In September of 2020, HoopsHype polled 15 NBA talent evaluators and asked them to rank their top five Under 25 players to build around. We have repeated the exercise with 17 NBA executives this time. There was no change at No. 1, but quite a few after that.
Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic remains the first choice, though he’s no longer the consensus pick after a somewhat disappointing first half of the season in which he’s still playing himself into shape.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum barely retains No. 2 with half the share of the vote of last season while Ja Morant moves up to No. 3.
LaMelo Ball and Trae Young went from no votes to cracking the top five.
In our scoring system, the top player received 10 points, the second received seven points, the third received five points, the fourth received three points, and the fifth player received one point for each ballot.
The results of the poll are listed below.