Durant finishes as top rookie

This is it. With a season filled with surprises (Carl Landry), ups and downs (Kevin Durant) and bumps and bruises (Yi Jianlian) winding down, I'm ready to submit my final rankings. (Here's hoping Al Horford doesn't have a couple 50-point games.)

The top three listed here would double as my Rookie of the Year ballot if I had an official vote.

(Send comments, complaints or hype for your favorite rookie to Drew Packham at drew.packham@turner.com.)

NBA Rookie Rankings

1 Preseason: 1	Kevin Durant, Seattle SuperSonics Durant left the Seattle fans wanting more Sunday. "I almost cried, to be honest with you. People kept saying it might be the last game in Seattle," Durant said after scoring 19 points in the Sonics' 99-95 win over the Mavs. "It was phenomenal." My reasoning for making Durant the top rookie comes down to this: If I take Durant away from the Sonics, how would they have finished this year? They couldn't do much worse than their franchise-low 19 wins -- or could they? I'm afraid they could, and would have without Durant. However, take Horford away from the Hawks and they still contend for a playoff spot in the lackluster Eastern Conference. Sure, Horford has been a key player for Atlanta, but Durant carried the Sonics this season -- not an easy feat for a 19-year-old, and certainly enough to earn my praise.
2 Preseason: 3	Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks Horford is the other player most mentioned in Rookie of the Year talk. I couldn't agree more, even though Durant's offensive production wins out over Horford's "guy-who-does-the-little-things" qualities. Surprisingly, one player who isn't backing Horford is fellow Florida alum -- and current Knicks big man -- David Lee. "I think [Horford's] second after Durant just because of the freedom that Durant had and the opportunity to play as many minutes as he can handle," Lee told Newsday. "I think that he is as valuable as any player other than Joe Johnson on the Atlanta team. He's a guy who is definitely second in my voting. I just think that you look at Durant's numbers I think you give it to Durant whether he deserves it or not."
3 Preseason: 9	Al Thornton, Los Angeles Clippers Thornton sees plenty of room for improvement despite averaging 16.1 points and 5.7 rebounds since the All-Star break. When asked by the Los Angeles Times to grade his rookie campaign, Thornton said: "I'd have to say a C. It's pretty low. I can't grade myself any higher. Consistency is the main thing for me. I've been up and down." After getting off to a slow start -- he was plagued by a sprained ankle early in the season -- Thornton was one of the best players down the stretch. "If you say we are going to look at a timeline from Jan. 1 on, then I've got an argument for you," coach Mike Dunleavy said. Still, Thornton was so good late that on this list he blew past the likes of Luis Scola and Jamario Moon, who are crucial to their teams' success. Thornton, taken with the 14th pick, may just turn out to be the steal of the 2007 class.
4 Preseason: 4	Luis Scola, Houston Rockets Without Scola (10.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg), I doubt the Rockets make the playoffs this season. And now that they're in the postseason, coach Rick Adelamn believes Scola will become even more important. "The big thing is can we get Carl and Luis to be effective? Otherwise, teams are going to make us a jump-shooting team," Adelman told the Houston Chronicle. Of the need to keep defenses from crowding Tracy McGrady, Scola said: "If we don't hit open shots, and we don't go for the easy baskets, it's going to be really tough. ... We need to make him feel better and better every game and take away defenders from him. The only way we can do that is by hitting the easy shots and making the layups."
5 Preseason: 6	Jeff Green, Seattle SuperSonics Like Durant, one of the knocks on Green has been that he plays for a losing team. Still, through Sunday he ranked fourth among rookies in scoring (10.3) and fifth in rebounding (4.7) while starting 51 times in 79 games. Plus, he's got a good head on his shoulders: Green says he's about 24 credits shy of a degree from Georgetown and plans to spend his summer hitting the books. "That's going to mean a lot to me and to my mother," he told the Seattle Times. "She cried at my high school graduation. I know my dad will be all in tears. That's something that he never did. I know he'll cry. And I will too." If the degree doesn't work out, Green seems to have a pretty bright future in Seattle, Oklahoma City or wherever he and the Sonics wind up.
