[ESPN] NBA 25 under 25: Top young stars, ranked by future potential

James Harden really is astounding. To be there at his age still. It will always forever suck that he didn't get his fair shake with Chris Paul going down.

 

Why do they have Jalen Green ahead of Tyler Herro?

 

He doesn’t pass or play defense so advanced stats hate him

 

I feel like Amen, in games when he plays starter minutes (30+), is already basically giving us Jimmy Butler-esque production. And he only just the game before last hit 82 career games played. Dude is already a great player and if he continues to improve, league better watch out.

 

A lot of these articles are written for the Basketball fan who still obsesses with how many rebounds, points, and assists a player had.

But winning basketball means maximizing the team effort towards actually achieving victories. ESPN’s readers overwhelmingly chase numbers, irregardless if they are empty stat pads.

The way the list was compiled, the folks at ESPN still think they have all the projections. And let’s not forget that ESPN is a hype machine for ratings extravaganzas.

Most of the folks on these list will appear on 90% of anyone with basketball knowledge; however the order will be somewhat different depending on who you ask.

But Alpi at #10 on the list made me roll my eyes. Currently Alpi is a top 10 player in the whole NBA. But ESPN’s hype machine does its thing for its own reason.

 

For our guys, Jalen is too high and Amen is way too low. It's tough to say with Sengun. I'd easily have him over Chet, who is too high. The rest of the guys ahead of him are harder to easily put Alpi ahead of. Haliburton is a difficult case too. He's probably too high and should be behind Sengun.

 

Mobley shouldn’t be higher, neither should Wagner

 

I see whoever put that list together hasn't watched a single second of Rockets basketball.

Jalen over Amen, now that is comedic gold.

 

I put Chet just about where Alpe is, Chet provides blocking and he can play as a role player if needed for spacing purposes while I do not think Alpe can function as just the table setter and when the plan calls him to lay low.

In case the team has to go micro ball in a series. Park mostly in the corner.

 

Wagner is averaging like 28 ppg.....dude is on another level right now....but yeah should grade him after the season.

Wagner is having himself a Brunson-eque explosion at age 23 which is laudable.

 

Idk. I don't have strong feelings either way. Franz would've been in the teens before this run as the alpha with Paulo out. He's playing out of his mind. If you want to see more that's fair but if this is who he is he's ahead of Sengun.

Mobley and Sengun are sort of apples oranges. Mobley is the second most important player on a team that's 18-3. He's probably going to finish top ~3 in DPOY and his offense has progressed a lot this season. Mobley can easily be the second/third best guy on a championship team but never the top scoring option. Sengun might become good enough to be the offensive hub for a championship team but isn't a seamless easy fit on any championship contender like Mobley is and will be. Chet is sort of the same way but I'd have Mobley over Chet. I'd lean Alpi over Mobley but I don't have a huge issue with it going the other way.

 

Alpi definitely over than Chet.
Chet is not the star of Thunder-SGA is the star and main offensive weapon.
But in Rockets, Alpi is the star and the main offensive weapon, without Alpi's creativity and offensive talent, Rockets can not win..He is the primary player.