Rookie Rankings: With Thunder's Westbrook, three's no crowd

T-Mobile, whose ad slogan is "Who's In Your Fave 5?", graciously sponsors the Rookie Rankings, where every week we determine the 10 best first-year players. But so far this season, the only number that's resonated in this column has been two.

As in, it's been a two-man race between Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo.

Rose has occupied the No. 1 spot in six of the previous eight weeks and he's back again, making it seven of nine. Both of the weeks that Chicago's do-it-all guard vacated his perch, Mayo was the one to step in.

For a while Mike Beasley kept pace as the third wheel, but since Miami coach Erik Spoelstra started playing yo-yo with Beasley's minutes, the No. 2 pick has entered a downward spiral in the rankings.

Enter Russell Westbrook.

The 6-foot-3 mass of muscle, who helped lead UCLA to the Final Four last season, hasn't won his fifth game as a pro yet (the Thunder are 4-29) but he's steadily crept his way up the rookie charts. After finishing no higher than No. 7 in the first five weeks, Westbrook has settled into the top five and sits at No. 3 for the second consecutive week.

Westbrook has improved dramatically from the first month of the season, upping his averages from 12.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game on 34.5 percent from the field and 24 percent from three in November to 15.8, 5.0 and 5.3 while bolstering his percentages to 46.2 overall and 41.2 from deep in December. He has learned on the fly, already engaging in a battle to overtake Earl Watson's starting position at the point and adjusting to Oklahoma City's coaching change from P.J. Carlesimo to Scott Brooks. Those are two major experiences in the course of two short months that would be a lot for any player to take on, rookie or otherwise.

On Tuesday, Westbrook scored a season-high 31 points on 12-for-16 shooting, but his six turnovers -- three coming in the game's final minutes -- marred what could have been a career night.

"Russell is going to get better every game, every month, every year," Brooks told The Oklahoman after Westbrook's miscues cost the Thunder a close game against the Suns. "But it's important that he understands that we can't turn the ball over. That's the responsibility of the point guard. But he's going to continue to work on making good decisions."

Last year, Westbrook's teammate Kevin Durant and the Hawks' Al Horford pretty much made it a two-man competition for top rookie honors as well, until the Rockets' Luis Scola and the Clippers' Al Thornton made late surges in the last couple months of the season.

If Westbrook keeps up his good play, our two-man race could soon start to look more like Three's Company.

Korleone Young Drop of the Week: D.J. Augustin CHA; R. Fernandez POR; B. Lopez NJN (-2)

Eddie Gottlieb Rise of the Week: M. Chalmers MIA; E. Gordon LAC (+3)

1. Derrick Rose, G, Chicago G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 31 38.0 17.6 3.7 6.3 1.0 0.2 .477 .341 .791 Last Week: 1 | Drafted: 1 Does he have a ceiling? It's debatable after Rose's last two games where he's averaged 24 points, 10 assists and four rebounds on 21-for-34 shooting (62 percent). He just keeps getting better.

2. O.J. Mayo, G, Memphis G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 32 38.0 19.9 4.1 3.0 1.1 0.1 .453 .390 .877 Last Week: 2 | Drafted: 3 Mayo had a rough 4-for-20 shooting display against the Suns on Tuesday and it might be attributed to all the minutes he's been playing lately. O.J. logged 39 minutes in the loss to Phoenix, the second night of a back-to-back, after playing 44, 52 and 39 minutes in his previous three games against Indiana, San Antonio and Minnesota, respectively.

3. Russell Westbrook, G, Oklahoma City G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 32 29.7 13.8 4.1 4.6 1.5 0.2 .400 .318 .789 Last Week: 3 | Drafted: 4 Westbrook is in another three-man race with members of the rookie class, as he is competing with Milwaukee's Joe Alexander and Portland's Rudy Fernandez for the right to be lone rookie representative in the Sprite Slam Dunk contest at this year's All-Star Game in Phoenix.

4. Michael Beasley, F, Miami G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 29 24.9 13.0 4.9 0.9 0.6 0.6 .442 .321 .776 Last Week: 4 | Drafted: 2 Beasley stays stagnant at No. 4 this week after admitting to the Miami Herald that he's going through what all rookies experience at some point or another right now. "I think I've already hit the wall," Beasley said. "I've heard LeBron [James], I've heard Carmelo [Anthony] -- some of the greats talk about it. I'm just little old me. I went through a couple of games where I just couldn't do anything right."

