12 Best NBA Rookie Cards To Collect Since 2020 - Ep. 3.32

We're talking about the top 12 NBA rookie cards you want that came out since 2020. Happy hobby. I'm David Goss. Build a better sports car collection with a real world budget. That's what this YouTube channel is all about. That's what our Happy hobby sports cards newsletter and podcast is all about today. It's all about the recent, the past few years. Kind of looking at this past six years of NBA rookie cardness and deciding which of these guys are the best ones that we should be collecting right now. Now, I'm no financial planner, so take this advice from a guy that's just a card collector. And these are cards that I think will be better than the other cards. Don't you know we're not going to put a big money into this. We're budget collectors. But just from me to you, here's who I think will be better. Now, we've done this before with the top baseball cards. We've already done that. We've done for the top WNBA cards. We've done it for the top hockey cards. We've already done this exercise for those three. So today it's all about the basketball cards. And next week I'm going to be doing the top football rookie cards you should collect from the past six years. But today it's all about the round ball hoops from Victor. Victor Wembanyama's generational hype. We've never seen anything like that since LeBron James. And even then we hadn't seen it because there was no social media back then. From that to what Anthony Edwards has become, he's now basically, much to his chagrin, one of the faces of the league. Now we got Cooper Flag coming in on fire. So this is a new era of basketball card greatness. So that's what we're going to be talking about here. Which rookie cards belong at the top of your want list? We're counting them down. I was thinking of doing just straight up. No, no, no. We're going to count them down. So first I want to talk about the. The guys that did not make the list. This is numbers 21 through 13 not in the top 12. So first we're talking about Mattis Buelles, the Chicago Bulls. This guy's, he's, he's a lot of fun to watch. The Bulls don't have much, but they got this guy and they're going to kind of build their team around this guy. He's going to be a lot of fun. Very young player. I like his future. 20, 24 Prizm card for him. Speaking of 2024 Prizm how about the number one overall pick, Zachary Richache? Now he's the number one pick. He's the 20th pick on our list. That 2024 draft wasn't a great draft. It was bookended by Cooper Flagg in 2025 and Victor Wembanyama in 2023. And then you had that one right in the middle. But Zachary Ric Sachet moves over to Dallas, joins Cooper Flag, the number one pick, a number one pick, back to back right there. So that's pretty awesome. So he's gonna be like kind of the. The second, if not third guy on Dallas, but really right now, kind of like the second guy. He's gonna help Cooper Flagg to greatness. Number 19, 2021 Prizm Austin Reeves. By the way, look, listen to the numbers, listen to the different years that I'm going to be sharing with you, and you'll see some themes here that are interesting. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But 2021 Prizm Austin Reeves, the Lakers star, LeBron's gone. We still have Luca. Austin Reeves is basically that second Panini there, but that's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. There's been many, many great second bananas. And wait till you see the rest of this list. There's many second bananas on this list that are absolutely collectible. But Austin Reeves here, he's a. He's an excellent one. Number 18, Alperin Shanguna for the Houston Rockets. He's not Zebra collectible. He's a big man, but this guy's fun to watch. Houston's putting something together. They've got so many different parts. They've just got so much stuff going on there. But he's one of the. One of the good things, one of the excellent things on that team. I like Shengun in the future. Number 17, Amen Thompson. How about this guy? Him and his brother, Oscar Thompson, two great players, two great defensive stalwarts. I like Amen Thompson a lot. Number 16, Franz Wagner. A number. Another second Panini Wagner to. In Orlando, he's second to Paulo Banchero. Wagner's got a little bit of everything. Now, you. You'll hear me. I'm an Orlando Magic fan. You'll hear me talking a little bit about Paolo. But if Paolo or Franz, if this doesn't work out this year, them two together, it's possible we could see one of those guys get shipped out. My guess is it might be France. They get shipped out to another team so that there's some space opening up for Paulo. I hate to say it, but I think if it doesn't work out, that's what we're gonna see. If that's the case, wherever Franz does end up going, my guess is he could end up being the star on that team. Say he gets shipped to, you know, the place like Milwaukee or some other place that's just kind of Zebra thin on superstardom. Franz Wagner could be the guy there. Now we're moving on to number 15, another second Panini Chet Holmgren. Actually, he's not the second. He's like the third. He's the third Panini but he's top 15 on our list, which is interesting. How's that even happen? But Chet Holmgren, 2022 Prizm Chet Holmgren. He's taking a lot of flack this past off season because of his performance against San Antonio spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama. Chet Holmgren got eaten up. You think that fella's not working on something right now, this second today to battle up against Wembanyama for the. For future battles? I think so. Number 14. 