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Meet the 25-under-25

By The Step Back

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 08: Andrew Wiggins #22 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrate a basket against the Los Angeles Clippers during the fourth quarter of the game on March 8, 2017 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Clippers 107-91. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 08: Andrew Wiggins #22 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrate a basket against the Los Angeles Clippers during the fourth quarter of the game on March 8, 2017 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Clippers 107-91. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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The NBA offseason is long. By the time August rolls around (surprise All-Star point guard trades aside), most of the player movement is over. Position battles and training camp scuttlebutt is still somewhat over the horizon and so the NBA fan’s mind turns to the hypothetical.

Every self-respecting basketball media outlet has some sort of player ranking project rolling out this time of year and, here at The Step Back we definitely respect ourselves. However, we’re also underachievers and ranking the 100 best players in the NBA sounded like a big commitment. Instead, we went for the 25 best NBA players under the age of 25.

A panel of 20 of our contributors ranked every player who is likely to play in the NBA this season, under the age of 25, on a scale from 1-10 based on how valuable we expect them to be during the 2017-18 season. The ranking criteria are purposefully a little bit vague so voters could define value for themselves, possibly including generating buzz and fan excitement, in addition to just production. We used Basketball-Reference‘s age parameters which means we only considered players who players who would still be 24 or younger on Feb. 1, 2018.

Over the rest of this week we’re going to be rolling out our top players, five each day. You can keep up with the final list at this landing page as we roll it out and find links to our analysis of each of the players. If you’re curious about which players just missed, here’s a look at who finished Nos. 35-26 in our rankings. We’re also going to be collecting your thoughts and letting our readers (collectively) build a list of their own. Use the survey here to offer your own personal rankings.

Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA

We’re hoping to make this project a yearly feature so we can compare rankings from year to year and see how players progress as they age and develop. For now, have fun, and let us know what we got right and what we got wrong.

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