NBA: In-Depth Cases For the Top 3 Candidates

Verdict

Utah Jazz v Los Angeles Lakers

In the iconic Uncle Drew commercials, we heard Kyrie Irving dish out some sage advice to the young bloods whom he beats on the court: "Basketball isn't a game, it's an art. You master the fundamentals so you can forget 'em, so you can improvise and focus on what's most imporant: GETTING BUCKETS."

We at Sportskeeda are subscribers to this philosophy as well, which is why we give the nod to Donovan Mitchell (by a wafer-thin margin, I might add) as our pick for Rookie of the Year. There is nothing more irreplaceable in the game of basketball than the ability of a certain player to just score a bunch of points in a short span of time, particularly in clutch situations.

Mitchell shades it based on his scoring prowess, and also because of the fact that the Jazz managed to just about stay afloat largely due to his efforts during the time missed by Rudy Gobert from early December to late January.

It is very probable that none of the other two rookies could've provided to the Jazz the scoring punch they needed from Mitchell in this timespan - his most impressive games were against the Pelicans and the Cavaliers in December when it seemed like he'd single-handedly won them the game.