The NBA’s nine-best hidden gems that could make waves in 2020-21
Whenever people think about the best executives in the NBA, they always tend to think about the ones who make the best moves. For the general fan, it’s usually about who’s winning a superstar trade.
It’s really about more than that, though. The best executives in the NBA are the ones who can unearth talent where it might not be completely obvious. Any executive can package picks, and players to get a superstar…it’s a rare breed that can actually identify diamonds in the rough.
Think about a team like the Miami Heat who have unearthed Duncan Robinson this season as an elite 3-point sniper. Look at Masai Ujiri’s Toronto Raptors and how many players he has all over the roster that seemingly came out of nowhere.
For all their failures, even this year’s Detroit Pistons struck gold with their signing of Christian Wood.
As the NBA gets ready to return to play, the offseason looms ahead. The offseason is always an exciting time because we get to see teams at their most bold. The NBA offseason is the arms race, the time where every playoff team decides to try to swing a move that could put them over the top.
For teams that might be looking to retool however, this time is excellent to make the shrewd moves. This is where great executives thrive. The offseason is a time when a team could unload a player to a contender and if they’re lucky maybe they can steal an over-looked player away from that team.
With that in mind, here are the nine-best hidden gems on contending teams that smart executives should be targeting this season. (Keep in mind these players won’t all be potential superstars but players of value in a rotation).