It's that time of year again: NBA training camps are in full swing, the league is buzzing with two weeks before the 2024-25 season tips off, and the long-held task of predicting breakout players is upon us.
While it's impossible to know how these things will play out, what we can do is assess the evidence: Every player on this list is walking into a friendly environment for their own development, and has the capacity to grow into a bigger role, expand their own ability, and most importantly, impact the present and future arc of their respective franchises.
I broke this list out into tiers: players who are on the cusp of All-Star performance (such as the Cleveland Cavaliers' Evan Mobley), potential star breakouts who happen to share a first name (think the Oklahoma City Thunder's Jalen Williams), young players entering friendly situations (someone say Chicago Bulls' Josh Giddey?), and role players who will make greater impacts (such as the Phoenix Suns' Tyus Jones).
It's not all-encompassing, but these are the 11 players who I'm most interested to watch over the next several months and could be breakouts in 2024-25.
Jump to a tier:
Potential All-Star leaps
Almost All-Stars | Bigger roles incoming
Role players who could make greater impacts
Tier 1: Potential All-Star leaps
The pieces are in place for these two players to break through as full-fledged stars.
Evan Mobley,
Cleveland Cavaliers
New Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson spent the summer as an assistant of the French national team, leading France to a silver medal after the team lost to Team USA in the Paris Olympics.
He returned to Cleveland, comparing the San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama and the Cavaliers' Mobley.
"These guys can do so many things," Atkinson told reporters at Cleveland's media day last week. "They're so talented and similar because they're so talented defensively, so you've got that piece. And how do they fit with this kind of new [NBA] game?"
While Wembanyama's extraplanar talent makes him a difficult point of direct comparison for most any NBA player, Atkinson's line of thinking around a skilled 7-footer points toward the offensive growth the Cavs are actively working to pull out of Mobley in his fourth season. Mobley, 23, agreed to a five-year, $224 maximum rookie contract extension in July.
He has always shown it in flashes: He's a solid decision-maker, underrated passer and is efficient playing in the paint. But he can also be too unselfish at times, and it has taken time for him to pack on the requisite strength on his narrow frame to better attack opponents and handle the physical rigor of the NBA game.