ESPN released its latest future rankings on the top 25 players in the league who are under 25 years old on Tuesday. ESPN NBA Insiders Bobby Marks, Kevin Pelton and Mike Schmitz all conducted the list based off of future potential.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is 23 years old, came in ranked 10th on the list, which is the same spot he was ranked in last year’s edition of the rankings.
“Despite regressing from 42% beyond the arc in 2020-21 to 30% this season, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a career-high 24.5 PPG without sacrificing his playmaking before being shut down by ankle soreness in late March.
Though Gilgeous-Alexander showed the ability to stretch his usage to a career-high 31%, ideally that will go down with more help next season as Oklahoma City’s rebuild starts to round the corner.”
The nine players ahead of Gilgeous-Alexander in reverse chronological order were: Darius Garland, Bam Adebayo, Zion Williamson, Cade Cunningham, LaMelo Ball, Trae Young, Ja Morant, Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished his fourth season averaging 24.5 points, five rebounds and 5.9 assists in 56 games.
