The most impressive young NBA players this year

As Joe Vardon of The Athletic (h/t CBS Sports ) wrote, members of the Cleveland Cavaliers were questioning in November if rookie Collin Sexton could play at the highest level. Don't look now, but the 19-year-old is figuring it out and finding his feet. Per Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report , Sexton is in the Rookie of the Year conversation as of Christmas week, and he's become Cleveland's most reliable starter on offense with Kevin Love injured and J.R. Smith looking to get out of Northeast Ohio. The eighth overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft is averaging 15.3 points per game, and he's improved as a shooter since earning starts. 

Unless the Los Angeles Lakers surprise the basketball world and win the title next June, there will continue to be questions about whether or not Lonzo Ball is the best guard to play alongside LeBron James because of the second-year pro's shooting deficiencies. Nobody questions Ball's ability to serve as his team's quarterback or his defensive skills. Per NBA.com , Ball and James became the first teammates to record triple-doubles in the same game in 11 years on Dec. 15. The 21-year-old still shoots under 40 percent, and he isn't evolving into Kyrie Irving anytime soon. 

The New York Knicks were always going to be lousy with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined and working to return from the torn ACL he suffered in February. And the ninth overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft wasn't going to change that. With that said, Kevin Knox looks like the real deal and a potential star despite his defensive flaws. As Marc Berman of the New York Post pointed out, Knox needs to do better at the charity stripe. Shooting under 63 percent from the free-throw line won't cut it. The 19-year-old is averaging over 10 points per game, though, and he's draining roughly 36 percent of his three-point attempts now that he's seeing more playing time and starts since the beginning of December. 

The Sacramento Kings have been one of the positive surprises of the first half of the season, winning 16 of their first 29 games after notching 27 total victories in 2017-18. Second-year guard De’Aaron Fox having a breakout year, one written about by SB Nation's Matt Ellentuck in late November, is a major reason for the team's success. Fox hasn't just improved his PPG from 11.6 his debut season to 18.5. He's averaging over seven assists per contest, and he's growing in confidence on defense. The speedy 20-year-old is evolving into a Most Improved Player of the Year candidate. 

So it turns out Trae Young dropping 35 points on the Cleveland Cavaliers back on Oct. 21 said more about the Cavs than about the Atlanta Hawks first-year guard. After all, he's shooting only 38 percent from the field and 24 percent from beyond the arc. The week before Christmas, Young was averaging 15.4 PPG, third among first-year guys behind only the two favorites in the Rookie of the Year competition, per Pro-Basketball-Reference, and it appears no rookie will catch Young in APG. 

The Chicago Bulls were nearly unwatchable without sophomore forward Lauri Markkanen, who suffered a sprained elbow in training camp and didn't debut this season until December. The 21-year-old who set multiple three-point shooting records as a rookie averaged 15.1 PPG and 6.1 RPG in his first seven appearances of the current campaign. The Bulls will still lose more than they win, but Markkanen can be part of a core that helps the franchise right the ship. 

The surging Sacramento Kings got some bad news in the middle of December when they learned rookie forward Marvin Bagley III could miss the remainder of the month because of a left knee bone bruise. Debates about if the Kings got it right by drafting Bagley over Luka Doncic will continue past 2019 ( John Kelly of A Royal Pain believes Sacramento chose wisely), and there seems to be no coincidence that Bagley's off nights coincide with losses. He's averaging 12.7 PPG and 6.1 RPG, but those boards often come in spurts. In five December games, he tallied more than a pair of rebounds only once when he grabbed 10 boards in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

Playing alongside a living legend in one's second season can be difficult, which could explain why Kyle Kuzma endured somewhat of a slow start to the year. As Daniel Lubofsky of Hoops Habit recently wrote, the Los Angeles Lakers forward is coming into his own and trending upward. In his first eight games of December, the 23-year-old averaged 22.9 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 3.5 APG, and 0.8 BLK. He finished with at least 20 points the first six contests of the month. 

It appears the days of the Los Angeles Clippers sitting as the top team in the city ends by Christmas. Twenty-year-old rookie guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, recently praised by Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant while speaking with Bill Simmons, remains a proven commodity, scoring in catch-and-shoot situations and from the mid-range, and he's averaging over 10 points while playing roughly 27 minutes a night. Add in his defensive awareness (he's averaging one steal per game), and the 11th overall pick is becoming one of the biggest steals of the 2018 NBA Draft. 

OK, so fans who thought Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons would become one of the best overall players in the league in his second season after he produced a Rookie of the Year campaign for the ages that drew comparisons to Magic Johnson probably jumped the gun. Still, those asking if Simmons has regressed, such as Lucas Johnson of The Sixers Sense, should also pump the brakes. It's barely been a month since Simmons and those around him got Jimmy Butler as a teammate, and Simmons' PPG and APG are right around what he averaged in 2017-18. These things take time. Ask followers of the Cleveland Cavaliers about that. Simmons isn't having an elite sophomore year, to date, but he still may be the best of the bunch by the start of next decade. 

Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. may lead the league among rookies in total blocks , but achieving a level of consistency as a scorer should be his main objective. The 19-year-old hit the Brooklyn Nets for 36 points the final game of November, but he was also held to three points in 15 minutes vs. the New Orleans Pelicans in December. He was fifth among rookies in PPG (13.0) a week before Christmas, and Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports went so far in early December to wonder if Jackson will eventually emerge as the top player of his draft class. 

Are there reasons to worry about Donovan Mitchell since his APG, field-goal percentage and three-point shooting are down from last season when he would've won Rookie of the Year if not for Ben Simmons? No. It's great the Utah Jazz play excellent defense, but the franchise needs to get Mitchell another scorer. Teams are focusing their efforts on stopping the 22-year-old from getting buckets, and he's still averaging over 20 points per game. Imagine what he'd do with some help. 

Center Deandre Ayton was never saving the Phoenix Suns by himself. No rookie could. As ESPN's Mike Schmitz recently wrote in his scouting report, the Suns need Ayton to be more aggressive in attacking the rim and getting to the free-throw line. It's also noteworthy the 20-year-old has essentially eliminated the three-point shot from his arsenal, as Evan Sidery of Bright Side of the Sun explained. Ayton is the only rookie averaging a double-double (15.6 PPG, 10.1 APG), and he's the second man in a two-horse race for ROTY. With the right tutelage and proper work ethic, he is an All-Star in the making. 

An eight-game winning streak will quickly lead one to forget about the slow starts experienced by the Boston Celtics, as a whole, and also by sophomore forward Jayson Tatum. The 20-year-old helped Boston possess the second-best defensive rating in the conference at the midway point of December, and he's shown that he can consistently shoot 40 percent, if not better, from three-point range. Everyone should remember this Boston lineup remains a work in progress with Gordon Hayward working to return to the form he enjoyed before he suffered that gruesome leg injury in October 2017. 

As Justin Kubatko of StatMuse tweeted, Dallas Mavericks forward Luka Doncic is trending toward becoming the first rookie since Grant Hill in 1994-95 to average at least 18 PPG, six RPG, and four APG. Other players to do this their rookie years, as Kenny Honaker of Clutch Points explained, are Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Alvan Adams. Doncic is becoming must-see TV, and he's why the Mavericks are ahead of schedule and competing for a playoff spot. His step-back threes, ball-handling and vision are three reasons Sacramento Kings coach Dave Joerger recently hinted he laments his franchise not drafting the 19-year-old, per ESPN's Tim MacMahon.