Rookies, Revisited.

A few months ago, I put out an article on this years crop of rookies. The majority of training camp has now been played out and the predictions I made then are significantly different that what I've seen, heard and read up to this point. It's safe to say that the predictions I had not only are ready to be re-written, but I could easily shrink the list of effective rookies from ten players down to only five.

#1 Brandon Roy- He's played pretty much as expected through seven pre-season games. He's played at least 33 minutes in all games except for one and has put up solid averages of 15 points, 4 boards and 3.5 assists. Even better, his FG% thus far has hovered right at 48%. There's no doubt that he should be the first rookie off the board.

#2- Adam Morrison- He's been getting around 30 minutes per game in five games I could find boxscores for and it seems to all be up and down. His shooting seems to be very erratic at times, avergaing a paltry 32% (consisting of games in which he went: 2/11, 3/16 and 5/14) from the field. Those are Iverson-like numbers and not helpful in fantasy leagues. Even worse, my predictions of him being not much more than a scorer are, at least so far, right on. He's netting just under 12 points, which isn't great but should get better when he adjusts to the NBA game. As for the other areas, 2.5 rebounds and 2 assists are making him look like the Caucasian Carmelo. Morrison is still worth drafting, just much lower than my original expectations.

#3- Rajon Rondo- Here's a guy that nobody really gave any thought to before the pre-season began. On draft night, Ainge made the deal with Portland to bring in Sebastian Telfair. Almost immediately, it was a shoe-in that he'd be the man at that position for the Celtics. Rondo has been absolutely fantastic so far this pre-season. So good, in fact, that the fans want to see Rondo over Telfair. That doesn't mean it'll happen. So far, he's averaging 11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 47% from the field and only one turnover per game in just over 22 minutes. Those are amazing numbers. If Telfair starts to struggle be sure to grab Rondo immediately.

#4- Tyrus Thomas- He's had a decent pre-season, doing what everyone remembers him doing with LSU last year. He'll come off the bench and probably isn't worth a draft pick at this point but the numbers have been pretty good. 11 points, 5 rebounds, 1.8 steals, 1.4 blocks in 22 minutes. The problem: He's fouled out of two games and had five more in another. With his aggressive style of play, he could be hurt by foul trouble all year. We all know the type of treatment rookie's get from the ref's.

#5- Andrea Bargnani- He's held his own better than I've expected in the minutes he's gotten. I can't speak too highly, as I haven't seen any Toronto games and don't know if he's playing with/against starters or second strings. No matter, he's been playing under 20 minutes per game and putting up respectable numbers considering he's a foreign rookie. 11 points and 4 rebounds are nice starter numbers. His 40% from the field is a negative.

The rest: Randy Foye probably isn't worth a draft pick at this point. Living in Minnesota, I've watched three games. He's gotten limited minutes, just like Rashad McCants did last year. Unfortunately, like McCants, Foye seems lost and constantly struggles on defense. With Casey running the show, he won't see many minutes until he grabs a hold of the defensive concepts. For all the offensive talent the kid has, his defensive deficiencies will keep him off the court right now. Marcus Williams has been putting up solid numbers for New Jersey as well. If it weren't for someone named Jason Kidd ahead of him, he'd be draft worthy. Shelden Williams has seen limited action off the bench for Atlanta, but I cant imagine it'll stay that way. They need help inside and while he's limited offensively, his rebounding and defense should get him significant minutes at some point during the year. Rudy Gay could see big minutes from the start and has been putting up decent numbers so far. I just have a feeling they'll being him along slowly as well, preferring to use veterans like Mike Miller, Eddie Jones and 2nd year forward Hakim Warrick. Ronnie Brewer's minutes have been up and down. While he's been one hell of a thief, Sloan's been known to dislike the idea of actually playing rookies. Lastly, LaMarcus Aldridge has been MIA.