2018 Rookie of the Year

(c) PBA Media Bureau

The 2018 season of the Philippine Basketball Association is down to the last series. So, it is high time to deliver our individual awards.

First in line is the Rookie of the Year. The award that each player can only qualify for, once in their career. 

The way I look at the award is simple. The Rookie of the Year should be the best first-year player during the season.

Fortunately, I do not need to follow any rules and game-played qualifications in determining my award.

HONORABLE MENTION - Jason Perkins
I think, Perkins is already one of the most efficient scorers in the league. He shot better than 50% in two of the three conferences. He is so good at positioning inside, waiting for the pass and hitting his shots. 


The best conference of Perkins coincides with the best conference of Phoenix. In Gov. Cup, he averaged 12.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 56% 3FG per game.

1ST RUNNER-UP - Kiefer Ravena
Unfortunately, Ravena was not able to finish this season. But what he did in the Philippine Cup should be enough to conclude that he is the 2nd best rookie of this season. 

In the All-Filipino conference, Kiefer produced 15.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 44% FG and 34% 3FG per game. He was already one of the best scorers in the league with a handle comparable to Terrence Romeo.
His defense is also underrated because Ravena is actually active on that end and he even forced 1.9 steals per game.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Christian Standhardinger
This is not even close. Perkins and Ravena could have won the Rookie of the Year on other seasons but I do not think we ever saw this dominant rookie season by Christian in the 21st century. 

Standhardinger already exhibited enough for me to conclude that he could be one of the three best players in the league. 

In the Governors' Cup, he put up a statline that is only comparable to the elite players of the league. He averaged 23.3 points, 13.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 60% FG per game.

The 60% is the scariest part of his statline. He can score more than 20 points with that kind of efficiency? 

Wow! 

It seems like Standhardinger will not get the 2018 ROY from the PBA because of their rules in terms of the number of games played.

Which is funny because it is pretty obvious that Stan is the best first-year player this season.