Ranking The Top NBA Players By Age: Age 21

4. Nerlens Noel

By now, Nerlens Noel’s strengths and weaknesses have been pretty thoroughly covered, which makes sense since he’s easily been the best player on the league’s most hopeless team for the last two years. What else would we talk about? But as much as his game has been picked apart, he’s still a talented two-way player who will have a bright future in this league if he can just figure things out on the offensive end.

In his second season with the Philadelphia 76ers, Noel is averaging 11.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 53.2 percent from the floor. He’s virtually useless outside the painted area, but he’s not the focal point of the offense anyway; the defensive end is where Noel really shines.

Noel has all the makings of a future Defensive Player of the Year winner, even if he’s had problems making up for Jahlil Okafor’s deficiencies on that end of the floor when they’ve shared the court.

Still, Noel can really fill the stat sheet and with the appropriate amount of talent around him, his flaws probably wouldn’t be as noticeable. It’s unfortunate that the eventual return of Joel Embiid could make him the expendable piece in Philly’s frontcourt, but Noel’s potential ceiling as an elite defender and passable finisher around the basket will make him coveted around the league if that day comes.

Next: No. 3