It turns out this year's crop of NBA newbies are alright.

Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama have maintained a monopoly on the rookie headlines all season. Deservedly so. They aren't so much stars in the making as successfully navigating stardom waters now.

Somewhat lost amid their breakout debuts, though, is...everyone else.

Sure, fans of specific teams understand and recognize the impact delivered by their squad's rookies. And we have all, collectively, checked in on and then retched in the face of Scoot Henderson's plus-minus.

But aside from a nod here and a fist bump there, the rest of this season's first-timer class has taken a backseat to the Chet and Wemby Show—which, according to multiple sources near and far away from the situation, has been renewed for Season 2 through 18, with options for Season 19 through 58. Hell, not even the "Scoot Henderson vs. Brandon Miller" debate is cracking the national conscience these days. (Probably because, for the moment, it's not much of a debate. But you get the point.)

So what better way to celebrate the NBA's pool of new kids at large than by taking a stab at building 2023-24 All-Rookie teams?

The parameters of the mission are simple: identify and spotlight the 10 most impactful novices from this year, without regard for positional classification. And while availability will absolutely factor into the discussion, this exercise is not bound by a games-played requirement.

Who makes the cut? Dust off those opposable thumbs and you'll see.

1st: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

Victor Wembanyama leads what feels like a trio of first-team locks.

Speaking in hyperbole is impossible when assessing his defensive impact. He leads the league in both blocks and stocks (steals plus blocks) per game by a comical margin. That's cool. The IQ he displays when guarding in space or away from actions entirely is even cooler.

Wembanyama melds seasoned restraint with terrifying activity, a combination that doesn't just bust up rival possessions but disrupts and manipulates their entire process. It's an impact that doesn't require highlights—though, he delivers them in droves. His very existence is prohibitive to offenses.

Concerns over Wembanyama's offensive role and efficiency once upon a time left his place in the rookie pecking order up for debate. That angst has since dissipated—and is, in fact, a distant memory.

Since taking over as the San Antonio Spurs' starting 5 on Dec. 8, Wembanyama is averaging 22.1 points and 4.1 assists while increasing his true shooting percentage from 52.2 to 58.6. His live-dribble passing has shined beyond just kickouts, and perhaps most notably, he's downing 41.8 percent of his pull-up triples during this 47-game stretch—a top-four mark among everyone who has attempted more than 100 of these treys.

1st Team: Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder

It still doesn't seem like we're fully grasping the gravity of what Chet Holmgren is doing for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Yes, to an extent, we get it. His 16.6 points and 2.4 blocks per game on glittery 63.5 true shooting has endured wire-to-wire and given him a real case to outstrip Victor Wembanyama for Rookie of the Year.

And yet, most of us don't spend nearly enough time discussing the context of Holmgren's success.

He is no worse than the third-most important player on what may end up being the best team in the Western Conference. That is a bonkers level of prominence for a 21-year-old with no previous NBA experience—especially one working his way back from a right foot injury that severely limited his basketball activity between August 2022 and 2023 training camp.

Holmgren's role on defense is similar to Wembanyama's in San Antonio. He represents a primal infrastructure, someone whose back-line mobility and ubiquity affords unique flexibility to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and everyone not named Lu Dort.

Weighing Holmgren's season against Wembanyama's rookie campaign has invariably led to a laser focus on his offensive gaps. These somewhat cringey endeavors mostly come up empty, inevitably concluding that he has the luxury of working alongside better talent.

That is inarguably true. But Holmgren isn't just pick-and-pop, catch-and-spray specialist. Among other things, he has the handle of someone who doesn't stand 7'1" and the floor game to prove it.

His 6.4 drives per game rank ninth among everyone taller than 6'10". And out of 80 players who have churned out as many downhill attacks, only Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Dončić and LeBron James are hitting shots out of these situations at a higher clip.

1st Team: Brandon Miller, Charlotte Hornets

Safety nets have been removed from beneath Brandon Miller at every turn this season.

Limited availability from LaMelo Ball and then Terry Rozier's exit complicated his offensive role. Mark Williams' own injury issues increased the rookie's responsibility on defense—not just as someone who needs to help the Charlotte Hornets protect the paint from the outside-in, but a secondary line of prevention at the basket.

