Tyreke Evans has been the better player between the two so far this year. Is it close? Absolutely. But is it in question either? I don’t think so.
Jennings gets more highlights for sure and sometimes that’s what it takes to win this award. It happened in 2001 when Mike Miller beat out Marc Jackson 2003 when Amare Stoudemire beat out Yao Ming for the award. And yes, his 55-point game is still the best performance of the year if you forget the fact that the majority of his points in the second half came off of open jump shots from the nonexistent Warriors defense or Mikki Moore. It was the equivalent of putting up good scoring numbers at a shoot around.
But when you look at the numbers, the impact of the records for each team, and the overall play, Tyreke Evans is more the favorite when you put it all together (or at least he should be).
via Cowbell Kingdom.com – A Sacramento Kings Blog.
Harper makes a strong case for why Evans should be ROY favorite at this point. From my perspective, Jennings has shown more potential to be elite, but Reke has shown more consistency. It’s difficult to completely remove Evans from a game entirely unless Westphal yanks him. With Jennings, even if he gets points, you can force the ball away from him for long periods of time.
Additionally, for all the talk about Evans not being a point, I feel like he’s a more integral part of the Kings’ offense than Jennings is to the Bucks. If you get Jennings the ball and the defense doesn’t swarm him, he’s going to make plays. But they almost feel independent of the rest of the offense. Conversely, Evans seems to be trying very hard to work in the flow of the offense and contribute in a team context.
I will say that Jennings looks like a better scorer and a better passer. We’ll have to see if he keeps the ability to get to the hole now that defenses are aware of him, or if he shrinks back to mid-range jumpers. Because even if he hits them at a good clip, that’s going to limit his effectiveness, and the Bucks’ offense. Reke, on the other hand, cannot be stopped. He’s too big, too fast, too quick. If he learns a set of NBA finishing moves, it’s over.
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According to 82games, Evans’ opponent counterpart PER is 18. Jennings’ is 12.7. Now, I haven’t watched enough Kings’ games to make an armchair scout decision on Evans defense, but the numbers (and I’m kinda iffy on the value of PER, but its definitely useful) suggest that Jennings is way ahead in that department.