NBA Rookies Who Look Like Draft Steals
This year's NBA rookie class is largely living up to the hype. It's not just the most familiar faces fueling it, either.
A handful of lesser-known or out-of-nowhere prospects are turning heads with larger-than-expected roles and/or impacts. They will headline our first stab at trying to identify the biggest steals from the 2025 draft.
Keep in mind this isn't a look at the best rookies, bar none. "Relative to where they were selected" is our guiding phrase for this exercise. That effectively disqualifies every top pick.
Dylan Harper (pre-calf strain), VJ Edgecombe and Kon Knueppel have all been better than expected. It's just tough to call them "steals" when they were selected so high and without a bunch of realistic alternatives on the board at the time.
Ryan Kalkbrenner, Charlotte Hornets
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If you're like me, you trolled the Charlotte Hornets entering the season for their joke of a center rotation. And you now owe them an apology.
Ryan Kalkbrenner is holding it down at the 5. He isn't just Charlotte's most-used center. He's third on the team in total minutes. The defense is hovering around league average when he's on the floor—a minor miracle largely made possible by Kalkbrenner's active hands and stellar rim protection.
Just three players have contested more total looks at the basket. Opponents are also shooting 9.2 percentage points worse when challenged by him inside six feet. That dip is right in line with those from Evan Mobley (9.5) and Victor Wembanyama (10.0).
For a while, it looked like Kalkbrenner might never miss on the offensive end. The misses eventually came, but he's still shooting over 81 percent from the floor—including 86 percent inside the restricted area, from where the overwhelming majority of his looks come.
To say the Hornets are getting excellent value out of the No. 34 selection would be a massive understatement.
Sion James, Charlotte Hornets
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Another Hornets rookie? Another Hornets rookie.
Injuries to Josh Green, Brandon Miller and, now, LaMelo Ball have paved the way for Sion James to rack up more playing time than expected. He's making the most of it.
Drafted No. 33 overall, James is proving to be an exhaustive defender capable of guarding up and down the archetypal spectrum. Standing 6'5", he has defended everyone from VJ Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey to bigger forwards like Franz Wagner and Lauri Markkanen.
Seldom has the 22-year-old appeared overmatched despite getting baptized by fire. And pairing him with Ryan Kalkbrenner gives the Hornets a defensive pulse. They are in the 66th percentile of points allowed per possession during the duo's minutes.
James could stand to be more aggressive on the offensive end. His selectivity, though, is at least giving way to monster efficiency. He's shooting 60 percent from three (15-of-25) and hitting 72.7 percent of his attempts out of drives (8-of-11).
Will Richard, Golden State Warriors
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Will Richard thrust himself into the national spotlight with a 30-point detonation in the Golden State Warriors' shorthanded Nov. 5 loss to the Sacramento Kings. But he was making waves before then. And he's continuing to make them now.
Defensive tenacity earned the No. 56 pick his earliest reps. Golden State has him soaking up reps against a variety of different assignments. Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes recently described him as the "quintessential right place, right time guy."
This extends to the offensive end. He has generated a smattering of second-chance possessions with his hustle on the glass. His cuts into open space are intuitive. And he knows how to run the floor in transition, where he's eighth in points scored per possession among 139 players who have matched or exceeded his volume.
Throw in a 44.6 percent clip from downtown, on volume befitting a rotation-caliber wing, and it sure seems like the Warriors just mined a gem out of the 50s for a second consecutive year.
Cedric Coward, Memphis Grizzlies
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People inside and outside Grind City are already calling for the Memphis Grizzlies to start Cedric Coward. Their stance is...tough to poke holes in.
Despite coming off the bench, Coward spends ample time checking opposing stars. His 10 most frequent assignments thus far include Devin Booker, Cade Cunningham, Stephen Curry, Luka Dončić, Kevin Durant, Cooper Flagg and Austin Reaves. These stints have not always ended well, but Coward is holding his own and not conceding many easy buckets or shooting fouls.
The offensive package is universally scalable. Coward knows how to cut through open space in the half-court and make plays in transition. Among the 23 other players who have finished as many possessions on the break, only Zach LaVine and Paolo Banchero draw shooting fouls more often. His 52 percent clip on arc threes speaks for itself, even if it's in no way sustainable.
Taken at No. 11, Coward cost the Grizzlies two first-round picks as well as two second-rounders. Even with this in mind, though, he's shaping up to be the mother of all draft-day steals.
Collin Murray-Boyles, Toronto Raptors
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Whatever the over/under is on the number of All-Defense teams Collin Murray-Boyles will make for his career, go ahead and smash the "over."
Exhaustive doesn't even begin to describe the intensity with which he plays. He will bring full-court pressure in a way that blows up possessions before the shot clock gets to 17. When opponents don't wilt underneath his blanketing, he can anchor sets like a big in the middle, but also navigate the perimeter with wing-like mobility and freneticism.
Concerns over his offensive fit on a somewhat-wonky Toronto Raptors roster may have been premature. He needs to finish better around the rim, but the lane navigation after setting screens is tailored to the cadence at which each ball-handler operates.
Three-point shooting will remain the 20-year-old's swing skill. And while it's too soon to tell which way he'll go, a 7-of-14 start on non-corner triples is a big deal—almost as big as Toronto finding a potential building block at No. 9.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
