NBA coaches have been saying it forever: Rookies hurt their teams on the court.
Last year, Jeremias Engelmann and I took a deep dive into the question, and we found the coaches are definitely on to something. First-year players rarely move the needle in a positive direction.
But things may prove a little different this year.
According to Real Plus-Minus (RPM), which estimates each player's impact on his team's net efficiency with mathematical modeling to adjust for the on-court effects of teammates and opponents, several rookies have already found ways to help their teams win this season.