The future is now. Year after year, younger players make it to the league and take it by the horns even despite their youth and lack of experience, proving that they’re bound to be superstars in no time.
Young ballers prepare themselves to make it to the NBA ever since their early days. They attend camps, play in great high school programs and have a lot of offers from NCAA’s top-notch basketball programs, and more often than not, all that hard work winds up paying off.
Even though it’s still pretty early in some of their careers, we’re going to let you know about the top 7 young players that are keen to become future superstars. Note: we won’t add Embiid, Porzingis, Giannis, Towns or Booker because they’re already top-tier players.
All players on this list are under 22 years old.
7. Jamal Murray
We don’t talk about Jamal Murray enough, but truth to be told, he’s a great defender and an even better off-ball shooting. Next to Gary Harris, he’s the perfect combination of a sniper, a playmaker and a great backcourt defender.
Up to this date, he’s put career averages of 13.3 points, 3.1 rebounds,2.7 dimes, 0.8 steals and 1.7 three-pointers per game, and there’s still a lot of room for improvement, especially considering the Nuggets are bound to be a very entertaining squad for years to come.
6. Lauri Markkanen
The Chicago Bulls fans thought they were landing a major bust when they first took a look at Lauri Markkanen, stating that he was a poor man’s Kristaps Porzingis at best. Needless to say, they were terribly wrong.
Markkanen is already a very consistent three-point shooter and has the length to play both big man spots, even though his defense is still a work in progress, but has the kind of tools to become a solid rim protector as well. Through his rookie campaign, he averaged 15.2 points, 7.5 boards and 1.2 dimes to go along with 2.1 triples per game.
5. Brandon Ingram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqZ8GmMArQo
Brandon Ingram’s development hasn’t been nearly half as fast as everybody expected, as this young man looked prime for stardom since day one coming out of the NCAA, being considered to be the next Kevin Durant due to his wingspan.
Ingram has a very well round up skill set but needs to put a lot of work on his jump shot if he wants to become a superstar. And now that he’s about to play under LeBron’s tutelage, he’s really going to improve in every aspect of his game. Up to this day, he’s averaged 12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.9 dimes per game.
4. Jaylen Brown
Jaylen Brown looked pretty solid during his rookie year but everybody thought he was going to take the back seat in order to give Gordon Hayward most of his minutes. Fortunately for him, he actually proved that he needs to get playing time and deserves a spot in the starting lineup.
Brown is a great defender, an athletic freak, and a versatile scorer, even though he’s not the best three-point shooter in the world. The Celtics are stacked with talent, and his career averages of 10.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 0.7 steals a game are really going to come handy in the future.
3. Jayson Tatum
There’s a really good chance Jayson Tatum winds up being the best player of his class, considering what he showed throughout his entire rookie campaign and how much he impressed his peers.
He’s worked his entire life to become an NBA superstar and he’s right on track. He made great strides in the defensive end, was an extremely solid off-ball scorer, and even impressed with his ball-handling skills, putting rookie averages of 13.9 points, 5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
2. Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell was really snubbed from the Rookie of the Year award, considering the fact he single-handedly led a team like the Utah Jazz to clinching a playoff spot despite not having Rudy Gobert for most of the season.
Mitchell proved to be a volume scorer that could even lead the league in points per game in no time, was a willing playmaker and a really clutch player in both ends of the floor, putting season averages of 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.5 triples and 1.5 steals a game.
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1. Ben Simmons
Ben Simmons, AKA the Fresh Prince, truly showed he was worth the wait and the patients by the Philadephia 76ers, and some people argue he should’ve actually gotten an All-Star nod during his “rookie” season.
Controversy aside, Simmons looks like he’s going to dominate this game for a decade or so. He’s already one of the best passers we’ve ever seen, and a dominant scorer that didn’t need the three-point shot to thrive, posting rookie averages of 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.2 dimes per game.
