Luka Doncic massively snubbed in ranking of under-25 NBA players

It feels like we are in a new era of NBA basketball. Older superstars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant continue to get bounced early in the playoffs while we've seen other younger players emerge and put together massive postseason performances.

Just this postseason we're going to see one of Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, or Tyrese Haliburton win his first NBA championship. The oldest player on that list and the only one older than 25 years old is Jayson Tatum who is 26.

There seems to be more young talent in the league now than there has been in a long time which makes ranking the best players under 25 very challenging. As tough as it is, there's no excuse for where Luka Doncic is ranked in this under-25 NBA player list.

Luka Doncic is somehow severely underrated in under-25 player ranking

The Ringer's staff came through with a ranking of the best 25-and-under players in the NBA. While most of the 25 make sense, where Luka Doncic is placed does not.

They have Doncic, a player who is arguably the best on the planet right now, as the fourth-best player 25 or younger. Not fourth-best overall (which would still be too low), but fourth best of players 25 or younger. That's ridiculous.

They had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and Victor Wembanyama ahead of him. I'm sorry, what?

SGA does have somewhat of an argument. I mean, he did just finish ahead of Doncic in this past year's MVP balloting and led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. He doesn't have the track record Doncic does of being a superstar, but he has some sort of an argument.

Anthony Edwards? I get it. This man is special and has put the Minnesota Timberwolves on his back, leading them to the Western Conference Finals, but c'mon. He set career highs this past season averaging 25.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game. He's a better defender than Doncic and is extremely fun to watch, but Luka blows these numbers out of the water.

Victor Wembanyama might be the craziest of them all. If we're talking potential? Sure, he can be No. 1 on the list. He just had one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time. No, I didn't say regular seasons, I said rookie seasons. Wembanyama can be the best player on the planet one day but isn't now. Not even close.

Doncic is coming off a season in which he led the NBA in scoring, averaging 33.9 points on 48.7/38.2/78.6 splits. He averaged 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game as well, nearly a triple-double. How is a player who nearly averaged a 34-point triple-double over 70 games the fourth-best player 25 or younger?

It's not as if his game is getting any worse. Doncic set career highs in virtually every category and was more efficient as a three-point shooter and a free-throw shooter than he has ever been. He just led the Dallas Mavericks to the Western Conference Finals, upsetting SGA in the process.

There isn't anything Doncic has to prove to not be No. 1 on this list. The fact that he isn't is a travesty.