2023, Prizm Brandon Miller. Brandon Miller. I'll tell you what. He's suddenly the only Panini in Charlotte. Why are we talking? What's with my obsession with bananas? I don't know. But Brandon Miller in Charlotte, he's suddenly the. The big guy. He's the man. Now in Charlotte, with lamelo ball being shipped out, so with him being the man, that's a pretty great thing. For his card collectibility, we could see his numbers skyrocket this year. Now, we looked at number 13, Scotty Barnes. This guy's like, kind of like just Mr. Everything. He does a lot. He was a rookie of the year 2021. Prizm Scotty Barnes. 2021, 22 Rookie of the year. He's great. He's fantastic. He's fun to watch. But he's in Toronto. Kind of kills his collectibility a little bit. But I still have them in my top 13. All right, so now we're moving into the dirty dozen, the top 12 basketball rookie cards to collect that came out since 2020. Number 12. How about Stefan Castle for those San Antonio Spurs? Again, this is a number three guy with San Antonio. But listen to my reasoning here. Actually, I'm gonna wait on that. I'm gonna give you my reasoning on this. Why the depth at San Antonio and Oklahoma city matters. Number 11. We just talked about lamelo ball a minute ago. He's here again. 2020 Prizm LaMelo Ball. And he was the rookie of the year in 2020. Was he rookie? Yu-Gi-Oh rookie of the year in 2020. He is fun to watch. He's crazy. He's amazing. He's got a lot of talent. He's just kind of all over the place, though. He's not necessarily a focused superstar that you would want on your team. Minnesota wanted them, though. They pairing him. They're pairing him with the number one overall pick from 2020, Anthony Edwards. Let's see what they can get. It's going to be dynamic for sure. It's going to be fun to watch, for sure. But in the Western Conference, man, they got an uphill climb for sure. We'll see. We'll see how that goes. Number 10, Tyrese Maxey. Philadelphia 76ers guard now. Tyrese Maxey's been. He's been awesome to watch. His rookie card, I believe that's a 2021 Prizm Also a lot of fun to watch. A lot of fun. Unfortunately, he's on a team that's been Frankensteined together. Right. We're going to get into this a little bit more in two more players. Number nine, Dylan Harper, San Antonio spurs again, that's another 20, Topps for. For Dylan Harper. That's the card you want to target for that. I mentioned earlier, Stefan Castle as the third Panini Dylan Harper, number two. Wemby will talk about him a little bit, but reason why I'm talking about these guys is San Antonio and Oklahoma City. These two are going to be going in the Western Conference finals. You'd have to assume, like the next, you know, seven, eight years, we're going to be seeing a lot of them and they're going to be on TV a lot. So with that in mind, a lot of FaceTime, a lot of TV, a lot of chances for each of these guys to blow up and have their own superstar games. You know, you got Wemby obviously doing his thing, but somebody else has to do something. We saw in the. In the conference finals last year and some of the NBA finals how these guys stepped up Castle and Harper, how they stepped up. Dylan Harper, obviously, he's going to be replacing de' Aaron Fox and the starting lineup at some point. So I think that's when we're going to start seeing his number or his cards get even higher. Obviously, he was kind of buried behind. Cooper flags. Awesomeness. Got another one coming up. Number Topps 20, Topps. VJ Edgecombe, 76ers again. Hey, the 76ers have pieced together this insane roster. Trading got Jalen Brown there, they just. They signed LeBron James, they have Joel Embiid, they have Tyrese Maxey, and they have Vijay Edgecombe. Now, of that whole little Frankenstein group, that's going to be first off. That's going to be crazy to watch in the East. Them battle with the Knicks. Those two right now are the odds on favorites to one-of-one the East. Do we trust them? Either of those two teams going forward, with Oklahoma City and San Antonio getting better, getting more experience on those rosters, do we trust either of those Eastern teams? I don't. I certainly don't Trust the. The 76ers. At least the Knicks have already done it. 76ers, man, that, like I said, I keep calling it a Frankenstein roster. But to bring in a personality like LeBron to be the leader of this team, that's probably a great thing for them. That's probably something they needed. Well, it's not probably. That's something they needed. But to bring in Jaylen Brown, this a little bit of a distraction. This was a guy who assumes he was the number one guy. He moves to Philly, that kind of seems like he was about to be the number one guy again. Not that LeBron's going to take over, but, man, that's a lot of. They're gonna need a lot of balls to go around for that crew. Joel Embiid, who know. Who knows what you're going to get from that. But that Philly team, that's going to be interesting. VJ Edgecombe, though, he gets the edge here above Maxi because he is much younger, and Max has already had a few years to kind of become the superstar. Edgecomb is. Is relatively. Obviously, he's new. He's a year in, but we're gonna see him for the next 10 years just blossom and explode, and that's going to be his team. I think in the next couple years, we're going to see the Sixers become Vijay