The best rookie duo this century

In 1980, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird ushered in a golden era for the NBA. Both were built like big men but played with unconventional perimeter skills that no one had seen before. Sounds familiar. Victor Wanyama and Chad Holgren are even taller and I think You're the

best

rookie

duo to enter the league since the 1980s using the basketball citation chart plus minus as a quick proxy wmi and Chad finished plus three kawh Leonard and Kyrie Irving are the only other

rookie

s to do that

this

century

and in our own domain. Models Homr and Wanyama have had considerably better seasons than them.

I think you have to go back to Michael Jordan and Hakeem Alijan in 1985 to find a rookie duo

this

good, and while Homr and Wanyama didn't make the All-Star team, I've certainly played at Allstar levels this season while playing very different roles for their teams. . He's only 21 years old, but he's already a Swiss Army knife for the Thunders Cutting Edge offense. He is a strong roll threat outside of traditional pick and roll action. He can configure the screen. and he plays the pick and pop game as a 37% 3 point shooter, but more importantly he can pop and then attack off the dribble against his recovering defender.

He even has great potential in initiating the pick and roll, getting into the paint, and playing off the dribble instead of off the dribble. On screen here, he goes backwards around Wemi and then drops a dime perfect for a layup. Victor actually runs more pick and rolls as a ball handler and is slippery enough to drive and do crazy things like that, but he's also bold enough to just use. a high screen and lift for three, so you'll find plays where Vic comes off a corner screen like a guard, then protects the ball handler like a traditional center, and then stops dead so he can run the pick and roll and everything.

This tests the opposing center, giving him room to get up and shoot, but it's an over-the-top pass and these guys are just unfair, since Yama is already a very good passer as a big man and has had a bigger lead role in the Spurs offense. season as a playmaking center and off-ball target in all types of situations like this, Wy's role for the rebuilding Spurs has been as an offensive centerpiece where he receives more isolation touches as the team works out of the attention it attracts in the meantime. He's integrated into a contender alongside stars like Shay Gildas Alexander and Jaylen Williams, where his two-way package is exactly what the unorthodox Thunder needed on this play.

He's stretching to the perimeter on pick and roll slides and forcing a turnover with that 7 and 1./2t wingspan and then in transition his man has to pick the dangerous Williams and a wing like Tim Hardway Jr he needs to pick Chad, it's just not natural for him to take a big like that and all the confusion leaves him wide open at the beginning of the year. We discussed how OKC created space for Shay and Chad fits perfectly into that as a big stretch where he basically serves as their fifth guard on the floor at their offensive position and this has an effect even when he just corners some defenders .

I don't want to give it up, but when guarded by a store blocker like Anthony Davis's ad, the ad's instinct is to wander around and help and that leaves chat with an incredibly high percentage of looks. Here's a little transition screen for the chat, Shay's man jumps on him so Nicole Leic has to switch to SGA and when they restart the action Cavius ​​Cwell Pope isn't thinking about recovering to a cross so that there is more confusion and another great shot, the Thunder loved these early screens for hren because he has enough skill to drive it. leave the catch or take it and collapse the defense and then attack someone else while the Spurs work to create space for wemi because he's one of the most unique off-ball threats we've ever seen, his 8-foot wingspan is so long you can just throw it at him, but he can also fly off screens and shoot it on the move over opposing centers, so if defenses start to shift to stay in front of him, more space makes it easier to exploit his height difference, this Maybe you will face a small guard. he tells his own center to move out of the way so he can get to the block and find an angle for an inbound pass, which means if you switch you're in trouble, but if you play the pick and roll up, he's got that lob ridiculous. radio and then you're thinking about removing the balloon and the guy just floats to the three-point line and starts bombing Wemi.

Shooting these spots is one of the most exciting swing skills for a prospect in a long time because he's just hitting. 32% from outside 10 feet according to nba.com, but Mak's poise off the dribble and incredibly high shooting accuracy are a game-changer for someone who can already do things like this at age 20, by comparison. Chad is already at 41% on all his shots. outside of 10 feet and working with England's big chip in Oklahoma City could possibly make him an elite shooter as he develops hom grin's great swing ability is his auto-generated scoring where he makes quick moves in the mid-post like this little one-leg fade and You already have the ball handling to drive from the outside with these silky smooth movements in any direction, so there is a foundation to build on here.