Nick Richards is the only other player on the team to contest more shots at the rim. More critically, Miller ranks sixth among all 470ish bodies standing under 6'9" in this same category. Though he isn't stymying opponents at the basket, they are shooting slightly worse than their average against him when inside six feet.

The number of hats he wears on defense should be a bigger story. His assignment portfolio runs the positional gamut. He isn't always tackling the other team's best player, but he can. His commitment to flying around after mobile guards, wings and, yes, select bigs is versatility laced with actual substance. Whomever he's defending, the work begins before they ever receive or get close to the ball.

A lack of primary-creator options at the other end should wind up being a boon for Miller's development. The Hornets have plumbed his depths as a passer. Early returns suggest he's overtaxed—he can get rid of the ball too soon—but he's also dropped some nifty dimes coming around screens.

Forcing separation as a scorer loomed as a potential limitation. It still does when gauging his ability to attack the basket. But he's shown the fluidity and change of cadence necessary to generate space for pull-up twos—which he's knocking down at a roughly 47 percent clip. And for anyone concerned about how his 17 points per game translate to a better roster, Miller is converting 39 percent of his spot-up triples on volume, which account for over one-third of his shot diet.

1st Team: Jaime Jaquez Jr., Miami Heat

It took virtually no time at all for Jaime Jaquez Jr. to have people rolling their eyes into the back of their head while murmuring "The mother f'n Miami Heat really did it again, didn't they?"

Bagging the 23-year-old with pick No. 18 in last June's draft already goes down as a two-syllable stuh-eal. Jaquez plays like a veteran who can be neither ruffled nor fazed, with an impact that touches every imaginable area of the game.

Connectors are so often considered guards taller than conventional floor generals who aren't quite big or strong enough to meet wing criteria. Jaquez flips that stereotype on its face. He is a 6'6" universal adapter.

Putting up around 12 points, four boards, three assists and a steal per game won't turn many heads. But the allure is in the details.

Jaquez is a savvy mover and shaker away from the ball who unbottles complex and shifty footwork when on it. His offense is an anomalous brew of force and finesse and technique—with the efficiency to match. He's an above-average scorer at the rim (56th percentile) and from mid-range (72nd percentile) and in transition (60th percentile) and on post-ups (67th percentile). It'd be nice if he could take and make more threes, but his efficiency on paint touches is bananas (66.1 percent), and he's at home dropping dimes off live dribbles.

The rookie lives to disrupt on the other side of the floor. Jaquez is second on the Heat in total deflections, which fits his activity. He is acutely alert off the ball, ready to help or ruin kickouts and lobs and entry passes. The assignments he takes on are usually taller and burlier than himself, and it almost never matters.

So, yeah, it turns out the mother f'n Miami Heat really did it again.

1st Team: Cason Wallace, Oklahoma City Thunder

Chet Holmgren is not the only rookie making meaningful contributions to a genuine championship contender. He's not even only the rookie on the Oklahoma City Thunder bringing every-night heat.

Cason Wallace's role is more contingent than most on this list. He doesn't start, and his minutes are subject to a modicum of turbulence depending on what Josh Giddey, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe are doing in the moment.

The 20-year-old is nevertheless still hovering around the top 10 in total court time among all rookies. That's a large enough sample when factoring in the circumstances. Earning regular minutes on a contender is muuuuch harder than getting run for teams with zero win-column expectations or alternatives.

Billed as a point guard, Wallace is more like a three-and-D wing in miniature. Almost half of his shots come as spot-up threes, which he's splashing in at a 44.4 percent clip. Oklahoma City does need him to be more aggressive when attacking off the catch, but he will, in fact, attack. And he's provided glimpses into gnarly footwork after picking up his dribble as well as quality passing in traffic.

Nobody will be smitten by Wallace's per-game lines. He's averaging under seven points per game. But his defensive body of work seals the deal for me.

This isn't someone just standing the test of opposing bench units. The Thunder have baptized him by fire, rolling him out in real volume, on islands, against star guards like Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Bradley Beal, Trae Young, Jamal Murray—the list goes on. And when Wallace isn't rumbling at the point of attack, he has the speed and strength to pinball around against shooters with size who come off screens.

Whether Wallace retains this spot to close the year is debatable. Dereck Lively II and Brandin Podziemski loom, and Amen Thompson continues to expand his sample size. For the time being, "undeniably impactful player on a title contender" fuels Wallace's first-team nod.

