Age: 23
Position: SG
The Toronto Raptors are loaded with young assets—namely Rudy Gay, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross.
Gay is arguably the most talented of that foursome, but considering his contract expires after paying out a gargantuan $37.1 million over the next two years, there's no lock that he'll be around to see the Raptors' future unfold.
Instead, I'll go with DeRozan, who's signed through 2016-17 after inking a four-year, $40 million extension last November.
From a scoring standpoint, DeRozan is coming off his strongest season to date. In 2012-13, the Southern California product averaged a career-high 18.1 points. However, DeRozan still has work to do when it comes to contributing in other areas of the game.
DeRozan has never averaged more than four rebounds per game for a single season and has yet to crack the three-assist-per-game mark. Even for a shooting guard, that's a tad low.
If the Toronto 2-guard can work an even semi-reliable three-point jumper (23.9 percent from three over four seasons) into his repertoire, the Raptors will be happy they signed DeRozan to that extension when they did.
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