Ranking the Top 10 NBA Players Under 25: Wemby Leads the Pack, But Where Does Cooper Flagg Land?

The NBA’s young talent has never been better. Or it feels like it, at least.

All around the league you can find up-and-coming players who figure to play a huge role in shaping the NBA for many years to come. This new generation ranges from the true young bucks with obvious generational talent like 19-year-old Cooper Flagg to slightly later bloomers such as 24-year-old Jalen Johnson. The future of the NBA is in extremely safe hands when taking into account all the great play we’ve seen from those two and their contemporaries.

With the new season around the corner, it feels like the perfect time to evaluate all that young talent and establish a pecking order. Which players are on their way to stardom already and are proving it by consistently impacting games? Which players have a ways to go yet?

We sought those answers by ranking the 10 best players under 25 years of age entering the 2026–27 NBA season. A few notes before we get started:

This list is based on which players are best right now, rather than projecting where they’ll end up by the end of their careers or even the end of the coming season. It’s not a potential-based exercise. We’re looking at NBA production so far.
That also means there aren’t any members of the heralded 2026 draft class included. I’m 100% positive Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson will claim a spot on this list next year (if not more from this strong rookie group). But we’ve got to see it first.
Under 25 means everyone included is 24 years old or younger. Just to be extremely clear! There were a lot of great players who graduated from the list this past season, including Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards. But they passed the age barrier for this exercise and thus will not be included.

Now! We present top 10 players in the NBA under 25 years old.

Honorable mentions: Ajay Mitchell (Thunder), Donovan Clingan (Trail Blazers), Jalen Green (Suns), Ausar Thompson (Pistons), Josh Giddey (Bulls), Dylan Harper (Spurs)

10. Stephon Castle, Spurs (21 years old)

Castle is a brick wall of a perimeter defender with a growing offensive game. He averaged 16.7 points and 7.4 assists in his sophomore campaign; the latter number is especially impressive given he was the secondary ballhandler in the starting lineup behind De’Aaron Fox. So far, the flaws in Castle’s game are as pronounced as his strengths between the turnovers and a shaky three-point shot. But his vision as a passer, elite athleticism and disruptive defensive ability ensures he’s effective on both ends of the floor anyway. It’s fair to view Castle among the better two-way point guards in the NBA today.

9. Kon Knueppel, Hornets (21)

Through the quantity metric, Knueppel is the best three-point shooter in the NBA. He led the league in shots made from beyond the arc as a rookie with 273—a historically great shooting season from a first-year player. The ability to make shots from deep isn’t everything in today’s NBA, but it’s a huge part of the modern game and there are very few better in that specific area than Knueppel. The rest of his offensive game is coming along, too. Defense remains a work in progress, but the Duke product is a legit deadeye who can put up points in bunches when he gets hot.

8. Amen Thompson, Rockets (23)

Thompson is perhaps the best athlete in the NBA with incredible defensive skill and instinct. His offensive game is still far from that of the ideal modern player. But he found ways to be effective in Houston last season despite playing in one of the most cramped floors in the NBA, averaging 18.3 points per game while shooting over 50% from the floor. Trusted to lead Ime Udoka’s aggressive system as the primary point-of-attack defender, Thompson will lock down every type of player and make everybody else look slow at the same time. It’s a thrill to watch him go to work as one of the best, most versatile defenders in the league.

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7. Paolo Banchero, Magic (23)

Banchero’s reputation as a wrecking ball of a scorer remains intact even after a frustrating few seasons in Orlando. Few defenders are brave enough to stand in his way on the way to the basket, and the ones who do often find themselves flying backwards while Banchero spins and slams it home. Last year was a tough evaluation, though. The former No. 1 pick regressed as a shooter yet still managed to increase his overall efficiency—but his team dramatically underachieved. Then the playoffs started and Banchero helped the Magic push the No. 1 seed Pistons to the brink. He can be a frustrating talent, but there’s no denying his elite scoring instinct and footwork inside the arc.

