Evaluating the Top Rookies From NBA Preseason

The 2025 NBA preseason is officially over, with several of the league's newest rookies having made their debuts for their respective teams. Now, the 2025-26 regular season looms large, with the Thunder and Rockets kicking things off Tuesday.

Rookies can have a hard time breaking into regular season rotations, but preseason serves as a nice entry point for newbies to earn minutes in slightly less competitive settings. For that reason, numerous 2025 draftees were able to show off their skills over the last few weeks.

Below we’ll evaluate three rookies who had some of the best preseasons in totality:

Nique Clifford, Kings

Nique Clifford went under the radar given Sacramento’s recent moves, but he was quietly stellar for the Kings through four games.

He averaged 14.3 points and 4.5 assists per game, topping out at 19 points and nine assists while looking the part of an easily pluggable contributor. 

Clifford’s on the older side at 23, meaning he might be have been more tailor made to succeed early. But it still doesn’t detract from a great initial preseason that should serve as a launchpad into the regular season.

Cooper Flagg, Mavericks

The No. 1 pick has looked as advertised through three games, albeit in fairly limited minutes.

Cooper Flagg played only a few halves, coming in just over 20 minutes per game, but still managed to produce with 11.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game. Once he gets a consistent thirty-plus minutes a night, the sky seems the limit for the do-it-all forward, who could even be in line for point guard minutes.

Even without Kyrie Irving for the beginning part of the season, the Mavericks seem slated to be a force in the West with a large frontline of Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford and Flagg.

Ace Bailey, Jazz

Ace Bailey saw a polarizing freshman season with Rutgers, but made his presence known through three games with the Jazz.

He saw two of the best rookie performances throughout the preseason to begin his career, going for 25 points on 69% shooting against Kevin Durant and the Rockets before turning around and issuing 20 points on 62% shooting tote Spurs in an overtime loss.

Bailey left his third and final game early due to injury, but he showed enough in his first two games to warrant some hype heading into the regular season.