A month into the NBA season, the race for rookie of the year is starting to heat up. Lately, Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain has gained a lot of momentum as he climbs the Philadelphia pecking order in the absence of Tyrese Maxey.

On Tuesday night, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Dalton Knecht had a strong performance to add to his campaign as the Lakers took care of business against the Utah Jazz.

Logging 38 minutes as a starter, Knecht took 16 shots from the field at home against Utah. He made 75 percent of his attempts, making a career-high nine threes. By the end of the night, Knecht had scored 37 points.

On draft night in June, Knecht was a notable slider. Coming from Tennessee, many NBA fans have been pounding the table for their franchise to take a chance on the sharpshooter. It ended up falling to 17. The Lakers were praised for getting value so deep in the first round.

Knecht justifies this praise – and LeBron James denounces all the teams who did not select him before his arrival at the Lakers – including the Sixers.

“(The Lakers) couldn’t find DK. The other 16 teams (expletives) are off. Was anyone watching him? They just didn’t say it (expletive), ” James told reporters Tuesday evening.

Right now, the Sixers are probably one of the few teams that doesn’t have to take that comment to heart with regret. Knecht may look excellent after 14 games, but the Sixers currently have their most notable contender for Rookie of the Year in McCain.

In 13 games, McCain started slowly. In the first two games of the season, he only played six minutes. In the third game, McCain got 17 minutes coming off the bench. He averaged 14 minutes on the court when Tyrese Maxey was healthy.

On November 8, Maxey missed his first series of action this season, leading Nick Nurse to deploy McCain for more than 30 minutes for the first time. An 18-point performance, followed by two 20-plus point performances, required promotion to the starting lineup.

To this point, McCain has averaged 26 points on 46 percent shooting from three over the last three games as a starter. It’s unclear if he’ll remain in the starting lineup when Maxey returns soon, but it’s clear he deserves a rotation role no matter what.

As for Knecht, he earned his stripes from the start in Los Angeles. Before his first start, he played an average of 15 minutes in seven games. Over the last three games, Knecht has garnered a starting role and averaged 26 points on 62 percent shooting from three during that span.

Knecht might call for some teams to regret their decisions in the draft, as LeBron suggests, but the same could also be said about McCain.