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Stephon Castle, Zaccharie Risacher and Jaylen Wells named finalists for Rookie of the Year

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NBA Communications: The three finalists for the 2024-25 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award: ▪ Stephon Castle of @spurs ▪ Zaccharie Risacher of @ATLHawks ▪ Jaylen Wells of @memgrizz
Source: Twitter

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Kenny Beecham @KOT4Q
Lol at the broadcast zooming in on Zyon Pullin while talking about Jaylen Wells – 2:52 PM
Kevin Chouinard @KLChouinard
Zaccharie Risacher, on playing for France this summer.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to be on that team.”
“It is like the NBA is a dream for me, and the national team is a dream too for me, so I’m just glad to be able to pretend to play in those two dreams.” pic.x.com/5LKtGI92H7 – 10:10 AM

Eurohoops @Eurohoopsnet
Zaccharie Risacher won’t be playing in the NBA Playoffs ❌
The Atlanta Hawks were eliminated in the Play-Ins by Miami:
eurohoops.net/en/nba-news/18… – 3:21 AM
Adam Aaronson @SixersAdam
I’ve spent many days trying to figure out why Jaylen Wells isn’t ROY and haven’t been able to do it. Castle is obviously awesome + the vastly superior long-term prospect — if that’s the tiebreaker I guess I get it? — but I don’t see the argument that Wells wasn’t better this year – 10:37 AM

More on this storyline

Dusty Garza: Victor Wembanyama was in the house to watch his Spurs defeat the Raptors 125-118. Keldon Johnson scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, and Julian Champagnie shot 66.7% from deep. Stephon Castle notched another 20 point game to go with 8 boards and 6 assists. -via Twitter / April 13, 2025
Paul Garcia: “I feel like, at this point, I pretty much got it locked up…” – Castle on ROY race. Castle is the Vegas favorite going into the final week of the regular season. More at TheSpotUpShot.com -via Twitter @PaulGarciaNBA / April 7, 2025
Castle’s competition for this season’s honor seems to be Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, selected three spots ahead of Castle, also has come to life of late. He has five games of 20 or more points in Atlanta’s last 20 games, including a 36-point gem March 30 against the Milwaukee Bucks. He nabbed his first Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honor on Monday. Naturally, the Spurs believe Castle deserves to be the team’s second consecutive Rookie of the Year. “Has it even been a question?” Sochan said of Castle’s ascendancy in the race for the award. “There’s no one out there on the ‘ladder,’ or even in his class that should get it, so I think it’s his for sure.” -via New York Times / April 4, 2025
Throughout the season, Hawks coach Quin Snyder honed his young team to fit an offensive cutting and defensive pressure approach. The team overperformed preseason expectations, even after losing Johnson and trading away De’Andre Hunter, giving the franchise confidence in the path it charted last offseason. Key players such as Daniels and Zaccharie Risacher struggled against Miami, a crucial moment to learn and grow. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, so this is a perfect opportunity for guys that. I mean, if this is their first experience of an elimination game, they know now what to expect and what to go into the summertime to work on,” Young said. -via New York Times / April 19, 2025
Risacher scored 13 points in first nine minutes on nearly perfect shooting. He drained a 3 from the wing with just under 11 minutes to play before picking off Trendon Watford then running to the other end for a dunk. With 6:35 to play, he ran the floor after Nets miss then scored a running reverse layup. Then he eurostepped his way to the basket for a layup. In the first 8:30 of Thursday’s game, Risacher had more points (13) than the entire Nets lineup (11) after he made a running 3-pointer with 3:29 to play in the first quarter. “And, I’m just happy to be someone that can make his mark in this league,” Risacher said. “And I just feel like, I’m grateful and all this happened because I’m working really hard every day, but also because I couldn’t make, I couldn’t score 38 without my teammates.” -via Atlanta Journal-Constitution / April 11, 2025
Grizzlies rookie Jaylen Wells will likely miss the rest of the 2024-25 season after suffering wrist and facial injuries against the Hornets on Tuesday, the Grizzlies announced Friday afternoon. Wells suffered a right wrist fracture, a concussion and a facial laceration, the Grizzlies said. He is expected to make a full recovery. -via Memphis Commercial Appeal / April 11, 2025