SPORT NEWS: NBA’s Hidden Gems – Backup Players Poised to Snatch Starting Roles Across the League .giang

The start of the 2024-25 NBA season doesn’t mean the end of lineup tinkering.

The preseason offers teams their first opportunity to settle on a starting five, but priorities can change as the year progresses. Unforeseen needs arise, organizational directions shift and trades shake things up.

Injuries are already forcing some squads to elevate backups into their starting lineups, but the focus of this exercise is finding reserves who could eventually earn promotions during the year.

We’ll feature several rookies and young players who, with a little improvement and the right opportunity, could land themselves on the floor for opening tips. Elsewhere, we’ll highlight veteran options who could provide cleaner fits or niche skills currently absent from a team’s starting lineup.

The only thing we know for certain is that many current starting fives around the league will look different after a few weeks. These are our best guesses as to the form that change might take.

The cop-out pick would have been whichever of Dyson Daniels or Bogdan Bogdanović starts the season as a reserve. That spot in the backcourt next to Trae Young could belong to either of those players, with the former bringing elite perimeter defense and the latter providing starter-quality offensive play to the table.

Instead of trying to solve that backcourt puzzle, we’ll go with backup big man Onyeka Okongwu, whose four-year, $62 million extension kicks in this season. That’s not necessarily a starter’s salary, but when you combine the financial commitment Atlanta made to Okongwu with the expiring contract of starter Clint Capela, it’s not hard to imagine how the team imagines the center position shaking out.

Capela is still a decent enough starting option at age 30, but his rebound rate has slipped from what used to be league-leading levels, and his 59.0 true shooting percentage last year was his lowest in nearly a decade.

Okongwu, 23, was the No. 6 pick in 2020 but has spent his career behind the veteran Capela. Though he’s not the rebounder or shot-deterrer his teammate is, Okongwu is more mobile and has dabbled with a three-point shot (33.3 percent on 1.3 attempts per game last year). Those dimensions should appeal to an Atlanta team that might prefer to downsize and modernize in 2024-25.

Okongwu’s 28 points against the Brooklyn Nets in Atlanta’s opener didn’t hurt his cause.

Kristaps Porzingis’ prolonged absence will likely mean more starts for Al Horford at center. Last year was the first time the veteran big man had ever come off the bench on a regular basis, so there won’t be much of an adjustment for the five-time All-Star as he reassumes his typical starting role.

Still, at 38, Horford is well into the phase of his career where managing minutes and limiting appearances is vital. That’s why one of the Boston Celtics’ other centers has a great shot to take over first-unit duties from Horford until Porzingis is back.

Luke Kornet seems like the most sensible option if Boston chooses to preserve Horford and last year’s rotation patterns.

Though Kornet won’t punish switches like Porzingis did, he brings similarly imposing size at the rim and might even replicate some of KP’s deep-range shooting. No one should forget that Kornet came into the league as a spacing threat who took over two-thirds of his field-goal attempts from beyond the arc across his first four seasons.

Trades are on the horizon for the Brooklyn Nets, who already have their own 2025 first-round pick back but should be in search of every draft asset and young player they can find. That means opportunities are bound to arise for backups, who’ll be in position to take over major roles when first-unit veterans get dealt.

This early in a rebuild, no one on the roster is truly untouchable. But second-year big man Noah Clowney might come closest.

The 20-year-old played just 23 games in Brooklyn last year but averaged 12.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per 36 minutes while also hitting a tantalizing 36.4 percent of his threes. Every one of those numbers is suspect given the sample size, but Clowney has a combination of athleticism, size and skill that projects well. Though perhaps not a cornerstone, he’s easy to imagine as part of the next successful era of Nets basketball.

When Brooklyn trades away the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith, Cam Johnson, Bojan Bogdanovic and others, Clowney will find himself among the starters.

Tre Mann spent the preseason validating what he did down the stretch of last season following the trade that landed him with the Charlotte Hornets. In 28 starts last year, the 22-year-old guard averaged 11.9 points, 5.2 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting 36.4 percent from three.

Across four preseason appearances, Mann, in just 19.8 minutes per game, put up 16.0 points, 3.3 assist and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 60.0 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from deep.

LaMelo Ball has the keys to the offense in Charlotte. He’ll run the show for as long as he’s healthy, but it’s precisely that durability issue that gives Mann a real shot to take over for long stretches this season. Ball has played a total of 58 games across the last two years due to ankle injuries and should be viewed as a major health risk until he proves he can hold up for a full year.

Even if Ball stays on the floor, Mann’s scoring and on-ball facilitation could earn him a spot over Josh Green on the wing. If Miles Bridges winds up getting traded, Brandon Miller could slide up to power forward and create another slot for Mann to occupy.

There might be one or two alternative picks with as good of a chance to start as rookie Matas Buzelis, but the Chicago Bulls should certainly hope the man they snagged at No. 11 in the 2024 draft is the one who winds up in the first unit before season’s end.

Ideally, he’ll even earn the role.

Buzelis moves and handles the ball with uncommon fluidity for a 6’9″ (or 6’10”, depending on where you’re looking) player, and he’s an aggressive attacker of the basket who showed a knack for off-ball help on D during Summer League.

Raw, in need of some additional muscle and inconsistent as a shooter, Buzelis still managed a pair of double-digit scoring efforts in preseason play and seems assured of doing some dynamic work in transition.

The Bulls have a top-10 protected pick they need to keep, several costly veterans they need to peel off the payroll and every incentive to see if their latest lottery pick has any signs of stardom in him. One way or the other, Buzelis will (and should) be a fixture among the starters at some point this year.

Four years in, Isaac Okoro’s strengths and weaknesses are pretty well understood. He’s a strong defender against guards and smaller wings who isn’t enough of an on-ball or floor-spacing threat to warrant regular starts.

Maybe this is the year Okoro adds enough offensive juice to change that reputation.

The Cavaliers inked him to a three-year, $38 million contract in September, a somewhat tepid indication of their belief in Okoro, but an endorsement nonetheless. Perhaps Cleveland is convinced that the 23-year-old’s steady progress as a shooter is sustainable on greater volume. Though Okoro didn’t top the 9.6 points per game he averaged as a rookie in any of the three subsequent seasons, he’s increased his three-point accuracy from 29.0 percent to 35.0 percent to 36.3 percent to last year’s career-best 39.0 percent.

If he can hold somewhere in the mid-to-high 30s while getting his attempt rate up toward 5.0 per game, Okoro could give the Cavs a reason to return him to the starting spot he occupied for the first two-and-a-half seasons of his career.

Normally, it would have taken a massive slump from Max Strus, plus growth from Okoro to result in a change. But now that Strus will miss six weeks with an ankle sprain, Okoro will get an extended chance to seize a starting job and never let it go.