Highlighting three sleeper breakout star candidates for the 2023-24 NBA season.
Before each NBA season, NBA fans like to predict players who could break out as potential stars. In many cases, there are obvious players who make the leap, but there are also other players that make the jump that very few saw coming.
With that being said here are three sleeper breakout stars for the 2023-24 NBA season.
Desmond Bane, Memphis Grizzlies
Desmond Bane has already proven himself as one of the best scorers in the NBA, but this upcoming season I believe he can reach even higher heights. At the start of this offseason, Bane signed a five-year, $207 million extension, which means the Grizzlies believe the same thing.
Since he got into the NBA, Desmond has proven himself as one of the best 3-point shooters in the league, and over the last two years he’s shown he’s much more than just a shooter. Bane is an all-around player. Specifically, last season he greatly improved his finishing around the bucket and his off-the-dribble scoring. Bane was on track to average around 25 points per game season if not for an ankle injury that made him miss 17 games, and that really slowed down his early season momentum.
In the 2022-23 season, Desmond Bane also took great strides as a secondary ball handler, upping his assists from 2.7 in 2021-22 to 4.4 last year. Bane has even proven to be a great defender, a rare trait to find in such a young, talented offensive player.
With Ja Morant missing the first 25 games of this upcoming season, Bane will be the primary creator on offense for Memphis, and he’ll need to shine to keep the team afloat in Morant’s absence. I think he will, and next year we should be looking at a first 25+ PPG and All-Star year for Desmond Bane.