GETTY Rip Hamilton believes Jayson Tatum can be as good as Ben Simmons

Simmons has been the odds-on favourite to win Rookie of the Year this season since the opening night of the campaign. The Australian-born 21-year-old has taken the league by storm and his unique size at the point guard has troubled many teams in the league. His current stat-line matches up with some of the best players in the league, averaging 16.9 points, 8.4 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game. In fact he leads all rookies in both rebounds and assists per outing and averages more steals too. Simmons was drafted back in 2016 but missed his first season due to injury.

NBA odds: Who will win the 2018 NBA Championship? Sun, May 27, 2018 Express Sport takes a look at the latest 2018 NBA Championship odds from Skybet Play slideshow NBAE/Getty Images 1 of 5 Who is most likely to win the 2018 NBA Championship?

But he doesn't have this year's Rookie of the Year completely wrapped up yet with Tatum one of the biggest surprises of last year's draft. When Gordon Hayward went down injured in the first game of the season, Brad Stevens turned to Tatum to hand him more minutes. And the Duke graduate has excelled in his role on the wing, so much so that he is in the top four in three-point goal field percentage, ahead of the likes of Klay Thompson and Kyle Korver to name but a few. And Hamilton, who won the NBA championship with Detroit in 2004 before having his jersey retired last year, believes it was an incredibly shrewd more by Celtics general manager Danny Ainge to downgrade his pack in the 2017 Draft to pick Tatum. “I think I’m more impressed by Tatum than Simmons because when he came in everybody assumed he would have the impact of a guy like a LeBron James,” Hamilton told Express Sport.

GETTY Rip Hamilton has been surprised by Jayson Tatum's rookie season

GETTY Ben Simmons is the bookies' favourite to win this year's Rookie of the Year