As we inch closer to the 2019-20 season, we explore five potential breakout candidates from the 2018 NBA Draft
The 2018 NBA Draft class has only one year of experience under their belt, but it already looks like it will be one of the stronger classes in recent memory. When you look back at the top of the draft, it’s really harder to find guys who didn’t have a good rookie season than to find one’s who did, which is pretty rare.
Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley, the list goes on and on. This class is far from a finished product though. Even the guys who didn’t challenge for the rookie of the year can still wind up having great careers, and history has provided a number of examples of players who take big leaps from year one to year two.
The best and most recent example of this is De’Aaron Fox, a member of the 2017 NBA Draft class. Fox was a nice piece his rookie year and showed potential, but showing potential and actually taking concrete steps towards meeting that potential are two very different things. Some players peak early and never take that next step, but Fox had no issue with this and was significantly better in nearly every statistical category in his sophomore season.
Who will be the next player to make a De’Aaron Fox type jump in year two? I’ve picked out five players from the 2018 class who might be ready to make that type of jump next season. Keep in mind, guys like Doncic, Young, Ayton, etc. are excluded from consideration since they already had such successful rookie seasons.