Predicting 10 young breakout candidates based on their usage at NBA Summer League

Each offseason, we are able to learn insights about which players could have breakout seasons based on how they were used during NBA Summer League.

Just a few years ago, it was obvious that the Memphis Grizzlies wanted to use Desmond Bane as an on-ball initiator in Las Vegas. Then, the following year, he took a massive leap forward with his role in his offense for the team on the court.

Based on what we saw during NBA 2K24 Summer League, we used some data points to observe which players could have a similar jump for next year.

We used Synergy Sporch Tech data to track which players had the largest increase in their percentage of total offensive possessions, when including passes, as the ball handler in pick and roll or in isolation.