NBA: Predicting a 2021 breakout player for every team in the Western Conference

NBA Draft prospect James Wiseman (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
NBA Draft prospect James Wiseman (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
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Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets Bol Bol defends (Photo by Ashley Landis-Pool/Getty Images)

Which NBA Western Conference players are primed to breakout in 2021

With the 2020-2021 NBA season drawing near, it’s time to start looking at each roster and identify which players are primed for a breakout season. Breakouts can vary depending on the player and team – In recent years, we’ve seen some first-rounders become stars (Donovan Mitchell, Jason Tatum, Bam Adebayo) and we’ve seen relatively unknown players become top-end rotation level players (Gary Trent Jr, Montrezl Harrell, Duncan Robinson) on contenders.

If this NBA season is anything like the current NFL, we can expect many key players to miss time due to the pandemic and coaches will be forced to extend their typical rotations to 10, sometimes 12 players.

This will give more opportunity for some players to showcase their abilities and make a big impact on their respective teams. Let’s look at each Western Conference team and project which player will have a big impact this 2020-2021 season.