Latest NBA Rookie Ladder proves Dylan Harper's ROY campaign is back on

It was reasonable for Dylan Harper to drop out of the top ten of Steve Aschburner's weekly Kia Rookie Ladder, but he's back now. It didn't take long for the Spurs' rookie to regain his spot on the chart, coming in at number seven this week. There have already been a few different players to reach the top of the list, and with that much inconsistency, how could we not believe D. Harp has a shot to take it over?

The ultimate personal goal for Rutgers' own would be to win Rookie of the Year. The team has its sights set on making the playoffs and causing damage when they get there. Fortunately, the human mind has the capacity to compartmentalize. It's okay to want more for yourself, and winning that award would be seismic, considering no team has ever had three consecutive winners.

Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper would make history for an organization with an already rich past. The fans of the rest of the NBA teams would be sick to their stomachs. That's exactly what we want. The question is, how does he get there?

Harper's path to the ROY trophy will be the toughest yet

It was an easy call when Wemby won. He's the extraterrestrial. His biggest competition was Brandon Miller, and no disrespect to him, but how much do you hear his name these days? It was never really a question of who was going to win that year.

It was slightly more of a question at the beginning of Stephon Castle's campaign, but before long, the former UConn champion was showing why he won a national title in his only season in college. He's become the best prospect from his class, and it's not really close.

Despite an inconsistent shot, he's an 18-point-per-game scorer on 50% shooting, and he averages seven assists a night on top of being an All-NBA-level defender.

Harper's class is much tougher. Kon Knueppel came on strong after VJ Edgecombe got off to a blistering hot start and shot up the leaderboard. Lately, they've cooled off a bit, but Cooper Flagg has picked it up. The number one overall pick is showing why he was worth the hype. It's nowhere near over yet, though.

The Spurs' dominance has shocked everyone, and Harper has been a large part of that. His continued contribution to winning basketball with unreal efficiency in the paint will be his path to the trophy. Harper is shooting 60% in the restricted area. That's big man territory. You hear it all the time: this kid is special. He'll just have to show it pretty much every game to do the impossible. No problem, right?