Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks will compete with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Landry Shamet for years to come

The Dallas Mavericks may have the frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award, but that doesn’t mean he was the only impressive rookie this year. How good is Luka Doncic compared to other rookies and who will be his best competition?

When it comes to rookies, Luka Doncic really dominated the conversation from start to finish. Sure, Trae Young made for good conversation towards the end of the season, but no other rookie can top what Luka did for the Dallas Mavericks this season.

Because Luka has been that good, the rest of the 2018 NBA Draft class has been overlooked in a lot of ways. Everyone kept up, at least from a distance, with the big names from the draft like Trae Young, Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III and Jaren Jackson Jr. These guys all had solid seasons, but a couple rookies in the playoffs currently have had really good seasons.

Those guys both happen to play for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Landry Shamet have not just been good rookies this season, they have been pivotal parts to the team’s success in the regular season and the playoffs. Both players are great examples once again of great players that can be hidden later on in the draft. SGA was selected by the Clippers with the 11th pick and Shamet was picked 26th by the 76ers. He was then traded to LA in the Tobias Harris trade.

For the season, SGA ranked 8th among rookies in points per game and 3rd in assists per game. He went from a lightly talked about youngster to a key part of what Doc Rivers has been able to do with the Clippers this year. His defense has been his biggest weapon, however, as his combination of length and speed has really helped his ability to stay in front of most guys in the league.

Shamet, on the other hand, has proven to be a deadly sharpshooter, shooting 45% from three since joining the Clippers. As of now, that has proven to be his main strength, but it has been very useful for the Clippers throughout the last half of the season and the playoffs. In fact, so far in the playoffs, Shamet is 1-4 inside the arc and 9-26 from outside.

Luka Doncic definitely outplayed these two rookies in their regular season matchups with Luka having a 38-point triple-double in one game and a 32-point performance in another. This is not altogether surprising considering Luka’s strengths definitely show up on the stat sheet a lot more than those of SGA and Shamet.

Regardless of what happened this year, it is clear that these young players are going to have a lot of great matchups in the future. With all three guys playing guard positions, we will see one-on-one matchups as well as team matchups between these guys. And let’s not forget Jalen Brunson who will be a big part of this Mavericks team going forward as well.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to see these young stud players for the Clippers, I would highly recommend tuning in to ESPN tonight at 9:00 central time to watch them go head-to-head with the Golden State Warriors in game 6 of their first round series.