NBA Top 25 Players Under 25

Just read ESPN’s NBA Top 25 under 25 players column by Amin Elhassan, Kevin Pelton and David Thorpe and thought I would make my own Top 25 under 25 list. I took into account the following aspects when making the list: potential, current contribution, and age.

Top 25 Players Under 25 (current age to the right of the player)

1) Karl Anthony-Towns (21)
2) Giannis Antetokounmpo (22)
3) Anthony Davis (23)
4) Joel Embiid (22)
5) Kristaps Porzingis (21)
6) Kyrie Irving (24)
7) Rudy Gobert (24)
8) Andrew Wiggins (21)
9) Andre Drummond (23)
10) Nikola Jokic (21)
11) Bradley Beal (23)
12) Jabari Parker (21)
13) Ben Simmons (20)
14) Myles Turner (20)
15) Devin Booker (20)
16) Steven Adams (23)
17) D’Angelo Russell (20)
18) Victor Oladipo (24)
19) Zach LaVine [post ACL tear] (21)
20) Brandon Ingram (19)
21) Aaron Gordon (21)
23) Julius Randle (22)
24) Otto Porter (23)
25) Dennis Schroder (23)

Honorable Mentions: Jamal Murray (19), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (23), Jaylen Brown (20), Rodney Hood (24).

I kind of see this list in 2 tiers. In the top 12, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of those players make an All Star team (if they haven’t already) moving forward. In the 2nd tier, Simmons is an unknown but an unknown I’d be willing to take over the rest the last 13 player on the list.

Also, there are some players right now who I would put in two separate categories. The first one I called the “Jermaine O’Neal Get Me to Another Team So I Can Play a Big Role”. These players include:

-Trey Lyles (21)
-Jusuf Nurkic (22)
-Jahlil Okafor (21)
-Nerlens Noel (22)
-Marcus Smart (22)

The second category I came up with was the “Giannis Antetokounmpo Way Too Raw to Know if They’ll Be Good but Oozing with Potential” list includes:

-Dejounte Murray (20)
-Marquese Chris (20)
-Dragan Bender (19)
-Thon Maker (19)
-Dante Exum (21)

Not saying that these players will become the next Jermaine O’Neal or Giannis Antetokounmpo but are worth having an eye on to be in the Top 25 Under 25 players in the future.

Something else that I noticed making this list, only 3 point guards (not including Ben Simmons as a PG) were on the list, making this upcoming draft class of point guards an imperative time for teams to start investing in these future playmakers as most of the best point guards in the league right now are from age 26 (ex: John Wall) to age 30 (ex: Kyle Lowry). Guys like Tony Parker (34), Deron Williams (32), and even Chris Paul (31) [to a lesser consent], are on their last leg of their basketball career so developing guys like Murray will be key moving forward. Least to say, the future of the NBA is looking bright!!!