NBA Preseason 2015: Top Rookies to Watch in Final Week of Games
As a predictor of a team's future performance, the NBA preseason is a meaningless pursuit. What the preseason can do is offer fans a first look at the crop of incoming rookies.
The three first-year stars below have been among the best over the past couple of weeks. While they may not occupy vital roles for their respective teams right out of the game, they should grow into key starters down the line.
With a little over a week left in the preseason, the trio have a little bit of time left to make a good impression on their head coaches before the regular season gets underway.
Rookies to Watch
Bobby Portis, PF, Chicago Bulls
If Tom Thibodeau were still coaching the Chicago Bulls, getting excited about Bobby Portis' preseason would be somewhat difficult because you'd know it wouldn't translate to meaningful games.
At best, Portis would receive the Tony Snell treatment—getting a handful of minutes on a nightly basis but not having any sort of impact. At worst, he'd wind up like Doug McDermott—rarely seeing the court during the few games he actually played. Given Portis is still pretty raw, the latter would be the likelier scenario.
Under Fred Hoiberg, anything is possible; it's a brave new world for the Bulls.
Portis has had about as good a preseason as any rookie. Through four games, he's averaging 12.5 points and 12.3 rebounds a night. He's also shooting a healthy 42.9 percent from three-point range, which is nice to see with the stretch 4 becoming more in vogue in the NBA.
CBSSports.com's Matt Moore already foresees the 20-year-old replacing a Bulls stalwart:
"Bobby Portis’ nickname should be “Why Taj Gibson got traded.”
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) October 13, 2015"
Chicago isn't lacking in talented power forwards, so Portis is unlikely to play heavy minutes for the team in the 2015-16 season even if Taj Gibson gets traded. But this preseason should have Bulls fans optimistic about the player he can become in another year or two.
Stanley Johnson, SF, Detroit Pistons
This year will likely be one extreme or the other with the Detroit Pistons. They'll either exceed expectations and win 45-50 games, or they'll be a complete disaster and fail to reach 30 wins.
Part of that unpredictability extends to Stanley Johnson.
In his only season at Arizona, Johnson averaged 13.8 points and 6.5 rebounds a game while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from three-point range, none of which jumps off the page. Combine that with his getting selected eighth overall in the 2015 draft, and the more casual NBA fans aren't eagerly anticipating Johnson's rookie season like they are that of Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and Kristaps Porzingis.
But the 19-year-old is leading all rookies in scoring during the preseason (17.3 PPG), and he's nailing an impressive 46.7 percent of his three-pointers. Johnson also showed off his athleticism with this dunk against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night:
Judging by head coach Stan Van Gundy's assessment of Johnson, his impressive preseason may not be an illusion, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:
"It doesn't faze him. In fact, when I told Jodie (Meeks) to handle the ball, he was, "I got this." He's got a great toughness and confidence about him and I think that showed. So with him we're working from a pretty good foundation. He's got a lot to learn, but you're working with a very, very good foundation.
"
Johnson likely won't top anybody's ballot for Rookie of the Year when all is said and done, but he could overshadow a few of those players selected above him in the draft, much like Giannis Antetokounmpo did a couple of years ago.
Willie Cauley-Stein, C, Sacramento Kings
Through five preseason games, Willie Cauley-Stein has performed just about as you would've expected him to.
According to NBA.com, he's only 9-of-20 on shots in the restricted area, while his free-throw percentage is a meager 54 percent. It's not like Cauley-Stein was going to become a radically better offensive player in the space of one training camp.
Of course, he is showing his worth on the defensive end, averaging 1.4 blocks a game. His block percentage (46.7 percent) is third-best on the team if you exclude Eric Moreland, who has played 31 minutes in the preseason, per NBA.com.
The Kings' final preseason game could be a strong indicator as to how Cauley-Stein will be used going forward.
As Greg Wissinger of SB Nation's Sactown Royalty showed in this screenshot, head coach George Karl paired Kosta Koufos and DeMarcus Cousins inside for Sacramento's first game of the preseason:
Karl might be having a change of heart, however.
"Right now, my feeling is Kosta probably fits the bench better than Willie does and Willie probably fits [Cousins] a little bit better too," he said on Oct. 8, per Sactown Royalty's Blake Ellington. "I'm not sure that's where I'll go but that's probably where I'm tilted right now."
On paper, a Cousins/Cauley-Stein partnership makes sense. Cousins can do his thing on the offensive end and worry less about defending—not exactly a strength of his in the first place—since Cauley-Stein can do the dirty work underneath the basket.
The Kings will need everything to break in their favor to even have a chance at a playoff spot in the Western Conference, so the development of Cauley-Stein may be one of the few aspects Kings fans can look forward to in 2015-16.
