Rising Sophomores

How do All-Star-caliber rookies fare in their sophomore seasons?

As I’ve written before, I sometimes define an “All-Star-type” season as one in which a player records a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 20 or higher while playing at least 50% of all possible minutes (about 2,000 minutes in an 82-game season).

Why do I use those cutoffs? Because in a typical season (at least since the NBA expanded to 30 teams for the 2004-05 season), about 24 players will reach those marks. In other words, enough players to form two 12-man All-Star teams.

Last season, two rookies — Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren — produced an “All-Star-type” season. It’s just the sixth time multiple rookies have done so in the same campaign:

• Walter Davis & Marques Johnson, 1977-78

• Magic Johnson & Larry Bird, 1979-80

• Terry Cummings & Clark Kellogg, 1982-83

• Michael Jordan & Hakeem Olajuwon, 1984-85

• Shaquille O'Neal & Alonzo Mourning, 1992-93

• Victor Wembanyama & Chet Holmgren, 2023-24

Since the NBA began tracking minutes played in 1951-52, there have been a total of 36 such seasons by rookies. I might as well list the rest of them:

• Ray Felix, 1953-54

• Bob Pettit, 1954-55

• Maurice Stokes, 1955-56

• Elgin Baylor, 1958-59

• Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-60

• Oscar Robertson, 1960-61

• Walt Bellamy, 1961-62

• Terry Dischinger, 1962-63

• Rick Barry, 1965-66

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1969-70

• Bob Lanier, 1970-71

• John Drew, 1974-75

• Alvan Adams, 1975-76

• Ralph Sampson, 1983-84

• David Robinson, 1989-90

• Chris Webber, 1993-94

• Tim Duncan, 1997-98

• Elton Brand, 1999-00

• Yao Ming, 2002-03

• Chris Paul, 2005-06

• Blake Griffin, 2010-11

• Karl-Anthony Towns, 2015-16

• Ben Simmons, 2017-18

• Deandre Ayton, 2018-19