I understand the basics of how rookies in open leagues work - my question is about their defense. Is their defense actually converted to a 10 point scale, or is the number we see just a mask for the defense rating of the real player they're based off of?
For example, if two different players had a real D rating of 33 and 37, but both showed up as rookies with a D rating of 3, do they both perform as if they have the same exact defense? (if we normalized for STL, BLK, and Foul rates, since those impact defensive performance as well)
Or do they retain their true D values, so we would expect the 37 to be slightly better on defense?
Mostly asking just out of curiosity, but it could have an impact on optimal defensive matchups in edge cases.