The NBA’s Young Stars Have Now Arrived

For more than a decade, the NBA has been dominated by superstars like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard.

The four have combined for 12 championships, eight Finals MVPs, seven regular season MVPs and 44 career All-NBA selections. James showed fans the longevity of a player of his caliber, Curry changed the game with his shooting, Durant came into the league as a one-of-a-kind player, and Leonard won two Finals MVPs with two different teams. They are some of the best players the game of basketball has ever seen, but in the league now, they represent a shift, and a changing of the old guard to the new, with a new group of young talent on the rise.

With the 2023-24 NBA regular season beginning to wrap up, the Minnesota Timberwolves sit atop the Western Conference standings. Minnesota’s franchise has been drastically changed with the arrival of Anthony Edwards. The 22-year-old is in his fourth season with the team, averaging a career-high 25.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. Edwards came out of Georgia as the first overall pick heralded for his athleticism and infectious attitude. He is the youngest player in league history to make 600 career three-pointers and is one of just a few players in history to score 40 points in a playoff game at age 21.

With Edwards, the Timberwolves have made the playoffs the past two seasons, breaking a streak of missing the playoffs in back-to-back years that dated back almost two decades. Yes, the team also has Karl-Anthony Towns (22, 8, 3 averages) and Rudy Gobert (13, 12, 1 averages), but Edwards has been the star and leader of the team, unafraid of taking the last shot or going up for a dunk against an opposing big-man. Edwards has made All-NBA teams the past two years and looks to lead the Timberwolves past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 20 years.

One game behind the Timberwolves in the standings is the Oklahoma City Thunder, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The 25-year-old is having a career year with averages of 30.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists on 54% shooting. Gilgeous-Alexander was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to bring in Paul George, but since then has only improved on a yearly basis. He also set the team record for 30-point games in a season this year and has led a Thunder team to third in the conference standings at a time when many fans thought they would continue to stockpile draft picks. Along with Gilgeous-Alexander the team also has a group of young stars with Chet Holgrem, Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey all under 23 years old.

For the Dallas Mavericks, they had 21 seasons of Dirk Nowitzki leading the team. In his last year, the team drafted Luka Doncic, who has been lighting up the league the moment he stepped in. This season, Doncic is averaging a league-high 33.8 points and an astounding 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game. He would be the only player in history with those averages if his pace this season continues.

Doncic also set a record of six straight triple-doubles and had a career-high 73 points earlier in the season. In his six years with the Mavericks, the Slovenian has never averaged below 20 points per game and is currently third on the NBA’s all-time points per game average at 28.63, only shadowed by Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. At a time when these younger players are turning into superstars, Doncic’s light is shining the brightest.

The San Antonio Spurs sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, but despite that, they hope to have a bright future ahead. The team drafted Victor Wembanyama with the most recent first overall pick, and since then the rookie has been breaking records and only rising in popularity. The 20-year-old is averaging 21 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.5 blocks per game. He was the first player in league history to record 150 blocks, 150 assists and 75 three-pointers in a season, and recorded the quickest 5×5 game in history. His blocks per game lead the NBA by far, and it would be the most averaged by a player in almost a decade while doing it as a rookie. Wembanyama and the Spurs are near the bottom of the league, but with his talent and skill that hasn’t been seen by a player with his size, the team will slowly build around him as he keeps breaking records.

All four of these players haven’t won an MVP award or even made it to the Finals, for that matter. But as the power grip of Curry, James, Durant, Leonard and other “older” stars begins to dwindle, these new stars will be right there to pick it up. Besides those named, Tyrese Haliburton, Tyrese Maxey, Ja Morant, Scottie Barnes, Paolo Banchero, Alperen Shengun, and Zion Williamson are other players under 25 years old who are on the rise. The power and influence of the NBA is still held by those who had success in the 2010s but that is quickly fading, and when it does, one of these new stars will be the face of the league and sport.