The NBA is a league filled with young talented players. It is becoming increasingly common to see players aged 19 or 20 appearing as regular starters. But right now we will focus on three young players who are ready to take the next step in their development.
In this piece, we will take a look at three players who are ready to become league-wide stars despite being 21 years old or younger. We have a shooting guard and two centers who can easily become the new faces of the league if they can continue their developments as they have already done it in the first few years of their careers.
Devin Booker
Some might say Devin Booker is already a star, and they wouldn’t be wrong. The Phoenix Suns shooting guard is one of the best young players in the league, and already proved his worth as a scorer last season. After all, not every player has the ability to score 70 points in a game. But one thing is for sure, we haven’t seen the best from him yet.
Booker will enter his third year in the league. And even though he will be only 20 by the time the season starts, he already has over 120 games as a starter in the NBA. Not many players his age can say the same thing. And while he still needs to mature a bit, Booker will definitively end up being one of the best scorers in the league. And that will happen sooner of later. He is coming off an impressive campaign where he averaged 22.1 points, 3.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds as a sophomore. If his progression is steady – and there is no way we can assure that – can you imagine how good he will be by the time he is 25 or 26?
The Suns are not going anywhere in the near future. But they can happy because they have one of the league’s budding stars on their roster. And having Booker as a building block is a great place to start Phoenix’s path back to being relevant in the Western Conference.
Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic emerged as a reliable triple-double threat last season. He emerged as a viable building block for the Denver Nuggets last season, and he is expected to form a great partnership with Paul Millsap in the paint this season. But even if we consider how good he was last season, we know the Serbian pivot is only going to get better in the near future.
Jokic will thrive playing next to Millsap because the veteran power forward will mask his shortcomings and improve his strengths. And if we consider the Nuggets have a relatively young roster, having Millsap will help them both on and off the court. But enough about him, because Jokic is the one that will carry the franchise in the coming years. And he is quite a special talent because there aren’t many players like him in the world.
Jokic stands at 6’11” and 253 pounds, so he is big. But he still posted 16.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game last season. He also recorded six triple-doubles – only Russell Westbrook (42), James Harden (22) and LeBron James (13) had more in the 2016-17 campaign. And if we consider he still has a lot of learning to do, it is downright scary to think how good he will be in a few more years. The sky is the ceiling for the 22-year-old.
Myles Turner
Last but not least, we have Myles Turner. The Indiana Pacers big man has always been considered a big talent, but last season he improved vastly and wasted no time to become one of the best big men in the Eastern Conference. And while several experts believe he will be even better this next season, his context will be even better. For the first time, Turner will have the chance to be “the man” in Indiana after the departure of Paul George. PG13 left Indiana to join the Thunder last season in one of the biggest trades during the offseason.
The Pacers are deep in a rebuilding process, and Turner will be the one in charge to push the team out of mediocrity in the Eastern Conference. Most of the league stars sit in the Western Conference, however, so it’s not out of the question to think Indiana can actually make the playoffs this next season. But for that to happen, Turner will have to be at his best.
Last season he posted decent numbers, though. The 21-year-old center averaged 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds in 2016-17, but that was playing as the team’s second option behind George. Now, this will be Turner’s team. And while he could always flop and turn into a massive disappointment, it doesn’t seem like that will be the case. Instead, Turner has enough talent to take a step forward in his development and cement his place as one of the league’s brightest young stars.
The talent is there. Now he needs to put it together under the spotlight that means being the top option on the team.