The best NBA player, right now, of every age

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The best 21-year-old: Jayson Tatum

Sometimes less is more. Kyrie Irving seems like someone who’d appreciate that counterintuitive truth. There’s proof of it in the person of Jayson Tatum.

Tatum was second in shot attempts, points and usage rate in 2018-19, when Irving led the Celtics in all three. Last season with Irving gone, Tatum led the C’s in shots, points and usage, and to a 55-win pace. The 21-year-old’s growth impressed not only for its rate of growth, but its stability. Tatum’s scoring jumped from 15.7 to 23.6 points a night, but while he took six more shots per game his field goal percent held steady (50 percent to 49 percent); his 3-point attempts per game leaped from four to seven while his accuracy improved from 37 percent to 40 percent. And taking a greater role didn’t blind Tatum to his teammates: his assist percentage and assists per game both were career-highs.

The best 22-year-old: Jonathan Isaac

It can be easy to overlook Jonathan Isaac. He plays for a mediocre team in one of the league’s smaller markets and missed the last half of the abbreviated season with a hyperextended left knee. But when he was healthy he was special. The Magic man was on track for career-highs in field goal percentage, scoring, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. After scoring 20+ points just once in his first two seasons, he did four times in 32 games last year. He nabbed 3+ steals in 25 percent of Orlando’s games and 3+ blocks in 44 peprcent of them. The Magic may have an overstocked frontcourt, but there’s a league-wide dearth of two-way terrors with Isaac’s youth and upside.

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