5 Rising Stars Who Could Make Their First All-NBA Team

It's really hard to make an All-NBA team, a fact made plain when you consider the quality of this season's potential first-timers.

Cooper Flagg is the most promising prospect this side of Victor Wembanyama, Alperen Sengun is leading one of the early season's top threats and Scottie Barnes is easily one of the best two-way stars in the league. For various reasons, none of them has ever managed to earn an All-NBA nod.

Clearing that bar requires statistical excellence, some amount of team success and, sometimes, a little patience. Voters tend to reward the old guard before they recognize fresher faces.

Though we're still in the early part of the 2026-27 season, several ascending newbies are making their cases undeniable. The 65-game rule has already knocked out some of the usual suspects, opening the door wider for a flood of first-time honorees.

Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks

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If Cooper Flagg maintains this pace, he could join LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Luka Dončić and Carl Braun as players to earn All-NBA honors in their age-20 seasons.

It's just like everyone said during Flagg's breakout rookie season last year: This kid could be the next Carl Braun.

Flagg's offense has leveled up in his second year, helped partially by the presence of Kyrie Irving's playmaking but mostly by organic growth. His pull-up mid-ranger is automatic now, he's getting to the foul line at will and Flagg is seeing the floor even better as a facilitator, averaging about 2.0 more assists per game than he did a year ago.

With his highly touted defensive disruption showing through more clearly and the Dallas Mavericks exceeding expectations by playing winning basketball, Flagg's numbers—23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.9 blocks—cannot be dismissed as empty.

Perhaps more importantly, they're already better than any produced during Carl Braun's 13-year career.

Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

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Scottie Barnes has a pair of All-Star trips and earned an All-Defensive nod last season, so he's no stranger to individual awards. The main one he's missing, an All-NBA honor, feels inevitable.

The 25-year-old is putting up 23.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game in his sixth season, carrying over the two-way dominance he displayed during last year's relatively brief playoff run.

Long a disruptive defensive force who piles up stocks, the rangy forward is making his biggest strides on the offensive end. It'll be a shock if he doesn't maintain a scoring average north of 20.0 points per game—even after Kawhi Leonard returns from injury.

Though Barnes continues to struggle as a three-point shooter, he's on track to average a career-high 6.8 free-throw attempts per 36 minutes. Those extra trips to the line should help offset his iffy long-range shooting and maintain solid scoring efficiency.

The last factor is durability, which takes on real importance with the league's minimum-games threshold. Barnes logged 80 appearances last year and has played at least 65 games in every season of his career but one.

Knock on wood, but health seems less likely to derail his All-NBA chances than those of most other players.

Alperen Sengun, Houston Rockets

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If the season ended today, Alperen Sengun would have the league's eighth-highest Value Over Replacement Player figure. That should be more than good enough to get the two-time All-Star into the All-NBA club.

There are still another 70-something games to go, so no hardware will be awarded any time soon. But Sengun's strong start is fueling a stellar Houston Rockets team that could very easily finish atop the Western Conference. That team-related achievement should combine with career-best numbers to get the job done.

So far, Sengun is putting up his typical 20-ish points per game and flirting with double-doubles on most nights. While that's not new, his improved facilitation and perimeter accuracy are. On pace to blow away his previous career bests with 50.0 percent shooting from long range (we know that's coming down) and 7.8 assists per game, the sixth-year big man is playing at a personal peak.

Just 24 and still adding layers to an already All-Star-worthy game, Sengun (who, like Barnes, has only fallen below the 65-game mark once in five previous years) feels like a lock.

Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers

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Coming into the season, Avdija's potential role on a revamped Portland Trail Blazers team was a concern. After emerging as a star-level offensive fulcrum in 2025-26, the hard-charging forward figured to lose on-ball reps to new addition Ja Morant and returning franchise icon Damian Lillard.

An injury knocked out the former while a tweaked role moved the latter off the ball a bit more, but the real reason the 25-year-old profiles as an All-NBA first-timer is the Blazers' recognition that it would be wildly irresponsible to sideline their best player.

Avdija led the league in drives per game last year and ranks a solid second this time around. Nobody averages more assists per game on drives or gets to the foul line when attacking downhill more often. Though his usage and field-goal attempt rates are down by a fraction, his per-game averages of 22.3 points and 6.3 assists are virtually unchanged from a year ago.

As an added bonus, he is turning the ball over less frequently than he has since developing into a first option and has cultivated excellent two-man chemistry with Lillard.

The most important figure on a surprisingly good Blazers squad, Avdija is well on his way to finishing the season on an All-NBA team.

Austin Reaves, Los Angeles Lakers

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Teammate Luka Dončić is getting all the (deserved) press for his historic start, but Austin Reaves hasn't exactly faded into the background as the Los Angeles Lakers' second elite offensive option.

Dončić has missed two games so far this year, and while Reaves' efforts in the first, an easy 16-point win over the Clippers, didn't impress, he used the second to reaffirm his status as a dominant driver of offense.

On Nov. 8, Reaves racked up 43 points without Dončić, carrying the Lakers to an impressive five-point victory over the Detroit Pistons and their top-five defense. That effort contributed to what is so far a career-best 25.3 points per game scoring average.

A spectacular 50.8/41.3/90.9 shooting split has the 28-year-old on track to post a true shooting percentage of at least 60.0 percent for the sixth straight year.

While Reaves will only be the Lakers' No. 1 threat on nights Dončić is out of action, he's shown enough over the last couple of seasons to prove he's capable of stepping into that role whenever required. If he can stay healthy, he'll mix those kinds of nights with a ton of efficient second-option games to break through as an All-NBA first-timer.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.