6. Alperen Şengün, Rockets (24)

Şengün is one of the more fascinting offensive talents in the NBA, a ground-bound center who can score on any manner of opponent thanks to his combination of agility and supernatural feel around the basket. When you add in his excellent anticipation as a passer and a nose for the boards, Şengün brings an effective all-around skillset to the Rockets’ offense that allows him to thrive under any circumstance. That versatility is what allowed him to increase most of his counting stats despite Houston adding Kevin Durant and his dominant offensive touches to the roster last offseason. On top of it all, Şengün has improved tremendously on the defensive side of the ball; he’s now more than capable of holding his own when switching on the perimeter and playing larger than his size in the paint.

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5. Jalen Duren, Pistons (22)

The last time we saw Duren play basketball, it was not pretty. He was hesitant, slow and failed to help his team in the playoffs. It doesn’t take away from the All-NBA season the newly-minted $200 million center put forth, though. Duren is a monstrous leaper at the center position who absolutely dominated as a pick-and-roll screener alongside superstar Cade Cunningham. He acted as an effective centerpiece for the Pistons’ elite defensive unit, using his massive frame to impede any intruders into the paint before grabbing every rebound in his area code. It’s on Duren to show he can build off a great season and avoid another postseason meltdown, but he’s a walking double-double who can hold down the middle for one of the best defensive units in the NBA as it stands. That’s pretty darn good.

4. Chet Holmgren, Thunder (24)

It didn’t end well, but Holmgren’s fourth NBA season was a tremendous success otherwise. He put forth the best offensive effort of his career as a true stretch big who combined a solid three-point shot with great paint scoring to shoot nearly 60% from the field. Holmgren really came into his own on the other end, though—the Gonzaga product swatted 1.9 blocks per game and earned a first-team All-Defense nod as a result. In a world where Victor Wembanyama didn’t exist, Holmgren would be seen as the next great two-way center with a legitimate case for Defensive Player of the Year on an annual basis. But placing second to a talent so freakish his nickname is “Alien” isn’t too bad, either. Holmgren is a very good NBA player who can dominate both ends of the floor on the right nights.

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3. Cooper Flagg, Mavericks (19)

Flagg lived up to the hype and then some as a rookie in Dallas. Viewed as a generational prospect, he delivered on every promise, averaging 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game as the only real threat for one of the worst rosters in the NBA. The only three other players in NBA history to average those numbers in their first season? Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, and Luka Dončić. This obviously shows off his enormous potential, but even just last season only nine other players hit those statistical benchmarks. Flagg’s production is already at an All-Star level offensively and he’s no slouch on the other end, either. It’s his ceiling that sets him apart, though. On any given night Flagg might explode for 50 points and it wouldn’t be all that surprising. None of the players above him on this list could say the same.

2. Jalen Johnson, Hawks (24)

Johnson’s breakout season in Atlanta last year went a little underappreciated, even if it earned him his first All-Star and All-NBA nod. He averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game—one of only two players to average 22/10/7 along with three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. That’s ridiculous for a wing player! Johnson is not at the same level of the Joker as a floor-raiser for his team but he is still a walking offense unto himself who can act as the fulcrum around which a team can operate at a playoff level. There’s still potential to be realized defensively, but Johnson is every bit the part of the modern wing/forward who threatens defenses at all three levels, sets up teammates for easy buckets and rips down rebounds every minute he’s on the floor. It’s enough to be the No. 1 option on a postseason contender and certainly enough to rank very highly on lists such as these. Even if he’s a bit of a late bloomer.

1. Victor Wembanyama, Spurs (22)

But, of course, there’s no topping Wembanyama here. The Spurs superstar established himself as a top-three player in the NBA at worst last year, scoring 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists to go with 3.1 blocks per night. As a result, he earned his first bout of MVP votes and what will probably be the first of many DPOY awards while powering San Antonio to a 62-win season, an epic playoff run and a devastating Finals loss. There is no player in the NBA more impactful on both ends every night than Wemby, much less anybody in his age range. Wembanyama is ascending as the next mega-star of the basketball world and will only be knocked off this pedestal once he hits his 25th birthday.

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