NBA: Ranking the Top 5 Breakout Players

Who are the NBA‘s breakout players in 2014-15?

The NBA season is only 30 days old but already we are seeing breakout performances from a number of players, some had big warning signs and were easy to see coming, others not some much. So who are the five biggest breakout players in the NBA?

To qualify for this list you needed to be a young player with one to four years experience who has never been an All-Star. We are interested only in guys that play significant minutes, at least 24 per game on average. That obviously excludes guys like DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis who have made quantum leaps this season, but if you have been voted into the All-Star game and in the cases of those two guys in particular, played on Team USA then you have already “broken out”. It also obviously excludes rookies as they have no baseline of NBA performance from which to measure improvement.

We are excluding established players, guys who have been in the league for five plus years who are making statistical jumps. A prime example in this category, and a player I hate to leave out is Kyle Lowry. Lowry, snubbed last year, has never made an All-Star team and despite averaging a career high in points and Player Efficiency Rating (PER) that is not eligible for these rankings. Last season, advanced stats placed Lowry comfortably in the stratosphere of not only of point guards, but the entire NBA; eighth in Win Shares, sixth in Box Plus / Minus and sixth in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player). Therefore I can’t consider him as breaking out this year, however I do hope this under-appreciated star finally breaks out into the public consciousness.

So without further ado here are my rankings of the five biggest breakout stars of the NBA season so far. Let me know if you agree or disagree by leaving your thoughts in the comments section; I will reply to all.

Next: No.5