He starts the offense from the top, crosses and drives, then this crazy balancing act of deceleration with the left or face-up attack. Wemi came off the rebound with that double spin and then SC's creative poop underneath and I think he stole it from Victor himself at this point, a ton of Chad's scoring is in the flow of the offense, his balloon radius isn't there either. Not bad at all, but if he becomes a focal point that can directly stress defenses, it unlocks a whole different level of offensive primacy. Offense is such a great skill for both players because they have historically had such a huge defensive impact.

This is what a normal wemi ending is. like after going through a group of defenders and this is what it looks like against OKC, where he slaloms for that dunk, but Homen rises higher than him and blocks it. Opponents are shooting 10% worse than expected against both on shots within 6 feet of the basket according to the second spectrum and both have a considerable impact on the opponent's field goal percentage around the rim every time. are on the court Chad has this two-armed volleyball block down to a science that goes vertical in the air without fouling. his competencies and he already has a great awareness of when to slide and commit to a shooter, this one is super awesome where his man lays down a pick and then tries to re-select him, just the chat sniffs him out and reaches for that layup and this one might be better where Colin SE Blowing by Josh dizzy as hen looks for his man he sees him out of the corner of his eye and takes a big step and inhales him, of course the wemi himself is never more than two steps from the edge and gives him sex the same. treatment and there's a sort of helicopter effect with Vic where he feels like he's everywhere, sometimes gliding with a dangerous wing and then spinning to clear a layup, so Wiim Yama is always lurking in the back of the everyone's head and after a while the players don't do it.

They even want to shoot around him or even when they think he is around. Luca Donic sets a screen here and when he rolls, he actually fakes Wei to get him out of the way, but he's worried that Vic will block him from behind and the reason he's scared is because of Wemi. He did this to Kyrie Irving early in the period, coming from behind to block him with his right hand only to catch him with his left hand on the other side. Instead, if that wasn't enough, a minute earlier he blocked Luca's patented step-back, so Yes, it's understandable that players stop looking for layups when Vic just comes out on the court, this time it's Chad who spots a He misses and makes a Spur shooter think twice about shooting around the basket and then when he turns the other way, it's there. position to help wemi only after a skillful pass.

Chet moves and hits a shooter and then clears the play himself. Both boys recover nicely after a first effort sliding with the ball and then turning towards a new threat here. wemi is playing ball handler in pick and roll, he recovers from the pass and look at that flexibility as he slams on the brakes to track down PJ Washington and just block him from Over the Top, this type of body control and change of direction helps play two . on downhill like this and especially in pick and roll coverages dropping to play the ball and then turning to take the lob away, although Chad has the craziest one I've probably ever seen dropping and then defending the pass and following this lob over his head. and makes clear how on Earth locals hren and wanyama are only the 11th and 12th rookies to average 15 points on two blocks per game and the previous 10 made the Hall of Fame with a combined 93 All-Star Game appearances and nine Defensive Players hren is just the 13th rookie to play 2,000 minutes on a 55-win team and the only ones who were clearly better were 24-year-old David Robinson, 22-year-old Tim Duncan, 23-year-old Bird and a 20-year-old Bird. years. -Old Magic Vic has flirted with an NBA level since making an incredible midseason leap we profiled in January and will likely become the first rookie since Duncan in 1998 to field an all-defensive team after blocking the highest percentage high of two. point shots by any player in the last 35 years.

I've heard a lot of people say that Wemi and Chat are ushering in a new type of Arch player for the future where no defensive monsters with guard skills will dominate the league, but much like Larry and Magic. All those years ago, I don't think we're looking at a new archetype, but rather we're looking at two of the most unique and unmatched players who have ever played the game and who will help define the next generation of basketball to support this channel. visit patreon.com with basketball in mind, that's where we have our proprietary stats for players and teams throughout the season.

We have a historical database. If you want to look for old rookies like Bird and Magic or Jordan and Hakeem, let me know where you are below. I think these guys will be done when their career is done. Otherwise, thanks for watching this and as always, I hope you're having a great day.