2nd Team: Brandin Podziemski, Golden State Warriors

Brandin Podziemski has registered among the most consistent bright spots for the Golden State Warriors this season, a testament to all the different gaps he can fill (as well as an indictment of many others on the roster).

You don't get the sense that the 21-year-old has a singular dominant skill when watching him. He's not particularly big or long or explosive. He is not someone on whom you lean to generate a from-scratch look when things bog down. Nor is he the person to whom you turn, ideally, when you need to impede a star at the other end. But there is a vastness to the way Podz plays.

He will leave a dent in virtually every aspect of the game. Some might call it the dirty work. It's more like on-the-margins completeness. He will come in and rebound among the trees. He will cut through defenses with precision timing and purposeful paths. He will check star guards when called upon and make them work to get the ball. He will slide in for charges. He will keep the offense moving, as both a driver and passer.

That last bit may be the most tantalizing part of his game. Podziemski could stand to be more aggressive looking for his own shot, but he remains unpredictable on the move. His playmaking on paint touches and drives is an offensive hack.

Leaving him off the first team is tough. His shot efficiency isn't quite there for me. He's knocking down over 43.3 percent of his pull-up threes, including an 11-of-20 clip on step-back treys. But his runners can be all over place, and he doesn't always deliver the volume necessary to maximize the pressure he puts on defenses. The free-throw-shooting struggles are weird, too.

None of which is meant to downplay Podz's inaugural campaign. He is the common denominator in some of Golden State's most effective units. And his functional tentacles stretch all over the place.

The proof is in the per-possession impact. Podz is on course to become just the third rookie guard to clear 15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and 1.5 steals per 100 possessions, joining only Ben Simmons and Luka Dončić.

2nd Team: Dereck Lively II, Dallas Mavericks

Dereck Lively II previously held the inside track on a first-team ballot. And his case for one persists. But the combination of ankle issues, a nasal fracture and the acquisitions of Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington have tamped down his playing time. He's averaging fewer than 19 minutes since the trade deadline, down from 26.0 beforehand.

Good news: Appearing near the top of the second-team ballot is as far as he can tumble.

Lively has ranked among the most fundamentally sound rookies this season. His offensive floor awareness is kind of surreal. He knows how to navigate the half-court after connecting on or slipping screens, but he's also a whiz at positioning himself away from the ball while Luka Dončić or Kyrie Irving go to work.

Most of Lively's offensive portfolio is populated with the usual big-dude scoring opportunities: dives, putbacks, transition touches, etc. But he has made some waves off center-floor catches and is shooting over 50 percent on (a modest number of) hook shots.

And then there's Lively's defense, which belies his lack of NBA experience. His instincts around the basket are bankable, and he's not afraid to challenge poster attempts. Opponents are shooting 58.5 percent against him at the hoop—a rock-solid mark that's right in line with fellow Dallas Mavericks big Daniel Gafford (57 percent).

Lively is not solely a paint-bound big, though. He doesn't have the quickest feet in space but can guard higher up the floor without much issue anyway. He is comfortable turning his hips on a dime and knows how to use his length when going stride-for-stride downhill. His head-on-a-swivel awareness in the pick-and-roll, including as he backpedals, also suggests he could become a regular member of the 1.5-steals-and-1.5-blocks-per-game club.

2nd Team: Ausar Thompson, Detroit Pistons

Ausar Thompson's rookie season has ended after 63 appearances while he deals with a blood clot issue. (Here's hoping he makes a full recovery.) The abrupt finish bilked him of a first-team nod but won't come close to nudging him outside the top 10 overall.

The 21-year-old's defense is suffocating. To relax against him is to throw away an entire possession. He will blast through half-assed screens, and attempting entry passes and kickouts with him in the vicinity is a good way to turn the ball over and leave your team scrambling in transition.

Thompson maintained dominant defensive form while ferrying a heavy workload to boot. Anthony Black and Toumani Camara are the only rookies (minimum 10 minutes played) facing a higher degree of matchup difficulty, according to BBall-Index.

A shaky showing from deep (18.6 percent) has many worried about Thompson's place on the offensive end. That's fair. But finite range, in his case, does not equate to an absence of utility.

