RealGM

Pelton: D'Angelo Russell rounds out my top five. The No. 2 overall pick has made incremental progress in his second season, improving his assist rate from 4.2 per 36 minutes to 6.0, increasing his usage rate to 27.4 percent of the Lakers' plays (up from 24.2 percent) while maintaining his efficiency and improving on the defensive glass.

While Russell still has a long way to go in his development as a playmaker and defender, a look around the league shows the opposite story at point guard as at center: Russell is perhaps the league's best full-time point guard younger than age 25, which augurs well for his long-term development.

Pelton: Nance is already an above-average backup big man -- the Lakers have really missed him while he has been sidelined -- who might eventually grow to become a starter.

mjba wrote:i think russell at 5 is actually is a reach based on what we've seen thus far.

turner, towns, poz and booker are all clearly ahead, imo. jokic looks to have top 2 potential in a relatively small sample size.

beating out 7-15 is really not much of an achievement given his assumed ceiling by many, myself included. most have underwhelmed.

sux for me to say that...