Winners and losers from the NBA’s opening week in 2018-19

Winner: Trae Young

While Bamba tries to find his niche, Trae Young is opening up a sizable lead in the Rookie of the Year race that could become insurmountable if he keeps up his current play.

Through his first three games with the Atlanta Hawks, Young is averaging 23.0 points and 8.3 assists, hitting 45.5 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from 3-point range. In the Hawks’ first win of the season, Young dropped 35 points, 11 assists and six 3-pointers on the Cavaliers.

From his debut to his most recent outing, Young has increased his scoring, assist and 3-point totals every time he’s hit the floor. Of course that trend won’t continue — he’s not going to be scoring 90 points in games by the end of the season — but it does imply Young is a player who learns from the previous game’s mistakes and is quickly getting comfortable playing against the best competition in the world.

Young as been drawing comparisons to two-time league MVP Stephen Curry ever since he exploded on the college basketball scene one year ago at Oklahoma, but he’s actually off to a better start in the pros than Curry had nine years ago.

Curry didn’t score 30-plus points until his 41st NBA game, and he didn’t get a double-double until his 51st game. Young accomplished both feats in his third game.