By the slimmest of margins. It's got to be Derrick Rose. By a hair.

It doesn't mean I think he'll end up as the best rookie, or that I believe he'll be voted as the Rookie of the Year (as you've probably heard me state before, the media can be pretty flighty), but he's been the best one so far. Barely.

With Memphis' O.J. Mayo having tailed off a bit (shooting 42 percent from the floor and 36 from long range in January, down from 48 and 42 percent in November, with a six points per game drop off), the choice really comes down to four players: Rose, Mayo, Oklahoma City point man Russell Westbrook, and Minnesota forward Kevin Love.

Love has the best combined, pace-adjusted, per-minute stats (of the four; Marreese Speights has the best overall numbers, but his defense is pretty horrid, even by rookie standards, and he only plays 15.5 minutes per game). In all reality, he's been the best rookie thus far, but Love's 23.8 minutes per game mark just kills his chances.

The overwhelming majority of players see their per-minute stats go up as their minutes go up (they play more, they play better), but those with conditioning issues tend to buck that trend. And while Love is in the best shape of his life and looks completely different than the bigger fella we saw wearing that UCLA powder blue, I'm not convinced he could keep this pace up at this point at 35 minutes per game.

And once you factor defense in, Westbrook has been about even with Derrick Rose thus far. He didn't start out that way, he was pretty awful for the first month of the season, but he's also been out-playing Rose quite a bit in the months since, and has finally caught up. So why does Rose get the edge? Why not call it a tie?

Because Rose has done it for longer. He plays five more minutes per game. And while I usually don't like to punish or reward players based on coach's decisions, the fact of the matter is that Rose earned those 39 minutes per game he was playing in November, while Westbrook also earned his 27 minutes per game in November, when he shot 34.5 percent. This isn't a case of a coaching staff screwing up the minutes allotment.

But the real point here is that this class is deep. So, so deep. I count 16 potential starters in this first round alone, and that's not even counting guys (Courtney Lee, Nicholas Batum, Ryan Anderson) who, while you might not want to rely on them for starters minutes, have been playing damn well and starting for teams both good, average, and great.

As far as the rest of the season, and who gets the award in the end?

Mayo will get some noise sent his way because he'll still likely lead all rookies in scoring (he's at 19.3 points per game now), and that tends to be the only thing a lot of voters look at (in lieu of actually watching games). And he'll also get some shots for doing his damage on a crummy team. As if that matters. What's O.J. supposed to do, stop shooting the ball? If you're the best, you're the best, regardless of record. That said, I don't think he'll be the best.

There's no reason why Westbrook won't continue to improve month by month. Same goes with Rose, with less startling results. And due to Chicago's possible playoff chase, and the minutes per game difference (voters do love them some per game stats), Rose will probably get the edge. But the difference between the two (and not Mayo, though O.J. has been amazing with that jump shot) will be pretty slim.

Same as it is now. Lucky us.