Rookie Rankings: It's early, but '08 Draft looks special

When you talk about the best rookie classes of all time, there are three sacred years that are clearly a cut above the rest.

1984-85, 1996-97 and 2003-04 are the undisputed prime jewels of the NBA's rookie class crown. There is no other group of rooks that even enters the picture. It would be like if you asked somebody, "What is the greatest board game of all time?" There are only three games in contention: Monopoly, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit.

(Not counting Chess and Checkers, because they're a given, just like the 1946-47 season is technically the best rookie class because it was the first year of the league, making everybody a rookie.)

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We're only about an eighth of the way through the season, so it's really early, but haven't you seen enough to think that we might just be witnessing a rookie class that could join those three mentioned above?

It's just the third edition of the Rookie Rankings this season, but I'm already having trouble finding enough space in this article to mention every rookie escapade that happens each week.

In this past week alone, the No. 1 pick, Derrick Rose, had back-to-back 20-point, eight-assist games; the No. 1 pick from a year ago, Greg Oden, gave us a glimpse of what we've all been waiting for with a double-double against the Hornets and 22 and 10 against the Warriors; four other players hit for 25 points in a game in O.J. Mayo, Brook Lopez, Rudy Fernandez and Anthony Morrow (who scored 37 points on 15-for-20 shooting against the Clippers accounting for the most points ever for an undrafted free agent in his rookie season); Luc Mbah a Moute had a 19-point, 17-rebound game and he was a second-round draft pick; the Nets' Ryan Anderson went 7-for-9 from three over four games; and the Kings' Jason Thompson, who dominated for Rider University at center in the mediocre-at-best Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, racked up 16 points and 11 rebounds in his first game starting at power forward.

Just look at Portland's rookie class. They have three players -- Oden, Fernandez and Jerryd Bayless -- who were picked by NBA.com and NBA TV analysts to take home the Eddie Gottlieb trophy. Three contenders, on one team! That's not deep, that's bottomless.

That's just seven days in the story of this year's rookie class. There's so much more to come.

I saw There Will Be Blood for the first time last week and it only took me about 20 minutes of my ears listening to Daniel Day-Lewis' oddly intriguing voice as Daniel Plainview and my eyes drinking in Paul Thomas Anderson's picturesque cinematography before I knew I was watching a truly special movie.

Sometimes you just know, even early on.

The thing about '84-85, '96-97 and '03-04 was their amazing depth.

In '84-85 you had the superstars in Jordan, Hakeem and Barkley, but you also had solid contributors down the line in John Stockton, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis and Jerome Kersey.

The '96-97 rookie class produced three future MVPs in Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Allen Iverson, which is reason enough to be considered an all-time best group, but it also claims two Defensive Player of the Years in Marcus Camby and Ben Wallace, not to mention six other All-Stars in Ray Allen, Stephon Marbury, Peja Stojakovic, Antoine Walker, Jermaine O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

It's only been five years since the '03-04 rookies entered the league, but six players -- LeBron, Dwyane, Carmelo, Chris Bosh, David West and Josh Howard -- have already made the All-Star Game, plus Leandro Barbosa won the Sixth Man Award and Jason Kapono won the Three-Point Shootout.

All of the rookie classes considered to be the best of all time have more talent in them from top-to-bottom than the Montreal Expos' farm system in the late '80s.

Because of the excellent scouting Web sites out there and magazines like SLAM that hype hoopsters on the AAU circuit from eighth grade on to the pros, basketball is a sport unlike any other where you the fan and the current talent are keenly aware of the future torch bearers.

Shaquille O'Neal went to see LeBron play for St. Vincent St. Mary's so he could see the future for himself. John Lucas used to invite a high school-aged Kobe Bryant to scope out Sixers practices when he was the head coach, and a dozen years later Bryant invited a college-aged O.J. Mayo to run in games with him during the summer so he could see what the kid was made of.

