For many years, NBA staff and general prognosticators have touted the draft class of 2025. Led by Cooper Flagg, arguably the best American prospect in decades, this group seemed full of potential All-Stars and ready-made contributors.
The hype may be justified, now that this group of popular up-and-comers has finally made it to the professional scene. Despite an uneven start from Flagg, the 2025-26 rookie class includes elite defensive backs, knockout shooters and creators galore. When we get a sense of how their games translate to the NBA now about a month into their careers, we can make a preliminary ranking of how this group is performing.
Note that this is a quality rating nowrather than long-term projection. Thus, there has been a lot of movement between the draft system and this list of top-performing rookies. Four picks in the top 10 — Utah Jazz’s Ace Pelley (No. 5), Washington Wizards’ Trae Johnson (No. 6), Brooklyn Nets’ Igor Demin (No. 8), and Phoenix Suns’ Khaman Maluach (No. 10) — are not shown here, while several players selected outside the top 10 have outperformed their draft positions.
Note: Statistics are updated as of the morning of November 12.
This list starts with a little trick: with 11 rookies worthy of playing in 10 spots, it didn’t feel right to leave any of them out. Thus, we begin these rankings with a pair of swans.
To be fair, Fears and Queen have a lot in common. Both start their careers in miserable situations in New Orleans, but have flashed glimpses of long-term potential amid greater overall ineptitude. Fears is already a smooth tackler who approaches every possession with courage — the “Zero Fears” moniker is apt, to say the least — while Quinn has already had games with eight and seven assists, signaling his chance to develop into a center forward in New Orleans’ frontcourt.
Over the past decade, Toronto has become home to long-skilled athletes, and Murray Boyles fits that model perfectly. The No. 9 draft pick isn’t much of a scorer and can barely use his non-shooting right hand at times — Toronto’s offensive rating collapses with Murray Boyles on the floor — but he brings tremendous energy and potential to the defensive end. His 2.8 deflections per game ranks second among rookies, behind only VJ Edgecombe’s 3.4.
It remains to be seen whether Murray-Boyles will be better suited as a forward or a small-ball center, but he has a future as a big-time rotation player, to say the least.
Teammates with three lottery picks — Flagg, Kuhn Knoebel and Malloach — at Duke last season, the lesser-known 22-year-old James made an under-the-radar impact in Charlotte. James is shooting a remarkable 61% on three-pointers for the Hornets, and even if that pace certainly doesn’t continue, he has earned the trust of coach Charles Lee early, playing at least 25 minutes in six straight games.
Given his role and background, James could fall out of the top 10 by the next edition of these rookie rankings. But this placement is a reward for his impressive start as a young prospect, as James is one of a slew of guards who make Charlotte an entertaining watch almost every night.
Last season, Richard led the title-winning Florida Gators with 18 points in the national championship game. Now in the NBA, he’s switched roles and is doing all the little things that have defined this era of Warriors basketball: He’s making smart cuts, executing defensive turnovers and knocking down 3s at a 44% rate. Because he rarely fouls, Richard leads the rookie category in Player Efficiency Rating (PER).
He is also still capable of providing outstanding individual performances when given the opportunity. According to Basketball Reference’s scoring metric, Richard’s 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting in Sacramento on Nov. 5, in a game that missed Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler III and Draymond Green, was the best performance in a single game by a rookie this season.
Flagg was the toughest rookie to rank, as his performance thus far must be put into situational context. Flagg is learning the goalkeeping position on the fly as an 18-year-old, while playing for a team with minimal playmaking outside of him.
Flagg is no longer the runaway leader for Rookie of the Year after his first 11 games were marred by rough efficiency numbers and an understandable difficulty adjusting to a new position. Flagg’s 37% effective field goal percentage on jumpers ranks 131st among 135 players with at least 50 attempts, per GeniusIQ, and his 0.76 points per pick percentage ranks 68th among 72 players with at least 100 screens as a ballhandler.
Furthermore, the Mavericks were 25 points worse per 100 possessions with Flagg on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass. For context, the Denver Nuggets became 21 points per 100 possessions worse when Jonas Valanciunas brought Nikola Jokic up the middle.
