When the NBA announced the three finalists for the 2024-25 Rookie of the Year award, it came as little surprise that none of the Utah Jazz's newbies made the cut. Stephon Castle, Zaccharie Risacher and Jaylen Wells all assumed higher-profile roles for longer stretches of time. They were always going to populate the top three of the voting process.
This is not necessarily a failure on the part of the Jazz's rookie class. Utah certainly expected more from Cody Williams, but it still facilitated midseason ascents for Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski, both of whom, generally speaking, continue to fly under the radar in national discussions.
Evaluating the Jazz's first-year players gets more interesting when looking through the All-Rookie lens. Ten spots are up for grabs. Three of them are already gone, because Castle, Risacher, and Wells will all be First-Teamers. Collier and Filipowski each have a viable claim to one of the remaining seven slots, particularly when getting into Second-Team territory.
Yet, we should be able to take this discussion a step further. One of them deserves to be an All-Rookie shoo-in.
And it's Kyle Filipowski.
Kyle Filipowski just made NBA rookie history
Over the course of his first season, it was not uncommon for Filipowski to deliver one-game performances worthy of standalone promotion. That trend began in earnest around January, when he became more of a mainstay in head coach Will Hardy's rotation.
The 21-year-old did end up cooling off a bit from beyond the arc to close the season. Looking back, it wasn't a rookie wall so much as it was defenses understanding the havoc he could cause with his range and movement.
Regardless, Filipowski still finished the year drilling over 75 threes, a standout number for someone his size, at 6'11". Even more notable is the efficiency he maintained on pretty absurd volume. Filipowski's effective field-goal percentage—which is a measure of both two- and three-point efficiency—checked in at 57.6, well above the league average of 54.3. That is fairly bonkers when you consider he jacked 220 total triples, a top-25 mark all-time among new-to-the-NBA big men.
With this in mind, here is a list of every rookie big man to match Filipowski's efficiency while making at least 75 three-pointers:
- Chet Holmgren (2023-24)
That’s it. That’s the list. The. Entire. Freaking. List.
This is just the beginning for Filipowski
Cherry-picked stats have a way of inciting over-exuberant outlooks, or even selective annoyance. This stat warrants neither. It is simply a measure of Filipowski's offensive volume and efficiency relative to other rookie bigs.
This doesn't mean he will be as good or better than Holmgren. The Oklahoma City Thunder big man is on another level defensively. Filipowski can't hit that ceiling at the less-glamorous end, where he looks like a pure power forward.
Still, this does speak to his offensive dynamism. It isn't just that he stretches the floor; it's the way he does it. He moves through defenses away from the ball like a hot knife through butter, and he's comfortable taking perimeter dribbles to set himself up on the catch, whether he's just running the floor, or coming off a screen.
Filipowski also does so much more than just score from the outside. He busted out a real, operable half-court floor game for the Jazz. Among 211 players who finished as many drives this season as Filipowski, his 58.7 percent clip out of those plays ranked sixth. Four of the five players in front of him are exclusively guards. The other is Josh Hart, a guard-forward hybrid who stands around seven inches shorter than Filipowski, further demonstrating the latter's anomalous touch and feel for someone his size.
The passing, meanwhile, may be more ahead of the curve than any other part of his game. He can drop dimes out of standstills, and even throw some nifty assists out of live dribbles. Filipowski now joins the company of three other rookie bigs who cleared 15 points, three assists and five three-point attempts per 36 minutes: Dario Saric (2016-17), Alex Sarr (2024-25), and Victor Wembanyama.
This Filipowski breakout gives the Jazz something to think about as they develop and build out the rest of their frontcourt. Part of his utility, though, lies in his scalability. He should be able to fit within a wide array of lineups, at least on the offensive end.
Of course, Filipowski's ceiling hinges on how much he can improve and round out his game. Can he get better on defense, perhaps one day soaking up reps at the 5? Continue to level up his finishing through contact? Generate, and then hit, more of his free throws?
Not all of Filipowski's flaws will become strengths, or even passable weaknesses. They don't have to. He is already delivering absurd value out of the No. 32 draft slot. If he gets materially better than the player he is right now, the Jazz won't just have unearthed a hidden gem. They'll have a surprise building block on their hands.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.