DETROIT – Chances are Darius Acuff Jr. is averaging more points this season than your favorite NBA player.
Kevin Durant? Yup.
Cade Cunningham? Sure thing.
Lebron James? By a lot!
The Sacramento Kings are currently the worst team in the NBA, but they have one of the most exciting young players the franchise has seen since the 1960s. Basketball season is only a few weeks old but Acuff Jr. is already putting up numbers that are sure to raise eyebrows.
He proved age truly is just a number when he became the youngest player in Kings history to record 30 or more points in consecutive games, a record previously held by the great Oscar Robertson.
That is just the start however, as he is breaking records on a league-wide level as well.
Last month Acuff Jr. became the first NBA player to record 25+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 5+ assists in three of his first seven career games since 1960!
Just days into his professional career and he is already in line to have his jersey retired at Cass Tech High School one day, a place where he shot the ball a lot.
The 19-year-old is not letting his rookie status stop him from chucking the rock at a high clip. Acuff Jr. is averaging a whopping 23.6 field goal attempts per game this season, which is not only the most among rookies, but tied for the most in the entire NBA with Luka Doncic of the Lakers. The last Sacramento Kings first-year player to shoot the ball that much was also Oscar Robertson in the 1960-61 campaign.
That number is probably the main contributor to why he is shooting a less than desirable 40% from the field, but the Kings are more than happy to trade that off for everything else he provides. The seventh overall pick in this past summers draft currently leads all of his classmates in minutes per game (36.6), points per game (26.1), assists per game (6.3), field goals made per game (9.6), and field goals attempted per game (23.6).
Acuff Jr. is doing it all. On Halloween night he poured in nine three-pointers in a loss to the Grizzlies, the most ever made by a teenager in NBA history. In his first seven appearances, he has logged a total of 183 points, the most by a guard in their first seven career games since none other than, you guessed it, Oscar Robertson.
One last stat that further proves how the Detroit native should be a real candidate for Rookie of the Year involves not Oscar Robertson, but an NBA great that resembles his playing style a good amount. Acuff Jr. is the fifth player in league history with three 30-point games in his first six appearances, the first to do since Allen Iverson.
He joins Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara as NBA rookies with ties to Michigan that are off to great starts in their professional tenures. All the more reason to tune into a game this year, along with the Pistons leading the league in defense of course.
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