Who are the brightest young stars in the NBA? We're counting them down on ESPN.com.
And who's No. 1? Should it be Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis, Joel Embiid or another rising star?
We asked our experts to rate the league's best players under 25 years old, and we're rolling out the rest of our top 50 over the next few days, leading up to the Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star Weekend.
If you want to get involved in the discussion, #NBArank is the Twitter hashtag. You also can follow along @ESPNNBA and on Facebook.
On to the countdown!
#NBArank Rising Stars
16. Jonas Valanciunas
Toronto Raptors | C
Age: 24 | @JValanciunas
Drafted No. 5 in 2011
Stats & Info: Valanciunas is grabbing a career-high 20.6 percent of available rebounds this season, tied for ninth in the NBA.
17. Ben Simmons
Philadelphia 76ers | SF
Age: 20 | @BenSimmons25
Drafted No. 1 in 2016
Stats & Info: Simmons has yet to play in the NBA, but in his one season at LSU he averaged more PPG than Paul George (19.2 to 16.8), more RPG than Kevin Love (11.8 to 10.6) and more APG than Russell Westbrook (4.8 to 4.3) in each of their final college seasons.
18. Zach LaVine
Age: 21 | @ZachLaVine
Drafted No. 13 in 2014
Stats & Info: Before going down with a season-ending ACL injury, LaVine ran an average of 2.69 miles on the court per game this season -- the most in the NBA.
19. D'Angelo Russell
Los Angeles Lakers | PG
Age: 20 | @Dloading
Drafted No. 2 in 2015
Stats & Info: At 20 years old, Russell has an assist percentage of 29.6 this season. He is the youngest Laker in team history with an assist percentage that high.
20. Harrison Barnes
Dallas Mavericks | SF
Age: 24 | @hbarnes
Drafted No. 7 in 2012
Stats & Info: Barnes has increased his scoring average by 8.4 points per game from a season ago. That's the largest increase in the NBA this season.