Thompson will sprint out in transition, pump into and pass out of drives and crash the offensive glass. The last rookie to rebound 9 percent of his team's misses in as many minutes and stand under 6'8" was Josh Howard in 2003-04. And among the 140-plus players this season to finish as many drives as Thompson, Luka Dončić, Ayo Dosunmu, Tyrese Haliburton and Payton Pritchard are the only ones to match his field-goal percentage (55.7) and assist rate (10.2).

Plopping Thompson into a better spacing environment will be critical long-term. The Detroit Pistons seldom explored playing him and Cade Cunningham with Isaiah Stewart at the 5. That should change next year. Or Detroit should chase an actual stretch 5. This season, though, Thompson showed enough at both ends to earn building-block status in the Motor City—and an All-Rookie second-team nod.

2nd Team: Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets

After an injury-riddled start to his debut season, Amen Thompson has officially racked up enough appearances and total floor time to be declared a second-team lock. And his first-team case figures to strengthen the closer he gets to the 1,500-minute threshold.

Thompson's defense is as advertised: asphyxiating. He will chase around movement shooters, bridge absurd gaps to contest would-be open jumpers, teleport into passing lanes, disrupt handles helping from the corner, erase looks at the basket after going step-for-step, the whole nine.

Much like his twin brother, Ausar Thompson, Amen's jump shot remains a work-in-progress. He tiptoes around this in a lot of the same ways, mainly by busting his butt in transition and hitting the offensive glass. (His 11 percent rebounding rate on friendly fires is absurd for someone his size.) Amen has shown more change of pace and direction with his handle, even in traffic.

More recently, in the absence of Alperen Şengün, the Houston Rockets have done a better job opening the half-court for him. He has capitalized on the extra space, all the while providing value as a screener and handoff hub.

The more you watch Amen, the more you realize even the most incomplete version of him is going to fill up the box score. To that end, he's just the fourth player younger than 22 and standing 6'7" or smaller to clear 20 points, five assists, two steals and one block per 100 possessions. His company: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and John Wall.

2nd Team: Bilal Coulibaly, Washington Wizards

A right wrist fracture ended Bilal Coulibaly's season after 63 appearances. In that time, he did more than enough to end up here.

Awarding him the final second-team spot over Keyonte George wasn't easy. The latter has a much larger burden on his shoulders, having spent most of the year in a floor-general capacity. His efficiency is lackluster—at every level—but he's impressive at getting to his spots and making progress managing the offense, the latter of which is no small feat given the Utah Jazz's revolving-door-type rotation.

(Aside: Anthony Black, Toumani Camara, Gradey Dick, Scoot Henderson, GG Jackson, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Vasilije Micić, Duop Reath, Marcus Sasser, Ben Sheppard and Cam Whitmore also received varying degrees of consideration.)

Coulibaly's plop-and-play style won me over in the end. His three-point clip dipped below 35 percent for the season, but he was adept at getting to and knocking down shots from the corners (42.9 percent from the left; 35.2 percent from the right).

Though his outcomes in transition can be all over the place, he showed a knack for getting behind defenders. His driving game can be chaotic, but he's not totally uncomfortable decision-making out of them. He flashed encouraging signs as a screener and middle-of-the-floor passer, too.

Cobbling together hints of everything may pale in comparison to extended stretches of dominance in one or two areas. Coulibaly made up the difference on the defensive end, where he routinely went toe-to-toe with the toughest assignments and made life hell on everyone from point-of-attack guards to larger wings and actual bigs he knocked off-tilt with pre-ball pressure.

Full 2023-24 NBA All-Rookie Teams

First Team

• Chet Holmgren
• Jaime Jaquez Jr.
• Brandon Miller
• Cason Wallace
• Victor Wembanyama

Second Team

• Bilal Coulibaly
• Dereck Lively II
• Brandin Podziemski
• Amen Thompson
• Ausar Thompson

Third Team (Honorable Mentions)

• Anthony Black
• Toumani Camara
• Keyonte George
• GG Jackson
• Duop Reath

Next Up: Gradey Dick, Scoot Henderson, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Vasilije Micić, Marcus Sasser

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.

Unless otherwise cited, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass. Salary information via Spotrac. Draft-pick obligations via RealGM.