NBA
Stephon Castle Overtakes Injured Jared McCain In Rookie Of The Year Hunt
Olly Taliku has worked with highly respected sports and gambling websites such as The Sports Daily, Basketball Insiders, Augusta Free Press and Business2Community where he has produced hundreds of articles alongside being published with Burton Albion and Chesterfield FC. At Burton Olly worked closely alongside the women's team, producing mainly matchday content including reports and interviews, while at Chesterfield he worked in a similar role but with the academy side, as well as some first team content. He also has experience as an accredited Premier League and EFL writer for Prost International where he worked during the 2021/22 season to produce matchday content as an on location reporter. Olly specialises in football as well as long form SEO content plus news, tips and betting but also produces content on basketball, baseball and American football. Some of his sports betting work can be found on www.sportslens.com and www.thesportsdaily.com.
All posts by Oliver TalikuUpdated4 hours ago on December 19, 2024
Spurs rookie Stephon Castle has overtaken Jared McCain in the race to be rookie player of the season this year, with the Sixers star suffering from a serious long-term injury.
Stephon Castle Leads Rookie Race
The injury to Jared McCain has sent shockwaves throughout the league, with Stephon Castle moving on in the race for MVP in his first season.
Castle has averaged 11.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in his first season so far, on an average of 27.2 minutes per game after 25 games.
Although he was considered to be in a close race with McCain this season, the award now seems almost impossible to lose for Castle considering the extent of his rival’s injury.
Outside McCain and Castle there are still other contenders for this year’s award, with the likes of Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells and Dalton Knecht all firmly still in the race.
The Spurs are of course looking to make it back to back years with one of their players being crowned rookie of the year, after Victor Wembanyama picked up the award in 2023 during one of the most one sided seasons to date.
If Castle was to win the award this year, San Antonio would become only the fifth team in NBA history to have consecutive rookie of the year awards.
Stephon Castle takes over the No. 1 spot on the @Kia Rookie Ladder 🔝
Full Ladder: https://t.co/QlHrJFNqHJ pic.twitter.com/1P2nXZUQEw
— NBA TV (@NBATV) December 18, 2024
v
Jared McCain Injury
It felt like the rookie of the year award was destined to head to Philadelphia this season as the new year approaches, but a serious injury for Jared McCain last week has all but finished his chances.
After coming off with a disturbing looking injury against the Pacers, McCain was assessed of a lateral meniscus tear, which the rookie had surgery on earlier this week.
McCain hasn’t been ruled out for the season just yet, but the amount of games he will miss this year has already ruled the 20-year-old out of the rookie of the year contention.
Before getting injured, McCain played an important role in the Sixers offense that has been struggling on all fronts for health, with Paul George, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and more all sidelined at some point this season.
McCain averaged 15.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists during his first 23 games in the NBA and was a clear favorite with the best online sportsbooks for the rookie of the year award before getting injured.
