Zion Williamson is the consensus rookie of the year. The hype around him has been white hot since he first started popping up on Instagram sports highlight pages and eventually committed to Duke University where the spotlight was so intense he had a camera dedicated to capturing his every move. He was the number 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft and so far he hasn’t disappointed in his first few preseason games but now he’s injured to start the season and a new player is quickly showing his on-court talent and could potentially battle Zion for the title of best rookie. His name is Tyler Herro.

The battle for Rookie of the Year has been pretty fierce these last couple of seasons with Luka vs Trae the year before and Simmons vs Mitchell the year before that. I believe this year will be no exception, Zion was the top prospect of this years draft and Tyler was a lottery selection with a solid upside of potential. Miami took a chance on Herro and so far he has been showing out with 14 points in his first NBA game to go along with 8 rebounds. Herro averaged 14 points across 5 games in the preseason and In his most recent NBA game, on October 29, Herro went off for 29 points and 7 rebounds against the Atlanta Hawks (home of Trae Young, last years rookie of the year runner up). 

Williamson, who has only played 4 preseason games due to injury and is expected to miss 20-30 games, averaged 23 points with 6 rebounds and almost 2 steals a game. His dunking ability and dominance he displayed over his high school and college opponents are to thank for the hype surrounding Williamson, but he is currently nursing a knee injury, which could give Herro time to show the league what he’s got. Many dunkers in the NBA who rely on speed and quickness usually lose that agility after they come back from injury, for instance, players such as Dwight Howard and Brandon Roy. Zion could be no different. All in all, while Zion has the hype around him to win Rookie of the Year, I say it is not too much of a stretch to believe this crafty scorer Tyler Herro could pop up and take the rookie of the year trophy from the number 1 overall pick.