The Most Exciting Players In The NBA: Southeast Division

Photo Credit: Charlotte Hornets

Written By Cameron Little

The start of the NBA season is right around the corner we are going by division for the next six days to give you all the insight you need into who to expect to take the leap this year.

Orlando Magic 

In the weakest Division in the Conference it is hard to find some major positives in these 5 teams however this Magic team is one of the most energetic and enjoyable to watch teams in the division with a good young core.

Other than the obvious Paolo Banchero, for me the most exciting player is Franz Wagner the jump he has made in his 4 years in the league has been brilliant and he has become a 24+ point a game player with 6 rebounds and assists averaged throughout last season defensively solid and great offensively and I can only see him improving going into his fifth year.

Jalen Suggs with his boost in ppg will be interesting to watch to see how he bounces back from only playing 35 games last season, if he can get 65+ games we could see an improvement to this Magic team Suggs, Banchero and Wagner will be crucial to this team’s success and hopefully they can take that step up.

Atlanta Hawks 

Being second in your division and having a negative record isn’t exactly exciting nor a good place to start a season however the Hawks do have some interesting players in this team, Trae Young is the obvious choice but hasn’t really seen any positives from the team for a couple seasons.

My most exciting player would probably be Dyson Daniels I think the 22 year old made the necessary jump last season which saw him being a good role player in his 3rd season in the NBA 14 points per game is nothing to shy away from with decent efficiency in scoring and a good rate of rebounds and brilliant rate of steals as an Atlanta Hawk averaging 3 steals a game giving his defence a major boost.

I think he could go even further and jump up to become a vital part of this Hawks team going into the 25-26 season which will be exactly what the team need to outperform everyone else’s expectation of them but it won’t be easy.

Miami Heat 

Unfortunately the Miami Heat have been on a downwards trajectory since their finals run in the 2020 season they have lost big players and not really added anyone major into the team the loss of Jimmy Butler will still sting as he was at times the sole reason Miami were anywhere near where they needed to be.

They do have some ok additions in Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell the first of which was acquired in the Jimmy Butler trade however the more exciting player would be Jaime Jaquez Jr. I think as rocky as his last season was Jaquez has proven he can score efficiently and contribute on defence effectively. He is a good role player and can definitely jump up in both skill and physicality to help this Miami team out of struggles. 

Charlotte Hornets 

Being a Hornets fan these last few years has to have been a tough watch they have some really talented young players and some good veterans at the same time. It seems having their franchise player injured for over half the season for the past 3 years has affected where this team’s ceiling really is.

The cop out answer for excitement would be one of the league’s best at creating it, Lamelo Ball but it is hard to argue with it as he is so fun to watch from a neutral standpoint and brings decent efficiency with 25 ppg on average last season with 7 assists his defence isn’t strong but his offence heavily outweighs that.

Another exciting young player is Brandon Miller, he is so fun to watch plays the sport aggressively and gets some good scoring numbers, him playing 27 games last season definitely hindered the team as he was a positive spark for the Hornets, it will be interesting to see if they can stay healthy and potentially try to make the play-ins. 

Washington Wizards 

Being the worst team in the East last season doesn’t really come with any excitement at all for any team and in fairness to the Wizards they are used to being in this scenario they don’t have the best young core or best players in all honesty.

However there is a small, small silver lining in the fact they got Tre Johnson in the draft at the sixth pick the 6’6 guard could be well suited to this team paired with more opportunity to play than a lot of players drafted this year.

He had good numbers in College for Texas and shows a lot of positive traits for a guard going into the NBA his player comparison aligns with Tyler Herro who I think the Wizards would love to have right now, his almost 20 points averaged in college gave him SEC Freshman Of The Year award and is a factor in people’s expectations for him to be a scoring threat at all three levels.