Sacramento Kings rookie and recent second-round pick Maxime Raynaud has continued to turn heads despite his team’s struggles as a whole. The big man managed his second consecutive 30-point game in Thursday’s matchup against the visiting Philadelphia 76ers.
As a result, national reports have taken notice of his exceptional statistical contributions on a bad team. Steve Aschburner, who writes the Rookie Ladder for NBA.com, is certainly one of them.
Aschburner joined The Drive Guys on Friday to share what he’s liked from Raynaud and where he stands amongst his fellow classmates.
“I think it’s his ability to thrive in a pretty dire or dismal situation,” he said. “I mean that to me, for a young guy, says a lot. He’s not dragged down by the circumstances there and the failures to meet other expectations. I think his size, where he was drafted, the stats he’s put up early on, it was sort of a per-36 kind of thing. But now, I mean, he’s playing regular minutes, starting, and all of that. So I just think he’s been, for a big man, pretty encouraging and showing a lot of potential. So, I just have not seen the consistency from enough other rookies to knock him farther down the ladder.”
In his latest rookie ladder, which came out prior to Raynaud’s second 30-point performances, he ranked the Kings’ rookie fourth behind Kon Knueppel, Cooper Flagg, and VJ Edgecombe.
That’s three of the top four picks in the draft and then Raynaud, who didn’t come off the board until pick 42. It’s safe to say Sacramento general manager Scott Perry deserves praise for that selection. But, does that plant him in the All-Rookie first team converstaion as well?
“It’s possible,” Aschburner told The Drive Guys. “I know that there are some guys I have a little further down, like Cedric Howard and Derek Queen, who were terrific early in the season, but haven’t sustained that. And depending on how the voters look at that, a lot of times it’s not only who had the better rookie seasons, it’s which rookies do you think are going to have lasting power in the league.”
“So whether enough people see Maxime with the West Coast starting time of home games and other teams out there, and then pay attention, because of the Kings otherwise lackluster season. You know, maybe he won’t get the volume of votes. But as of this point the way I put it is my ladder is essentially my ballot for the first two rookie teams. And there (are) 10 spots… that’s pretty much who I vote for. You know, the rookie team, all rookie teams, and the top three are on my rookie year ballot. Now I’m just one voter, and there’s 100, so take that for what it’s worth.”
Raynaud has started in 45 of his 63 games this season and is averaging 11.7 points and 7.3 rebounds on 56.8 percent shooting in 25.5 minutes per night.
While Rookie of the Year seems like a two-man race, Sacramento’s second-rounder will likely find himself named to an All-Rookie team.
Check out the full interview with Steve Aschburner by scrolling to the top of the page or by clicking here.
Listen to The Drive Guys from 2 – 6 p.m. PST, Monday through Friday, on Sactown Sports 1140.
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Upcoming Sacramento Kings schedule for the 2025-26 season
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- Thursday, March 26th – @ Orlando Magic – 4:00 PM PT
- Saturday, March 28th – @ Brooklyn Nets – 4:00 PM PT
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