NBA: 10 relative unknowns entering defining seasons in 2019-20
By Fox Doucette
As the 2019-20 NBA season draws near, here are 10 relatively unknown players ready to break into the national conversation.
The NBA is a league of stars. Household names like LeBron James and Stephen Curry are crossover celebrities, the kind of players even the people in your life who know nothing about sports have heard of.
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A bit further down the fame chain are guys like Myles Turner, Joe Harris and Julius Randle, guys who if you follow the NBA even semi-regularly, you’ve probably heard their names a time or five, especially if they’re on your favorite team.
And then there are the guys who come out of nowhere and storm the conversation with breakout seasons. Guys like Pascal Siakam, Domantas Sabonis, and De’Aaron Fox played that role last year, for example.
And, of course, there are the guys who are famous for the wrong reasons; think Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball. If you’ve heard their names, it’s because someone’s put together a list of draft busts.
We’re after that third tier today, so who are the guys the casual fans haven’t heard of yet but will when they set the league on fire?