have to account for managing life-changing money, one of the primary goals of the rookie transition program is to help with financial literacy.
Purvis Short was selected with the No. 5 overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft and enjoyed twelve seasons in the league. He now serves as the NBPA’s Chief of Player Programming and told For The Win that players from his era struggled without the sort of programs the league now provides.
“We didn’t have financial education programs. We didn’t have a career development program,” said Short. “So a lot of us made a lot of mistakes, man.”
Purvis Short (Mike Powell/Getty Images)
These days, Short says that one of the reasons he still works with the players’ labor union is because he wishes that he had a better understanding of the expectations that an NBA player carries when he comes into the league.
He emphasized that he personally wants to help rookies learn how to conduct and carry themselves so as to best represent themselves as an individual and as a member of an NBA organization.
Short can pull from his firsthand experience to tell you that that success on the court has a lot to do with athletic talent, of course. But it is also about how well someone is able to adjust to a new environment, teammates, coaches and work habits.
Nothing will be able to fully prepare a rookie as they turn the page to this massive new chapter in their lives. The rookie transition program, however, will make it a little bit easier for players like Stanley who are up for the challenge.
“This year was particularly difficult,” Short said. “They’re literally being placed right in the middle of the fire. That learning curve is going to be very steep. But that’s why we’re here, to try to help them in whatever way we can and hopefully ease that transition.”
Even in a normal year, NBA preseason games can be misleading. But specific performances can show the progress of some developing players.
Even in a normal year, NBA preseason games can be misleading. But specific performances can show the progress of some developing players.
Small sample sizes can blur results and overreactions are not always wise, which is amplified even more by how strange this offseason has been. Similarly, anyone can get hot for one night, especially when playing in exhibition games. However, there are key moments that may be indicative of future successes.
Before the 2020-21 campaign tips off, we looked at some of the players around the league who seemed poised to have a potential breakout season based on what we saw during preseason action.
Magic rookie Cole Anthony led all rookies in scoring during the preseason while he also drained the most 3-pointers.
Cole Anthony admittedly described his first preseason performance with the Orlando Magic as terrible, but it didn’t take long for the 20-year-old to bounce back and turn things around.
Anthony closed out the preseason on Saturday by scoring 19 points to help the Magic to a 120-117 win over the Charlotte Hornets. He shot 7-of-15 from the field and had the go-ahead basket, a running floater, with 14.1 seconds left to seal the win.
Over his four preseason games, Anthony led all rookies in scoring (55 points) and made 3-pointers (8) while he was also tied with LaMelo Ball for the most assists (15) among first-year players. His 55 total points ranked 27th among all players.
The top five rookie scorers of the 2020-21 preseason:
Cole Anthony (55 points)
Isaac Okoro (45 points)
Patrick Williams (45 points)
Devin Vassell (41 points)
Desmond Bane (37 points)
Of course, leading the rookie class in scoring won’t earn Anthony any trophies but the strong start shows how much he has improved each game. Anthony knew it would take some time to adjust to the speed of the NBA and he looks much more comfortable than he did in his first game.
The Magic certainly have high expectations this season for Anthony. He projects to play a major role with the team and the confidence he has played with will go a long way as Orlando prepares to tip-off the regular season on Wednesday versus the Miami Heat.
Their paths clearly deviated during the middle years of high school but the two nearly crossed paths in 2018. SPIRE Institute’s original schedule prior to LaMelo Ball joining the program included a contest against Oak Hill and Anthony. However, fears of players on their roster losing eligibility led to Oak Hill pulling out of the match-up.
With Anthony attending UCLA last season and Ball venturing off to Illawarra, all parties had to wait until the NBA for them to meet. The preseason offered the opportunities for those contests and they lived up to the hype.
Following Thursday’s game, Anthony reflected on finally getting the chance to take on Ball on a basketball court (h/t RookieWire).
“That boy is good, he’s talented,” Anthony said. “People have been talking about us playing for years now, I’m just happy I finally got to match up with him. We weren’t the two headliners coming in but it was still fun to be able to get out there. That’s actually the first time we’ve met, too. We have been really cool and it has always been love on social media but that’s actually the first time in person so I mean it’s nothing but love for him. He’s super talented.”
Anthony and Ball will have plenty of opportunities to meet more in the coming months and years. As rivals in the Southeast division, the two teams will meet four times a year and provide fans will plenty of meetings to make up for the circling they did with one another in previous years.
Bamba took a friendly shot at his new teammate on Saturday as he addressed the media following practice.
Mo Bamba wants to set the record straight: He doesn’t like Cole Anthony.
Of course, the Orlando Magic center was only kidding on Saturday as he addressed the media ahead of the start of the regular season. Bamba and Anthony were AAU teammates on PSA Cardinals in New York during the summer of 2016 and have stayed close since then.
Now, the two are teammates once again, but this time in Orlando.
Bamba and Anthony were in constant contact in the days and months leading up to the NBA draft. Bamba would often joke with Anthony that Orlando would draft him but it didn’t become serious until the Magic were on the clock and actually took Anthony with the 15th overall pick.
“I want it on the record that I do not like the kid at all. I want that to be a direct quote,” Bamba said. “In all seriousness, Cole has been a great friend, one of my best friends since my junior year in high school. It’s really funny because he was there on my draft night and I kept telling him, ‘We’re going to draft you!’ At least, I was telling him, ‘This will be you really soon.’ As the years compiled, I was like, ‘We might really draft you.’ Then, six months or so before the draft, then three months and a month and I’m like, ‘We really, really might draft you.’
Bamba tweeted at Anthony on the night of the NBA draft and hilariously told him that he would pick him up at the airport once he stopped crying at his party. Unfortunately, Anthony later confirmed that Bamba never showed up to pick him.
Bamba admires the love that Anthony has for the game of basketball and loves that they are now teammates once again. The stakes now are much higher than before but they are confident they can lead the Magic in the years to come.
Anthony is averaging 12 points, 3.7 assists, three rebounds and one steal through three games while he is shooting 48.1% from the field. His 36 total points rank fourth among all rookies with one game left to play on Saturday night versus the Charlotte Hornets.
Meanwhile, Bamba was recently cleared for contact in practice for the first time in training camp. The 22-year-old has been held out of basketball activities after working through some lingering effects of the coronavirus but is working toward returning to the court soon.
Orlando kicks off the regular season on Wednesday vs. the Miami Heat.
HoopsHype predicts all of the All-NBA squads for the 2020-21 season, including the All-Defense and All-Rookie honorees as well.
As we get closer and closer to the upcoming 2020-21 season, HoopsHype decided to make predictions for the All-NBA squads – including rookies and defensive players.
As the league does it, for each group, HoopsHype writers were allowed to pick one big man, two forwards and two guards. These were the results:
