Vitor Faverani ranked 4th best rookie thus far, ahead of every player drafted in top 10

Vitor looks like every evil henchman from every movie ever made
All Hail Vitor!

According to David Thorpe over at ESPN, Celtics rookie big man Vitor Faverani has been the 4th best rookie to this point of the NBA season. Thorpe's lists are subjective, but one thing is for sure - he does not give a crap where you were drafted. In fact, nobody in the Top 5 of his list was drafted in the Top 10 of June's draft. That includes Mr. Faverani, who was not drafted at all, but instead signed out of the Spanish league.

Here's what Thorpe had to say about Vitor, who again, was ranked as the #4 rookie thus far.

Faverani continues to impress with his solid rebounding numbers and good perimeter shot with 3-point range. He made back-to-back 3s from the same spot (top of the key) against Minnesota, which is important because almost any player in the league can make a single 3 in a game, but making two straight is far more difficult. He blocked four shots in that game, too, and is averaging over one block per game. He's the rare big man who can rebound, shoot from distance and block shots well.

Vitor has been in-and-out of the starting line-up this season, but as Thorpe notes, he has a ton of tools. He has been a fantastic shot blocker thus far, averaging 1.4 in just 17.7 minutes per game. In fact, Faverani's "Block Percentage" (percentage of opponents shots he blocks while he's on the floor) is 5.9% - the 5th best number in the NBA.

Faverani is averaging 5.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 0.6 steals and 0.6 assists in those 17.7 minutes per contest. If you extrapolate those numbers to a Per-36 minutes pace, you get:

12.1 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.8 blocks, 1.3 steals, 1.3 assists 

Not bad for a guy Danny Ainge took a flyer on.

Obviously the key with Faverani (and most rookies), is consistency. On Saturday night in Minnesota he exploded for 9 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals in just 26 minutes. But then last night found himself in the doghouse, playing only 2 minutes against the Spurs.

Still, it's hard not to be happy with Vitor's performance through three weeks.

As for the Celtics first round pick, Kelly Olynyk ranked 13th in the rankings, and Thorpe has not been impressed.

Olynyk played well enough in the Orlando Summer League to suggest he'd be having more of an impact in the NBA than he he's had. It's an example, though, of how overrated playing four years of college basketball can be.

As documented here in previous reports, Olynyk still makes plenty of mental mistakes and his shot is not as crisp as Boston hoped it would be. That is not to suggest he can't make big strides. Of course he can. It helps that he's getting lots of minutes so he can hopefully be able to figure things out in time.

I think that Olynyk has shown some definite promise, specifically with his court vision and rebounding (he's averaging 9 boards and 3 assists per-36 minutes), but he has most definitely struggled with his shot. 39% ain't cutting it for any player, but especially not a 7-footer.

However, Celtics fans can take solace in Olynyk currently being ranked ahead of six of the twelve players that he was drafted after, including the #1 overall pick - Anthony Bennett. Bennett is off to an historically bad start, shooting 13.5% from the field (not a typo) and putting up a 0.91 PER (also not a typo). My goodness Cleveland.

P.S. Phil Pressey is ranked #28. Yea the guy can pass, but he shot 38% at Mizzou and is shooting 28% with the Cs thus far. He needs to improve on the jumper fast to survive in the NBA.

P.P.S Eric if you're reading this..Schroeder is #20. But he did punch DeMarcus Cousins in the balls last week so that's worth something.

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