Edgecombe's team. It's going to be Vijay Edgecombe's 76ers more than Tyrese Maxey, I think. Hey, I wanted to call time out here for one minute. I have a quick question for you. Do you ever find yourself wondering, what are the best baseball rookie cards from, I don't know, 1987? Or what are the best football rookie cards from 1972? Well, I've got you covered. Head over to davidgannas.com where you'll find lists of the best rookie cards from every year for baseball, basketball, football, and hockey cards. And each page is like a time machine. Except instead of awkward yearbook photos, you get the greatest range. Rookie cards, all neatly listed by year. And every card has a convenient link right to ebay. So if you want to find a forgotten gem for your collection, just click to find a great deal. Also, those links are affiliate links, which means you'll be supporting this podcast and helping me justify my own cardboard obsession. It's a one-of-one one-of-one really, if you think about it. So. So whether you're chasing hall of Famers or you just want to see who rocked the rookie scene in your birth year, check out davidganis.com your collection and your favorite podcast host will thank you. Okay, so we're moving on. Still staying in 2025 tops. Number seven, Topps. Con Knippel. Now, I mentioned earlier Brandon Miller's superstar. He did. I misspoke. I said Brandon, Brandon Miller's the star on the team. That there isn't anybody else. But Con Kadipal is. Is a star and he's actually has a little more joie de vivre, a little more something to him, a little more. There's just something to this guy. Fun to watch. Just a crazy family. The. The Caneppos themselves. Like so many young, awesome players that are. That are still coming through the ranks. Like, this is a fun guy to watch. I think we're going to see a lot. I think Charlotte's really going to push him out there as a face of the franchise with Lamelo gone. So I think Coneple. Yu-Gi-Oh I got him number seven on this list. Number six, my guy, Paolo Banchero. Curious that I have him at 6. It's weird because the next guy ahead of him, you'd think these would be swapped. I would have thought because Paulo's overall number one pick in 2022. Number one. Yu-Gi-Oh obviously he's the number one guy with the Magic, but they just haven't figured it out, man. They haven't pieced it together yet. I wonder how long this is going to work with him and France as the main guys. And I also wonder because Paulo's a West coast guy. He's from Seattle. Obviously. He was a Duke for a year. Not just a year. I wonder when, if and when Paulo's going to start pining to move out west. I do think eventually, I think the Seattle area, I think they get the supersonics back. And I do see eventually Paolo moving to. Back to Seattle and playing for that team. But obviously that's. That's a. That's a dream right now. But I do think that's in the future. Think back over the past 10, 15 years. How many superstars in the players drafted among the top five in their, in their draft class are still with their teams? There's not a lot of them. A lot of them get moved. Whether it's by their own preference. I think that might happen with Paolo or it's the team's preference. Look at what happened with Luka just through the years. A lot of guys get moved. Jaylen Brown was one of the very few that had stuck. Jayson Tatum, he's still there. He's still. He stuck around Anthony Edwards, obviously. But just, just look back the last 10 years. How many superstars of the top five didn't stick around with their team? I think you'd be surprised. Number five, Jalen Williams. Back to 2022 Prizm Jalen Williams, J Dub. Now he is a second Panini He is second to Shay Gilgis Alexander. Why would I have him top five overall if I think he's not even the best player on his team? My reasoning is a little Scotty Pippenish. SGA's got what, six years on him. I think that Oklahoma Thunder team is absolutely pieced together like it's a fine, oiled machine. What they got going there, I do think obviously SGA is the key to, to this, but I can see them getting, they already have one title. I can see them getting minimum a second, let's say minimum three, a third NBA title. Jalen Williams with three NBA rings, he definitely has that Scotty Pippen feel to him as a second superstar on the heels of the other superstar. And he just has a. I think he's got some good things ahead. So that's kind of my reasoning here is not that he's on the coattails of sga, but I do think that because they're going to one-of-one so much that I think that's going to boost his value. That's part of why I have, you know, we have three San Antonio spurs on here because I think it's going to be those two teams, man, just fighting it out. Oklahoma City, a few of those guys on here. I think that's, that's what we're looking at. All right, let's move on. Number four, Cade Cunningham. A man stayed healthy and he is a beast in the East. I just made that up. No one's ever said it before. So he's this guy's. If he ever gets the right team around him, which they're close, then there's some great things ahead for Cunningham. Number one overall pick in 2021. So this is what I wanted to go back to. I mentioned it earlier thinking about looking at these different years that I'm mentioning 2021 Prizm We were sleeping on it back then. It was when it first came out. This was in the card collecting boom had already happened. Like there was so much of it printed. You can still find 