The Olympics have already begun, but it’s never too early to talk about the NBA season and the players that I think the Olympics will help elevate their games to the next level in the upcoming season. The Olympics have a way to motivate players to do well because of the factor of trying to win that gold medal, a lot of the time we see a translation of performance from the Olympics to the next NBA season.
These are the five players who will have a jump after their Olympic performances.
The 2024 NBA Huge Risers
There’s two players in this Olympics that will continue to really elevate their games to the next level as superstars in this league, those two players are Victor Wembanyama and Anthony Edwards. Let’s start by talking about Wembanyama.
Victor Wembanyama
Wembanyama is coming off winning the Kia Rookie of the Year award in 2023-24, and has shown to be already one of the new upcoming stars to try to take the mantle in the NBA. Wembanyama averaged 21.4 points per game, 10.6 rebounds per game, 3.9 assists per game, and a monster 3.6 blocks per game in the 2023-24 season for the San Antonio Spurs. It’s going to be fun watching Wemby on the French National team this summer grow as a player even more.
Wemby is going to be the focal point for both France and San Antonio in 2024 as a whole and I think Wemby is going to elevate his game to that next level in these Olympics that should translate over to the NBA season easily as the next superstar in this league. I would personally pick Wembanyama in the first round of your basketball drafts if you can because everybody is going to pick him especially with new point guard Chris Paul getting him easy looks all season long.
Anthony Edwards
Edwards has already shown how playing for Team USA has already elevated his game to the next level before last season in the FIBA World Championship last year, but I feel he has another level to reach and I believe that these Olympic games will be the platform for Edwards success in the 2024-25 season for Minnesota. Edwards averaged 25.9 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game, 5.1 assists per game, and 1.3 steals per game in 2023-24.
Edwards has plenty of more room to grow as he showed in last year’s playoffs he can get to that level where he can take over in a huge way especially in the big moments, and these Olympics he should play that sixth man role to perfection, which should translate to the NBA season well as he’ll be in attack mode from the word go in the 2024-25 season. Edwards is going in the first round again in drafts as he should because he’s an exciting player and he will continue to elevate higher and higher in the superstar tier.
2024 NBA under the radar guys
These three guys are currently under the radar as we speak today but will grow as players because of these Olympic games especially if they get the opportunities I think they should excel in the 2024-25 NBA season.
Franz Wanger, Nikola Jovic, and Jose Alvarado are three guys with completely different roles in the league than they’ll have on their Olympic teams respectively but these guys will have the opportunity to grow and bring back the talent level needed to make their NBA teams better next season.
Franz Wanger
Wanger I feel is going to be a more consistent player as Orlando’s “Robin” in 2024-25 because of these Summer Olympics after a lackluster 2023-24 season for the Magic. Wanger averaged 19.7 points per game last season with 5.3 rebounds per game, but his efficiency numbers where too low especially only shooting 28.1% percent from three point range is abysmal especially in this NBA climate. Having a bigger role as the alpha on the German team should help him get moments to shine in huge moments especially late in game, which Orlando hopes will translate over to the new season. I would draft Wanger in the middle rounds of your drafts.
Nikola Jovic
Jovic is the one of these three guys who could have the biggest jump next season especially if Miami decides to play him more next season instead of Kevin Love in the backup four spot. Jovic averaged just 7.7 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game last season in Miami for the Heat, but he only played 19.5 minutes per game last season.
Playing with Serbia in these Olympics should help Jovic to continue to grow as a player and the Heat look for the guy that’ll replace Kevin Love in the lineup eventually. Jovic already shoots the ball well as he shot 39 percent from three point range last season and playing with Jokic this summer should help him get ready to play high level basketball once the upcoming NBA season starts. I would draft Jovic in the later rounds.
Jose Alvarado
“Grand Theft” Alvarado is one of the most fun and exciting role players to watch year in and year out, and this summer he gets to represent Puerto Rico in the Olympics. Alvarado is one of those glue guys for the New Orleans Pelicans bench and being the leader on Team Puerto Rico is going to translate into a better season for Alvarado in the NBA in 2024-25. Alvarado averaged 7.1 points per game last season and had 1.1 steals per game off the bench for New Orleans last year.
The Olympics will showcase Alvarado enough to get people wanting to draft him late in drafts potentially. Although I still think Alvarado will produce closer to his 2022-23 season this year for New Orleans counting stats wise with the efficiency of 23-24, unless you need to draft a backup point guard late, I would use the waiver method with Alvarado until proven he gets consistent points for you because of the addition of Dejounte Murray in the offseason.
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