Miles Bridges #0 of the Charlotte Hornets reacts after dunking against the Boston Celtics; NBA (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
From the lackluster Los Angeles Lakers to the wondrous Washington Wizards, this NBA season has already provided us with plenty of surprises. Equally as surprising have been some of the early leaps we have seen from many of the younger players in the league.
The NBA, perhaps, has the most young talent it has ever had, and the start of this season has seen more names added to that list of impressive youngsters. Even some of the players that were expected to shine have vastly outperformed expectations, further raising their ceiling.
Here are five young players which have surprised many of us with their early-season performances…
5 young NBA players that have surprised everyone this year: Miles Bridges
The Charlotte Hornets’ wing turned down a four-year, $60 million contract from the team earlier this year, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. Instead, he opted to bet on himself this season in the hope of securing a bigger contract in 2022.
So far, that gamble looks like it will pay off big time.
Bridges is averaging 21.5 points over 14 games this season, up from 12.7 points last season. He has embraced the bigger opportunity he has been provided, playing more minutes per game at 36.2, increasing the number of shots taken per game from 9.4 to 17.4, and upping his usage rate 17 percent to 23.5 percent.
The 23-year-old has been let loose and is thriving with the increased responsibility he has been handed. His explosiveness and athleticism has been demonstrated to an even greater extent since the arrival of LaMelo Ball in Charlotte, which has made for one of the most effective alley-oop partnerships around.
Bridges’ confidence in isolation situations and knocking down threes has seen him develop into a well-rounded scorer, too. The big question was whether he could move from a talented role player to one of the main guys on the team when given more opportunity.
He has answered that question and more so far this season. It was clear Bridges always had the ability to do this, but his emergence as a scorer has come around suddenly, and somewhat unexpectedly.
based on the point guard’s performances so far this season</a>, it looks as though the Orlando Magic got extremely lucky.</p>
<p>Anthony struggled with injury and inefficiency in his rookie year, but appears to have put that behind him this season. He is averaging 19.3 points per game while shooting 44 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three.</p>
<p>He has made an incredible amount of progress in a short period of time. Anthony’s jump shot let him down last season, but this season, it has been his strongest asset, especially when it comes to shooting off the dribble. According to NBA.com, he is shooting 46.5 percent on pull-up shots this season, and 42.1 percent on pull-up threes.</p>
<p>His shooting percentages probably aren’t sustainable given the higher number of difficult shots he is taking, but Anthony’s shot creation and scoring abilities have him earmarked as a potential future star if he can sustain this level of performance over a longer period of time.</p>
<p>If he continues to improve at a rapid rate as he has done since the start of last season, Anthony could well establish himself as the main focus of the Magic’s rebuild.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background:#bb2c32" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://hoopshabit.com/2021/11/14/nba-young-players-surprised/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Player #3 </a>
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<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">Ja Morant #12 of the Memphis Grizzlies celebrates during the game against the Denver Nuggets (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>5 young NBA players that have surprised everyone this year: Ja Morant</h2>
<p>Should anything Ja Morant does come across as a surprise? Maybe not.</p>
<p>But nonetheless, seeing just what Morant has been capable of this year and how high he has been able to take his game this early on in his career has been remarkable.</p>
<p>It’s no exaggeration to say that the 22-year-old point guard is one of the most explosive athletes ever to play in the NBA. The feats of athleticism he has demonstrated make him one the most exciting players in the league to watch, and he is quickly establishing himself as an early MVP candidate, despite being in just his third year.</p>
<p>Across the first 12 games of the season, Morant is averaging 26.5 points per game, up from 19.1 last season. This has been helped by his improvements from behind the three-point line.</p>
<p>The Grizzlies guard has struggled with his jumper since arriving in the league, but this year is showing real progress. Morant has increased the number of threes he is taking per game to 4.8 (up from 3.8 last season) and is making 1.6 per game compared to 1.2 last year.</p>
<p>There is still a long way to go for him to improve that aspect of his game, but his jumper is looking cleaner and more consistent than it has in previous years. Paired with his often unstoppable drives to the basket, Morant could easily become one of the finest point guards ever to play the game, should he continue on this upward trajectory.</p>
<p>He has taken on more responsibility this season, increasing the number of shots taken per game to 20.5 (up from 15.2 last season) while his usage rate has surged from 26.7 percent to 31.8 percent.</p>
<p>Simply put, Morant is starting to become a superstar at the age of just 22, and all the signs suggest there is plenty more to come.</p>
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<span class="call_to_action">Next:</span> NBA Rookie Ladder Week 3 </a> </div>
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