However, Flagg will still be the best long-term pick for any rookie. His slow start is not an indictment of his No. 1 pick in the draft. He had his best performance of the season — while playing an off-ball role — against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, and his surface stats are solid across the board, averaging 15.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
The only other rookies to average at least 10 points, five rebounds and three assists in the past decade are Victor Wimpanyama, Paolo Banchero, Scottie Barnes, Josh Guede, Cade Cunningham, LaMelo Ball, Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, and Lonzo Ball — all of whom have developed into stars of varying strength.
But, given all the flaws in Flagg’s game in development, mid-top 10 is the highest he can realistically go right now.
The 34th overall pick out of Creighton, Kalkbrenner doesn’t have the star ceiling of Flagg or the next few players in this ranking. But the 7-footer is already doing two things at an elite level while filling Charlotte’s hole at center.
First, he leads all players eligible this season — not just starters — with an 81% shooting percentage from the field. Sure, Kalkbrenner hits almost all of his shots at the basket, but his expected field goal percentage is 69%, according to GeniusIQ, meaning he’s outperformed by a solid 12% margin.
The second strength is arguably more special, as Kalkbrenner ranks third behind Wimbanyama and Alex Sarr this season with 2.3 blocks per game. He could join Wembanyama as the only eligible rookie in the 21st century to average at least two blocks and one steal. The all-time list is exclusive and filled with Hall of Famers.
Harper has not played since suffering a calf injury in Phoenix on Nov. 2, otherwise he could be ranked higher. In six games off the bench before his injury, Harper displayed several exciting traits, most notably an aggressive, relentless focus on getting to the basket. According to Cleaning the Glass, 62% of Harper’s shot attempts have come at the rim, which leads all guards. He’s also kept his turnover rate low, which is an unusual strength for a young guard.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign for San Antonio is how quickly Harper has fit in with Wembanyama, with the former two draft picks serving as essential building blocks in the Spurs’ organization long-term. In 78 minutes, the Wembanyama-Harper duo had an impressive net rating of plus-36, the third-best margin among 784 duos with at least 75 minutes played this season. (Only the duo of Alex Caruso-Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso-Ajay Mitchell have a better net rating.)
Knueppel is a player built for the 2020s, as he takes and makes more 3s than any rookie in NBA history: 3.2 makes 8.0 attempts (40% accuracy) per game. Those would be impressive numbers for any player, let alone a 20-year-old who also contributes 6.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
However, relying too much on 3s is a recipe for inconsistency. He recently scored just five points each in back-to-back games, then exploded to 24, 20 and 30 over the next three. But the highs are high enough, and the broader skill set well enough — he finished an assist shy of his first hat-trick on Monday — that the Hornets should be thrilled to have him in the top four.
Edgecombe dropped a bit after a strong start. After scoring 34 points in his debut — the most by any NBA player since Wilt Chamberlain — and 26 points in his third game, the rookie guard hasn’t reached 20 points since. Since those first three games, Edgecombe is averaging just 11.8 points per game on 35% shooting (34% from long range).
Edgecombe also has one clear area for improvement as he adjusts to the pace of the NBA: He ranks 72nd out of 72 high-volume ball handlers, with just 0.63 points per pick.
But the positives clearly outweigh the negatives. In addition to Edgecomb’s scoring, his average of 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game stands out, and he also shoots 36% with a large number of three-pointers. His electric partnership with backcourt partner Tyrese Maxey gives Philadelphia a set-it-and-forget-it duo for the next half-decade. Most important of all, no rookie has outperformed Edgecombe amazing Factor in the first few weeks.
“There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t do something athletically that wows us,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse said of Edgecombe in Chicago on Nov. 4.
I spoke with dozens of potential players in the 2025 NBA Draft in May, and no one impressed me more than Coward, who exuded a quiet confidence and a keen understanding of his skill set — as well as excellent physical measurements. Coward did not participate in any scrimmages at the combine due to a torn labrum that ended his final college season in November 2024, but that didn’t stop the Grizzlies from trading up to No. 11 to draft Coward as a replacement after trading Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic.
These intangible advantages have quickly translated to the NBA court. Coward has shattered expectations early in his career, whether with his statistics — 14.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game on 51% shooting (40% on 3s) — or with his leadership and composure on both ends, even as a rookie with little high-level college experience who was thrust into a strange roster position.
At the very least, Coward should be a high-value 3-and-D player for a long time, but his ceiling could be much higher. In the Rookie of the Year race, Coward still ranks behind many of his peers who were recruited higher than him and will have more opportunities to rack up counting stats as this season continues. But for now, Coward was the best rookie of the 2025-26 season.
