Breakout Ballers: Top five young players to watch next season

Jonas Valanciunas (Toronto Raptors)

Valanciunas was a teenage prodigy back in his homeland of Lithuania before even playing a single game in the NBA, winning several youth and junior European tournaments and individual awards, including leading his team to the gold medal with an MVP performance at the 2011 FIBA World Under-19 Championship. He struggled to translate that success in the NBA last year as a rookie for the Raptors, but began to improve as the season progressed and won the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Year Award in March. The progress has continued into this off-season, where Valanciunas dominated the Summer League to win the MVP award with 18.8 points and 10 rebounds per game. Now that he seems to have found his footing in North America, expect more performances from the 21-year-old 7-footer that will be a reminiscent of his dominant years back in Europe.