2021 Prizm relatively available everywhere. So there's a lot of wax that's still out there. Go track some down, man. Get some and. And rip and look for some Cade Cunningham awesomeness. Because it's not just Cade Cunningham you're looking at. Who else is on this? Scotty Barnes. We got Franz Wagner, Alperin Shangoon, Austin Reeves. Like there's good players from that year that I think it just kind. It was like a slow Shimmer Like they turn this. Turn it on low and now you go touch it, man. That's boiling hot water. I think that's what we're looking at with 2021 Prizm Especially with Cade Cunningham at the tip of that Zebra Number three, Ant Man. Anthony Edwards, Minnesota. They bring over Lamello Ball. I think that's going to take a little heat. I think. I know it's going to take a lot of heat off of them in that back court. It'll be interesting if ball can kind of have some ball security with. With. With this. But I feel like Anthony Edwards is still a superstar. I mean this guy's a running back and a. In a NBA player's body. He's funny, he's a great interview. If they can break through and get into the finals somehow, let the. You know, there could be an injury to anybody on say SGA gets injured, say Wimby gets injured again, those two teams, maybe they're. They're not one and two in the Eastern or the Western Conference for one of these upcoming years, but Minnesota's right there and they take over that one of those spots and they battle through and they somehow get to the NBA Finals. I think we could see Ant man holding the trophy at some point. So I like Ant Man. I like Anthony Edwards a lot. He's a lot. He's fun to watch social media. He's crazy. His dog has a social media account. It's cool. Number two. Now here's where it gets tricky. Number one and number two. I don't know who. Who do you like better out of the. In alphabetical order? Cooper flag. Victor Wembanyama. Who do you think should be the number one most collectible guy going forward? My answer the Number two player on this list is Wemby, which means Cooper Flagg is my number one most collectible player on this list. Let me reason why for Wemby. Obviously, he's at the top of the mountain. Like, he's. He's awesome. Nobody's disputing that. But did you notice in this past year, there was a lot of vitriol thrown Wemby's way? He started becoming a villain a little bit. Smashing Jalen Brunson in the face, kind of being a complainer, kind of being a. Just not. This is a. We found some reasons not to root for Wembanyama more than we found reasons to root for him. Not that he's not somebody that's amazing and not somebody who you should collect. I mean, this guy's the number two most collectible guy in 20 in the 2000s. Certainly he's collectible. But I do feel like Cooper Flag has an opportunity to become more collectible than Wembanyama. The other thing with Wembanyama that's a little tricky is he came out 20, 23. He came out and Top said, hey, we're gonna start printing NBA cards. And they started printing unlicensed, or at least not with. Without the team logos, NBA cards. Which is kind of weird because Prizm was still printing NBA cards. So now you have multiple. Like a mishmash, a whole potpourri of Tops. Wemby cards. And he was signing for Tops. So all of his autographs are on Tops cards. But then Prizm had his true rookie cards, Panini Prizm So I personally, I was like, you know what? I'm not in the fight at all. I'm gonna get me a Donruss Optic rookie. I got his pink rookie, and I'm happy with it. Good, Good with that. So that's what. That's what I think. That kind of. That weirdness about his rookie card not being one awesome rookie card, like 20, Topps. Cooper flag. There's no doubt what Cooper Flag's main true rookie card is. Whether you talk about Bass or his Topps Chrome card, that's it. Those are his rookie cards. There's not. There are prison. You know, there's other brands that have printed his cards, but those are his true rookie cards. There's no doubt about it. Yu-Gi-Oh It's kind of like, you know, they're all over the place. Cooper Flag, number one on the list, Dallas. Obviously, they're far, far away from competing for an NBA title, But I don't think that matters at this point. I think at this point he's a man on an island. I mean, he's got Reese Sachet over there. I say man island. I mean, in other words, he's kind of out there on his own. There's not really a lot yet built around him yet look how collectible he is. So anything that Dallas does, any goodness, any upside, any progress that they make is just going to blow his card up even more. I do think it's going to be tough for Dallas to compete in the OKC San Antonio spurs dynasty, you know, dueling dynasty era. But as far as winning, maybe he could one-of-one some NBA players of the year, so maybe some get some scoring title action. You never know. You never know with this guy. He's pretty awesome. A lot of fun to watch, but I think it's. I think it's my pick is Cooper flag over Wemby going forward. So now I want to know, what'd you think? Which rookie cards actually belong at the top of your want list? I want to know. We looked at the. The biggest cards. We looked at some of the smaller, big cards. Grab your Pandora Pull up your ebay want list. Let's. Let's throw some guys in there. I want to know in the comments, tell me, who do you think should be among the top 12 most collectible rookie players in basketball cards today? Let me know and make sure you have a happy high.