For the majority of the season, the Rookie of the Year race has been a back-and-forth battle between two towering 7-foot-plus centers, Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama. Both rookies have made a compelling case to win the award. While Wembanyama’s electrifying and flashy individual performance has generated rave reviews league-wide, Holmgren’s impact on the OKC’s resurgence from a rebuilding to a legit threat has earned him significant praise.

In terms of stats, Wemby currently leads in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. However, Chet has the edge in turnovers, boasts better shooting efficiency from both the field and beyond the arc, and has a significantly better plus/minus rating. Therefore, ultimately, the decision may hinge on whether voters prioritize individual statistics or overall team success. But it’s not that simple.

Paul George makes his Rookie of the Year pick

Even though this is Chet’s first official season, this is not his first year in the league. After being drafted in 2022 as the second overall pick, the OKC center missed his supposed-to-be rookie season due to a Lisfranc injury to his right foot while defending LeBron James in the Pro-Am League. However, for LA Clippers’ forward Paul George, this is equivalent to “almost stealing like somebody else’s year.” In the recent episode of Podcast P with Paul George, while discussing who deserves to win the rookie award, George agreed that the NBA might want Wemby to take it home this season. When co-host Dallas Rutherford suggested, “I think the NBA wants him to win it,” PG, without missing a beat, replied, “Absolutely.”

According to George, Wemby should win the rookie award since even if Holmgren has not played in a game during his rookie season, he was still around the league, watching the players and learning how everything works. Moreover, the Frenchman stands out to him more since he is tasked with the burden of towing a losing team in his first season, while Chet has Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams to learn from and rely on. But if Chet does go on to win the award, he would join two other players who did so despite missing their first year due to injuries.

Players who won the ROY after missing the first season due to injuries

Something similar to the Chet Holmgren situation happened back in 2018 when Ben Simmons won the ROY over Donovan Mitchell. Simmons was the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, but a fracture of the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot sidelined him for the entire 2016-17 season. He came back healthy the next season and averaged 15.8 points per game. Meanwhile, Mitchell, the 13th overall pick in the 2017 draft, averaged a rookie-high 20.5 points per game and led the Utah Jazz to a fifth seed in the Western Conference after the departure of Gordon Hayward and George Hill. However, the snub led to a heated discussion between the two, prompting NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to respond.

“There are no plans to change it. We’ve had that rule in place for some time. If we were to change the rule, we wouldn’t do it midseason. We would at least wait until the winner of the award is announced. But there have not been any discussions about changing the rule,” Silver told ESPN’s Chris Haynes.

Blake Griffin is another such example. After getting drafted as the first overall pick in 2009, Griffin suffered a kneecap injury during the Clipper’s last pre-season game. The injury sidelined him for the entire season. But he bounced back next year and capped his first season with a ROY award.

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