Meet the 2020 NBA 25-under-25

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Step Back is excited to share our picks for the 25 best players in the NBA this season, under the age of 25. Let us know what we got right and wrong!

The 2020-21 NBA season is fast approaching and it’s far to say no one really knows what to expect. A historically short offseason is wrapping up, with some players have played their last game just two months ago. Others haven’t played in more than nine months. Several of the NBA’s brightest stars are coming back from lengthy injury recovers, the full schedule hasn’t been released and the specter of another coronavirus interruption hangs over everything.

But in these unprecedented times, we’re clinging to tradition. For the fourth year in a row, The Step Back is rolling out our selections for the 25 best players in the NBA, under the age of 25.

A panel 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 2020-21 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, 2021.

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 our list and find links to our analysis of each of the players. You can also tab over to see our list for the last three seasons. If you’re curious about which players didn’t make out list, you can check out our look at the best of the rest.

Meet the 2018 NBA 25-under-25. dark. Next

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!