<
>

#NBArank Rising Stars: Nos. 16-20

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

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

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

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

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

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.


21-25 | Full list | 11-15