Cam Boozer favored to win NBA Rookie of the Year over AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by senior betting analyst Ben Fawkes to react to Memphis Grizzlies' first-round draft pick Cameron Boozer being favored to win 2026-27 NBA Rookie of the Year ahead of AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Cameron Boozer opens as the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year, this coming season.
Explain to us why that's possible for him to be the Rookie of the Year, a-according to the sports books, that is, des-bes-despite him being drafted behind the likes of AJ Dibonda and, and Darren Peterson.
Yeah.
So I, I think it's a combination of a couple things, right?
First, they aren't that high odds, right, comparatively.
So we've had Victor Wembanyama last year.
I think he was about -200.
I think Kevin Durant was one of the odds-on favorites as well, and they both obviously won the Rookie of the Year.
Cooper Flagg, a-as well was, an odds-on favorite.
So this is still plus 250, and, and Dibonda and Peterson aren't that far behind as well with Acuff at plus 450.
Ultimately, it's kind of about a couple of things.
The first is opportunity, right?
And how much kind of is gonna be focused around that team.
You would assume Ja Morant is moved somewhere at some point by the Grizzlies.
And so really then you have kind of the focus, a lot of the focus around Cam Boozer, maybe playing him as that kind of point forward, getting a lot of assists, getting stats, and ultimately getting a lot of playing time, right?
I think that's something we saw last year, right, with, let's say, Ace Bailey with the Jazz.
Really talented player, but how much playing time are you gonna get?
And so I think that's a bit as well.
Darren Peterson on the Jazz, they have a lot of dudes all of a sudden, right?
They, they have, you know, Markkanen.
They have Triple J.
They have a lot of the young core as well.
They have Ace Bailey.
So how much is he going to play?
How many stats, counting stats is he gonna have?
And then Dibonda's the same thing with the Wizards team, where they, they have all sorts of pieces, right?
They have, you know, all of a sudden Trae Young and Anthony Davis and all these young players.
And so I think that's where-- that's-- it's a lot of the opportunity.
Acuff is certainly an interesting one in Sacramento.
You figure they're gonna kinda potentially hand the keys to him, and I think that's why you've seen him at plus 450.
And those are really the players right now, with single-digit odds.
Everyone else a little further back.
But it's really that opportunity as well.
That's why we might see a player like Jaxson Lindenberg, 20/1, a really good player, but going into Golden State, where you obviously have a lot of people already established, it's gonna be tougher for him to play, have Steve Kerr's trust, and put up stats with Steph Curry and others there.