5. Mario Chalmers, G, Miami G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 30 32.1 10.3 2.8 4.6 2.0 0.1 .434 .378 0.708 Last Week: 8 | Drafted: 34 If you only judged Chalmers by his best games in each statistical category, you might think he would deserve to be even higher on this list. Just look: 23 points against Houston, seven rebounds and eight assists in the same game against Milwaukee, nine steals against Philadelphia and six 3-pointers made against Cleveland on NBA TV's Fan Night on Tuesday.

6. Eric Gordon, G, L.A. Clippers G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 30 27.6 10.0 2.3 1.7 1.0 0.4 .444 .376 .795 Last Week: 9 | Drafted: 7 You know that saying about how a flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all? Despite the No. 1 guy on this list's last name, that little proverb applies perfectly to Gordon. The solid 6-3, 222-pound guard produced as a freshman at Indiana in the midst of a coaching scandal and he's getting it done as a rookie in the league even though drama has surrounded the Clippers all season long.

7. D.J. Augustin, G, Charlotte G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 32 29.0 12.5 1.9 4.3 0.5 0.0 .408 .400 .914 Last Week: 5 | Drafted: 9 Augustin has to be happy that the Bobcats don't play the Nets again until the second-to-last game of the season after he struggled mightily against Devin Harris and Co. last week. In back-to-back games against New Jersey, Augustin combined for eight points on 3-for-11 shooting, 0-for-5 from three and just four assists against four turnovers.

8. Rudy Fernandez, G-F, Portland G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 32 25.8 10.6 3.1 1.9 0.8 0.2 .417 .391 .896 Last Week: 6 | Drafted: 24 by Phoenix in 2007 Fernandez got the first start of his career on Tuesday, filling in for Brandon Roy at shooting guard for the Trail Blazers' game against the Celtics. Rudy continued his mini shooting slump (2-for-10 from three in his last two games), but Portland managed to upset Boston, snapping a seven-game losing streak to the C's and pushing its record to 20-12 to secure its best start since 2002-03.

9. Brook Lopez, C, New Jersey G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 31 28.1 9.9 7.8 0.7 0.6 2.0 .471 .000 .763 Last Week: 7 | Drafted: 10 There is a reason the Nets would be the No. 7 seed in the East if the playoffs started today and it isn't just Devin Harris. If there was a Defensive Rookie of the Year award, Lopez would be leading the way.

10. Marc Gasol, C, Memphis G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG FG% 3P% FT% 32 29.4 11.0 6.9 0.7 1.1 1.8 .516 .000 .722 Last Week: The Next 10 | Drafted: 48 by L.A. Lakers in 2007 With Marreese Speights only grabbing two rebounds total in two Sixers losses last week and Darko Milicic going down for at least a month with a fractured finger, space in the top 10 and in the Grizzlies lineup opened up for Gasol. The Spanish center seized the opportunity, averaging 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in his last four games.

The Next 10 (alphabetical order): Roy Hibbert (IND), George Hill (SAS), Kevin Love (MIN), Luc Mbah a Moute (MIL), Anthony Morrow (GSW), Greg Oden (POR), Anthony Randolph (GSW), Brandon Rush (IND), Marreese Speights (PHI), Jason Thompson (SAC)

Noteworthy Koufos Kosta Koufos (UTA) has provided some relief for Jazz fans seeing their team temporarily fall out of the playoff picture while Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap battle back from injuries. The athletic 7-footer out of Ohio State is averaging 13.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in his last three games while filling in for Utah's missing bigs. Joey Dorsey (HOU) was sent down to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League to create roster space for Dikembe Mutombo, who rejoined the Rockets on Tuesday after sitting out the start of the season. The HNPAMY (Have Not Played A Minute Yet) Club: J.R. Giddens (BOS)*, Hamed Haddadi (MEM)*, Nathan Jawai (TOR), Sonny Weems (DEN)*, D.J. White (OKC) * = assigned to D-League

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