The great part about following the rookie class every year is that you're watching somebody who is going to change the course of history of the league in the infant stages of his career. When you have a whole wave of talent come in at the same time, it makes the imagination run wild.

A Memphis vs. Chicago regular-season matchup isn't a brickfest between two sub-.500 teams, it's a preview to a potential NBA Finals matchup five years down the road when Rose has led the Bulls ahead of the pack in the East and Mayo has gotten the Grizzlies to the top of the West.

There is a rabid desire for fans to get in on the ground level. I wrote an off-the-cuff blog post during the preseason about whether or not Rose, Beasley and Mayo had a chance to be the best 1-2-3 draft picks in NBA history and it floored me that it got over 125,000 views. When you pick a rookie and follow his career, it can be like purchasing a stock and watching it mature.

When a class comes in with this much promise, tuning into a game to see a rookie isn't just an opportunity to enjoy yourself with a couple of hours of basketball, it's a chance to see a first-year player make the leap from somebody learning the NBA game to someone doing the schooling. Latch onto a rookie from this year's class and you'll be able to say 15 years down the line when he's being inducted in Springfield, Mass., that you saw him drop 35 and 10 in that game against Milwaukee in '08-09 when you knew then and there he was destined to be a Hall of Famer.

It's been a fun season so far for the rookies and it should only get better.

Korleone Young slide of the week: R. Fernandez POR (-3).
Eddie Gottlieb rise of the week: L. Mbah a Moute MIL (+3).

1. Derrick Rose, G, Chicago G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 11 38.3 19.5 4.8 5.9 1.1 0.1 .483 .375 .833 Last Week: 2 | Drafted: 1 I'm not a fan of NASCAR by any means and generally think that it's a worthless sport, but one thing I've been told by racing fans is that you can't appreciate the speed or the power of the cars by watching it on TV and need to watch it in person to see the real deal. I got my first chance to see Rose play in person on Tuesday against the Lakers and he passed the NASCAR test with flying colors. Phil Jackson used the word "quick" five times to describe him pre- and postgame. Real deal, legit, the genuine article -- pick a maxim, they all apply.

2. O.J. Mayo, G, Memphis G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 38.5 20.1 4.5 2.4 1.2 0.1 .446 .407 .892 Last Week: 1 | Drafted: 3 Mayo's 30-point streak was stopped at two and his blistering shooting percentages came down to earth with a 3-for-9 showing from the field against Sacramento and a 1-for-6 dud from three against the Bucks.

3. Michael Beasley, F, Miami G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 11 31.8 15.4 5.6 1.5 0.8 0.6 .443 .308 .868 Last Week: 3 | Drafted: 2 Foul trouble and a rough 4-for-14 showing in a loss to Toronto slowed Beasley this week but he remains in the top three. Keep an eye on how Beasley's minutes fluctuate now that Shawn Marion is back from a groin injury and surely looking to improve upon his 10.4 points per game average in a contract year.

4. Anthony Morrow, G, Golden State G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 5 23.6 17.0 4.0 0.8 0.4 1.2 .627 .647 1.000 Last Week: Unranked | Drafted: Undrafted Unranked. Undrafted. Unbelievable. Morrow's record-breaking 37-point performance against the Clippers on Saturday caused Coach Don Nelson to crack open a brewski and light up a cigar in celebration of what Nellie called, "One of the most exciting things I can remember in a long-long time. I've been in the league 30 years and I've never seen a performance like that from a guy who got his first opportunity ... he had the game of a lifetime." Morrow's encore wasn't bad either as he pumped in 25 points on 8-for-12 shooting in a win against Portland.

5. Marc Gasol, C, Memphis G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 11 29.6 12.4 7.2 1.2 0.6 0.9 .583 .000 .776 Last Week: 5 | Drafted: 48 by L.A. Lakers in 2007 Gasol made 17 shots from the field last week while only missing nine and converted 16 free throw attempts while only missing two. How do you say "accurate" in Spanish?