6 Preseason: NR	Thaddeus Young, Philadelphia 76ers The Sixers were obviously high on the 19-year-old Young, but it's clear they got more than they expected from the Georgia Tech product. Young's energy and production (8.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg in only 20.7 mpg) have helped fuel the Sixers' playoff run. Young has started 22 of the past 36 games, and for the season he's shooting 54 percent from the field. Not too bad for a guy who wasn't sure what his role would be in Philly. "At first, I was told I wasn't going to play some games ... that didn't sit well with me," Young told the Philadelphia Daily News. "I was like, 'I want to play in every game. I'm going to work as hard as I can to play in every game.' I just kept my focus on the task at hand." It's that drive that caught the 76ers' eyes in the draft. "If you could take what's inside him and inject it in a lot of other players, we'd all be better off," said Courtney Witte, the team's director of player personnel.
7 Preseason: NR	Jamario Moon, Toronto Raptors Expectations were high for the Raptors entering the season (they haven't delivered). For Moon, however, there were no expectations whatsoever. So when Moon burst on the scene as a solid defender, reliable rebounder and all-around do-everything player, people took notice. Despite recent struggles -- he averaged just 4.0 points and 5.0 rebounds last week -- Moon ranks first among rookies in steals (1.03), second in blocks (1.4), third in rebounds (6.2) and seventh in scoring (8.6). For a guy who came into the season virtually unknown, Moon has made a name for himself.
8 Preseason: NR	Juan Carlos Navarro, Memphis Grizzlies It's been no secret that Navarro has been one of my favorite rookies this season. What's not to like? He's got the scruffy beard, the European-influenced game, the no-conscience three-pointers and the teardrop floaters in the lane. Navarro earned his stripes in his native Spain, but many wondered if he could adapt to the American game. Well, adapt he has. Navarro is averaging 10.9 points (third among rookies) and is one of the most dangerous outside shooters of this year's freshmen. He certainly had his bouts of inconsistency but proved to himself and his many fans back home that he'll stick around the league for years to come.
9 Preseason: NR	Mike Conley, Memphis Grizzlies Conley is finishing on a high note. The Memphis point guard averaged 19.7 points last week to increase his season average to 9.3, to go with 4.1 assists. Though injuries have limited him to 51 games, Conley became more confident as the season progressed. And while he may not win the ROY, he did win something recently: the Cleveland Plain Dealer's second annual Celebrity Bracketology Challenge. Conley beat out Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore, Cavs guard Daniel Gibson and Browns running back Jamal Lewis.
10 Preseason: NR	Carl Landry, Houston Rockets When you look at the season as a whole, other players have better scoring numbers than Landry (Yi, Daequan Cook), but almost no player has provided a bigger spark for his team. The second-round pick out of Purdue is averaging 8.3 points (on 61.3 percent shooting) for the playoff-bound Rockets. His contributions have even brought about talk that Landry could land on one of the NBA's two All-Rookie teams. "Our team is in the playoffs and I'm playing," Landry told the Houston Chronicle. "There are a lot of things that I'm happy about other than making the All-Rookie team."
Honorable Mention for the season Yi Jianlian, Bucks (8.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg in 66 games before sustaining season-ending knee injury earlier this month); Joakim Noah, Bulls (9.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg in 30 starts); Rodney Stuckey, Pistons (9.1 ppg, 3.1 apg since the All-Star break); Daequan Cook, Heat (73 three-pointers are franchise record for a rookie, though he is shooting only 32.9 percent from beyond the arc)
Honorable Mention for the week Wilson Chandler, Knicks (16.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg in three games last week); Jared Dudley, Bobcats (9.3 ppg in four games); Spencer Hawes, Kings (11.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg in April)