NBA Power Rankings: All 30 teams' most exciting young rising player - ESPN

The NBA regular season is in full swing ahead of a blockbuster slate of games on Christmas Day.

In the East, the New York Knicks are riding their NBA Cup championship, surging to second in the East. However, the rest of the conference remains in flux as the other eight teams besides the Knicks and Pistons remain within 1.5 games of each other.

The Western Conference is beginning to show just how much of a gauntlet it has proved to be in the past few seasons. Besides the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, other contenders — San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets — are neck and neck in a race toward the top.

This week we asked our NBA insiders to pick one young player on each team who is making an outsize impact so far this season — and what that might mean for the franchises they play for.

Here is where all 30 teams stack up in this week's Power Rankings.

Note: Team rankings are based on where members of our panel (ESPN's Anthony Slater, Dave McMenamin, Jamal Collier, Kevin Pelton, Michael C. Wright, Ohm Youngmisuk, Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Vincent Goodwill and Zach Kram) think teams belong this season.

Previous rankings: Preseason | Oct. 29 | Nov. 5 | Nov. 12 | Nov. 19 | Nov. 26 | Dec. 3 | Dec. 10 | Dec. 17

Jump to a team:
ATL | BOS | BKN | CHA | CHI | CLE
DAL | DEN | DET | GS | HOU | IND
LAC | LAL | MEM | MIA | MIL | MIN
NO | NY | OKC | ORL | PHI | PHX
POR | SAC | SA | TOR | UTAH | WAS

2025-26 record: 26-4

Previous ranking: 1

Next games: vs. SA (Dec. 25), vs. PHI (Dec. 28), vs. ATL (Dec. 29)

Young riser: Ajay Mitchell

There was some belief that Jalen Williams' return would send Mitchell back to the rotational basement in Oklahoma City, but that hasn't