Last year's Rookie of the Year race was one of the more heated in recent memory as Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, and Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons competed for the right to call themselves the best of the new class.
While Simmons remained the prohibitive favorite almost all-season long and ultimately won the award, there was some buzz for both Mitchell and Tatum late in the season. There's also reason to believe that if the voting had taken place following the postseason, there's actually a pretty strong possibility that Simmons, who had a poor playoffs performance, would have lost the award to either Mitchell or Tatum, who both had exceptional showings in the playoffs, leading their teams to the Western Conference Semifinals and Eastern Conference Finals, respectively.
NBA 2K19 revealed the player ratings for all three last season and it really looks like the game developers consider all three to essentially be on the same level as they were all granted 87s.
For last season, Simmons averaged 15.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 8.2 apg, 1.7 spg, and 0.9 bpg. Mitchell averaged 20.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.5 spg, and 0.3 bpg. Tatum averaged 13.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.0 spg, and 0.7 bpg.
GameFragger.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.