Five players were once hailed as James successors. How is the NBA development?

As we all know, the NBA is a business league, so no matter in any era, NBA executives hope to see top superstars who carry the league's ratings appear, and at the same time, they are also keen to build momentum for such players to expand their influence with the league. Since I tasted the sweetness of Magicians, Jordan and others, the NBA has hoped to show more potential league appearances. Therefore, we can also see that many players were once hailed as Magicians successors, Jordan's successors, etc., but unfortunately, most of these players are far from reaching the height of the templates.

After the 2000s, the NBA's appearance obviously became James. Based on his personal strength and commercial value, he can even be regarded as the only one in the NBA in the same period. You should know that before he entered the league, Nike signed a sneaker contract of nearly $100 million. Such treatment was not even Kobe, an All-Star player who had been in the league for many years at that time.

Because of this, after James' rise, the league began to find him a so-called successor again. However, so many years have passed, but no successor has reached his level yet, and some of these players have not even reached the state that James can play at the age of 40. The five players we will take stock of next are once called James' successors. Let's take a look at what performance they have performed after entering the league!

Evans is the earlier "James successor". He participated in the NBA draft in 2009 and was finally selected with the fourth pick in the first round. Although Evans, who is 1.99 meters tall, plays as a guard, his style of play is indeed somewhat similar to James. He has solid body and good talent. The most important thing is that his characteristics on the court were also comprehensive at the beginning. Therefore, Evans averaged 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Judging from the overall offensive efficiency, his performance this year is not even worse than James in the rookie season. Of course, this is also related to the latter's failure to play college basketball.

After Evans won the Best Rookie, the outside world's expectations for him continue to increase. Everyone thinks that no matter how he plays in the future, he will at least be able to enter the All-Star or the Best Team. However, unexpectedly, the stupid Kings management inexplicably made him change to the second position in Evans' second season, which caused him to quickly decline. Coupled with the impact of injury, he averaged only 17.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 40.9% of the field goal this year.

Later, Evans was regressing. Finally, after his rookie contract expired in 2013, he did not renew his contract with the Kings and joined the Pelicans. Unfortunately, Evans never returned to the peak after that. At the end of his career, he also caused a lot of trouble for himself outside the court, so he was completely eliminated by the NBA when he was less than 30 years old.

Wiggins in high school showed his proud basketball talent, especially his running and jumping ability is quite outstanding among his peers. By the time he participated in the draft in 2014, Wiggins was successfully elected as the No. 1 pick, and the Cavaliers who chose James at the beginning were the ones who chose him. However, the Cavaliers were determined to compete for the championship at that time, so they had no time to train rookies, so the team packaged Wiggins and other chips to the Timberwolves for Love. After joining the Timberwolves, Wiggins got plenty of opportunities, but the team's record has not improved at all during the period. In the 2016-2017 season, he averaged 23.6 points, 4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, but the team still missed the playoffs. Finally, Wiggins' Timberwolves career ended until the 2019-2020 season, and he was sent to the Warriors that year.

After joining the Warriors, Wiggins's responsibilities have been reduced a lot, which has helped him better help the team. In the 2022 playoffs, Wiggins successfully helped the Warriors win the championship. That year, he was also a star who contributed to the top three levels in the team. I thought Wiggins would be able to live with the Warriors in this way. This year, the Warriors still traded Wiggins in order to get Butler, and now it is time for the Heat to keep him for too long. He may be traded again in the offseason.

3. Ben Simmons

In 2016, Simmons can be said to be the most popular player among the rookies of the same class. His template is also known as Magic Johnson or James, so from the beginning, the media has accused him of being one of the potential future appearances of the league. After entering the league, Simmons performed well. He averaged 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game in the rookie season. In his early career, his defense was better than that of Magic Johnson and James when he was young. Therefore, he was not only selected as the All-Star, but also selected as the Best and Best Defensive Team.

However, compared to Magicians and James, Simmons' shortcomings are too prominent. His failure to project makes him easily targeted by his opponents. In addition, his mentality cannot be regarded as a super giant. When encountering setbacks on the court, Simmons will automatically "invisible". Then Simmons became the most premium player in the league. He did not reach a buyout with the Nets until this year. He then joined the Clippers with a basic salary, but he still played a mess. Judging from the current situation, if he couldn't find a new job, it wouldn't be particularly surprising.

Zen's performance in college was quite eye-catching. His huge size and flying and earth-shaking style easily remind people of top forwards such as James and Barkley. At the same time, his exposure led to his commercial value far ahead of other rookies, so he was marketed by NBA as James' successor from the beginning..

In fact, Tsai's early game was indeed impressive. In the second year of his career, he averaged 27 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and his shooting percentage was as high as 61.1%. However, due to frequent injuries, Tsai gradually became obsessed with everyone. Although his performance is still outstanding in many cases, people have long been "desensitized". He has played a wonderful game now. The first thing fans think about is not how strong he is, but whether he will be injured again in the next game.

In this list, Doncic is the only player who has developed in line with expectations. He was called a talented rookie when he entered the league in 2018. Although he does not have the physical fitness of James, his playing style is still somewhat similar to the latter. First of all, Doncic's body shape is visible to the naked eye, and his style of playing on the court is quite comprehensive, he is proficient in scoring and assisting, and even grabbing rebounds is better than many forwards. In addition, Doncic said from the beginning that he is a fan of James, so he naturally became another James successor.

Now 7 years have passed, and Doncic has indeed become one of the strongest stars in the league's younger generation. He has been selected for the Best Team 5 times, and has also been elected as the scoring leader. In addition, he has led the team to the finals. Doncic has also become teammates with James this season, and the chemistry between the two has exceeded many people's expectations. With the continuous running-in, they can still perform better in the new season.