Meet the 2018 NBA 25-under-25

This fallow offseason period — where free agency is dead and buried and we’re not quite to the beginning of training camp — is fertile ground for esoteric debates and player rankings. We like a good argument as much as the next basketball media outlet so, for the second year in a row, The Step Back is extremely excited to share with you our selections for the 25 best players in the NBA, under the age of 25.

A panel of 30 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 2018-19 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 reveal out list and find links to our analysis of each of the players. You can also tab over to see our list last season. If you’re curious about which players didn’t make out list, you can check out some of the biggest disappointments.

With this being the second year of the project, we have some data for comparison and can track players who aged off the list this year — Steven Adams, Anthony Davis, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond, and Bradley Beal — as well as rookies making their first appearances — Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., and Deandre Ayton. Seeing the movement from year to year has also been fun to track, with players like Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Clint Capela and Julius Randle surging up the list, and others, like Nerlens Noel, Andrew Wiggins, Markelle Fultz and Dennis Smith Jr. sliding off.

As always, make sure to let us know what you agree and disagree with in our selections. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in the comments below. If last year’s list is any indication, we’ve gotten plenty of things wrong so make sure to point it all out!