Top-5 Under 25: Southeast Division

This is Part 4 of a six-part series to rank the top-5 players in every division under the age of 25. We take into account a player's performance as well as their potential. These rankings are intended to be fun and to initiate discussion on the league's best players. Stick up for your players, but be respectful about it!

Honorable Mentions: Tyreke Evans, Harrison Barnes, Isaiah Thomas, Jonas Valanciunas

Kemba has been around the league quite a bit already in 2+ seasons but there’s no denying his talent. He calls Atlanta home right now and is making the most of his sixth man position, averaging a career-high 23.5 ppg, though early in the season. He’s getting a ton of open looks playing with Cousins in the post and has been absolutely stout on defense. It would be foolish for BlackIce to not commit himself to Kemba for the long term.

On ratings alone, Kidd-Gilchrist is THE best defender in the league. We knew coming into the league that defense would be his calling card. Look no further than his perfect STP%, 0.6 PA/SF along with three steals and two blocks a game. On top of that, he’s becoming a scoring threat, sitting at a career-high 17 ppg through three games this year. He has dished out six assists and grabbed five boards per game as well. What can’t this kid do? How is he only 4th in the division?!?

Some will clamor “small sample size”, but I don’t care. Wiggins is going to be one of the most electric scorers the league has ever seen when it is all said and done. He’s almost assured to average over 20 per game as a rookie and makes it look easy. The fact that he is only 19-years old means there is plenty of room to grow for this kid. He will be one of the elite players in the CSL when it is all said and done.

Getting it done on both ends of the floor, Wall has become a complete player and is worthy of a max deal that will be waiting for him in the coming offseason. Unfortunately, the individual talent has not led to franchise success. Will this be the year he puts the squad on his back? His 27.5 ppg on top of 5.0 assists and 4.5 boards shows he can do a little bit of everything. If he stopped settling for threes, he’d be that much better on the offensive end.

The best player in perhaps the most talent-rich division in the league resides in Atlanta. Cousins has bounced around the league and we aren’t sure why. He is, ratings wise, the best rebounder in the league. He is the only big man in the league with a 90 rating in the scoring department and one of eight big men with a defensive rating of 85+. Put that all together and you’ve got the best big man in the league under the age of 25.

Damn. This division is crazy good. I would put MKG on top of Wiggins though this early but i expect him to excel in a year and put a claim on the top spot.

Great read btw.

A lot of good youth in this division means good things for the East and bad things for the Pistons.

MKG will always be underrated. I'm okay with that, but a little surprised.

In 33.5 minutes so far this season, MKG is averaging 17.3ppg, 6.5rpg, 5.0apg, 2.8spg, 1.8bpg and is shooting 60.8% from the field. Not to mention the advanced defensive stats mentioned above - his perfect stop% and 0.6pa/sf.

Really cool concept, I'd put Thomas over Kemba for that 5th spot as he hasn't taken a step back from last year so far - 21/2/7 on 56/40/91 - and was the 2nd option on a championship team and maybe swap Wall and MKG but outside of that I agree.

There are really so many young guys!
Cant imagine how hard it will be to get into the playoffs as soon as all those guys are deceloped.
Best news is, that my division isnt as talented like all the other divisions, lol.

DennisJ (BOS) wrote:There are really so many young guys!
Cant imagine how hard it will be to get into the playoffs as soon as all those guys are deceloped.
Best news is, that my division isnt as talented like all the other divisions, lol.

No it is not which makes it harder for me to do your division's write up lol.

Rizzo (NO) wrote:

DennisJ (BOS) wrote:There are really so many young guys!
Cant imagine how hard it will be to get into the playoffs as soon as all those guys are deceloped.
Best news is, that my division isnt as talented like all the other divisions, lol.

No it is not which makes it harder for me to do your division's write up lol.

If at least Micic makes the Top 5 Im happy. Looking at his potentials he should end up being the best player we have in the Future, lol.

wow this one is really tough and you could argue that Barnes below ings in the top 5 but Kemba is great. I'd put MKG at 3 instead of Wiggins as its too early but overall it looks great

Wow this division is deep with young talent, but who's surprised? BI and Orlando (aka Riggin for Wiggins) are both in this division, and we all know BIs stance on trading and young talent.