Insider Special: Rookie Watch

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NBA Rookie Watch: Humphrey hidden behind the stars

By Terry Brown

Thursday, November 21 Updated 10:59 AM EST

Ryan Humphrey will laugh last.

While he was sitting for 31 of the game's 48 minutes for the Orlando Magic Wednesday night pondering a fourth shot that would never come, Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek of the Memphis Grizzlies played 49 minutes, shot 25 times, scored 26 points and lost. In Miami, Caron Butler played 33 minutes in his loss. Denver's Nene Hilario played 26 in his. Jay Williams was on the floor when his team started its game Wednesday night and was still there when it ended in another loss. In between, he played 41 minutes and took 15 shots.

But who would have thought that a rookie from the lowly Chicago Bulls would still have the best record of any player on our ROY Power Ranking, the five top candidates combining for a miserable 8-49 record?

Sure, Humphrey was drafted way down there at No. 19 this year and before he could adjust his baseball cap, the Utah Jazz traded him to Orlando, where he realized that as a 6-foot-8 swingman, he'd be playing behind MVP front-runner Tracy McGrady, former all-star Grant Hill, former Rookie of the Year Mike Miller, Jimmy Hoffa, the fifth Beatle and the kid who takes tickets to the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyworld who recently won the company lottery to play ball boy one night at the Waterhouse Centre.

Then him . . . in that order.

While Miller drilled three three-pointers in the first game of the year as the Magic defeated the Heat 100-86, Humphrey began a ritual of 11 minutes with two to four shots a game. That night it was three. While McGrady scored a season-high 47 points in a 100-90 win against the Milwaukee Bucks, Humphrey got his seven points in a bonus 18 minutes. Two games later, a 105-98 win over the Seattle Supersonics, he was back to his 11 minutes as Hill came within a handful of rebounds of a triple-double.

When Humphrey finally did get involved in the offense, which happened to be last Sunday against the Golden State Warriors, he took a season-high eight shots, hitting four of them, and promptly fouled out in 14 minutes, which might have been more than enough considering the fact that he played a total of 28 minutes in the previous four games scoring one bucket.

But his step and spring, the sense of rim awareness and innate ability to get there are equally overshadowed by teammates not just better than him, but better than the majority of those in the league. In the long run, the half an hour plus on the bench each night taking notes on the likes of McGrady and Hill will be more beneficial than the scratch he gets on the court.

The Magic aren't going to win all of their games this season, but the consensus is anywhere from homecourt advantage in the postseason to winning the Eastern Conference entirely. The key word here being postseason when Humphrey's 11 meager minutes will be exactly 11 minutes more than those on the board below combined.

Drew Gooden

Memphis Grizzlies

Numbers: 15.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.6 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.5 bpg, 46% shooting

Comment: No one is going to set the world on fire from this year's draft class like Pau Gasol last season. No rookie may even star in some extended postseason run like Richard Jefferson did not so long ago. No rookie will be a statistical sensation like Jamaal Tinsley and his 8.1 assists per game. But Gooden has scored double-digits in eight of his last 10 games, will most likely push that to nine9 by the time the season ends and even higher for his career which may be more than enough for this year's nod.

Caron Butler

Miami Heat

Numbers: 13.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.6 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.1 bpg, 42% shooting

Comment: He is the second-leading scorer on a team that puts up only 84 points a game, and you know that if he didn't play even better on the defensive end, Pat Riley wouldn't let him in the game in the first place. Butler has started every game of the season so far.

Jay Williams

Chicago Bulls

Numbers: 11.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 6 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.09 bpg, 39% shooting

Comment: Before the triple-double last week against Jason Kidd, Williams averaged 14.1 points and 7.6 assists per 48 minutes on 40 percent shooting with a 2-4 record. After the triple-double, the same said Williams is averaging 17.5 points and 8.2 assists per 48 minutes on 40 percent shooting with a 2-3 record. The next triple-double should answer all of the questions.

Nene Hilario

Denver Nuggets

Numbers: 8.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.1 bpg, 49% shooting

Comment: The following is a list of all-stars, future Hall of Famers, Defensive Players of the Year and former ROYs. But only five of them finished their rookie seasons averaging more than a steal and block per game as Nene is right now: Grant Hill, Paul Pierce, Elton Brand, Vince Carter, Antonio McDyess, Shawn Marion, Steve Francis, Kevin Garnett, Kenyon Martin, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, Tim Duncan, Michael Jordan, Alonzo Mourning, Ben Wallace, Dikembe Mutombo, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant. And the fact that you didn't know it was Carter, Pierce, KG, CWebb and Martin tells you how hard Hilario is working right now.

Gordan Giricek

Memphis Grizzlies

Numbers: 12.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.3 bpg, 46% shooting

Comment: The fact that he made only 2 of 12 shots last night against Allen Iverson and was ready to take the 13th at any moment tells you all you need to know about this kid in his first year in the NBA. The fact that he took those 12 shots in 17 minutes tells you all you want to know about this kid who, at 25, isn't really such a kid.