6. Luc Mbah a Moute, F, Milwaukee G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 12 29.6 10.7 7.3 0.9 0.8 0.6 .474 .000 0.760 Last Week: 9 | Drafted: 37 Mbah a Moute has officially garnered Steal of the Draft status now that his 7.3 boards per game average lead all rookies despite 36 guys being selected before him in back in June.

7. Rudy Fernandez, G-F, Portland G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 11 29.0 13.5 3.3 2.1 1.1 0.3 .444 .443 .944 Last Week: 4 | Drafted: 24 by Phoenix in 2007 The Rudy Fernandez for Sixth Man campaign has officially started with Maurice Brooks over at ESPN.com putting Rudy at No. 2 behind Andrei Kirilenko in the super sub portion of Brooks' Awards Watch. After scoring a season high 25 points on 7-for-11 shooting against the Heat, Fernandez went 7-for-22 over his next three games so he slides down a few spots this week.

8. Jason Thompson, F, Sacramento G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 12 26.3 11.5 6.8 0.8 0.8 0.5 .538 .000 .600 Last Week: 6 | Drafted: 12 This week I'll let Reggie Theus comment on what he saw in Thompson before the Kings drafted him. Take it away, Mr. Hang Time: "The only thing people were trying to say about him was, 'He was from a small school,' and 'How can you say he's going to do the same things?' Again, not looking at who he's playing against. Fifty points against St. Mary's Girl School is still 50 points. You still have to be able to shoot the basketball. The fact that he was the best player in that conference and the way he got his points -- he was double-teamed and triple-teamed -- and he was still able to get it done."

9. Russell Westbrook, G, Oklahoma City G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 11 23.9 12.0 3.1 3.0 1.4 0.4 .313 .261 .830 Last Week: 8 | Drafted: 4 I love Westbrook for his physique, his explosiveness and his defensive ball-hawking intensity, but a week that includes both a 3-for-19 night against Orlando and a 3-for-12 showing against Philly really makes me cringe.

10. Greg Oden, C, Portland G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 5 21.4 9.8 7.2 0.6 0.6 2.4 .533 .000 .654 Last Week: Unranked | Drafted: 1 in 2007 Hey, remember when this guy was on the cover of a magazine quoted as saying he wanted to win 15 championships and then didn't even play 15 minutes in the first year and two weeks of his NBA career? Well, his knee and foot are failing him no more, he's back on the floor and officially in the Rookie of the Year hunt. His 9.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.4 block per game averages don't overwhelm you until you consider that he's only playing 21.4 minutes per game.

The Next 10 (alphabetical order): Ryan Anderson (NJN), Darrell Arthur (MEM), D.J. Augustin (CHA), Mario Chalmers (MIA), George Hill (SAS), Brook Lopez (NJN), Kevin Love (MIN), JaVale McGee (WAS), Anthony Randolph (GSW), Mike Taylor (LAC)

Noteworthy Hill George Hill (SAS) received some lofty praise followed by some heavy criticism by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich when I asked Pop about his rook the other day. "I think he's an intelligent young guy with an extraordinary mental toughness for a young kid," Popovich said. "He's one of the best young defenders I've seen come into the league at his position." Not bad, but now he lowers the boom: "At the offensive end, he needs A LOT of work." JaVale McGee (WAS) is playing for the blog-friendly Washington Wizards and has already picked up a nickname from the blogosphere: The Vale of Cashmere. (I don't know what it means, I don't think I want to know what it means.) The HNPAMY (Have Not Played A Minute Yet) Club: J.R. Giddens (BOS)*, Richard Hendrix (GSW)*, Darnell Jackson (CLE), Nathan Jawai (TOR), Sonny Weems (DEN), D.J. White (OKC), Jawad Williams (CLE), Sun Yue (LAL) * = assigned to D-League