2018-19 NBA Season: 5 injury-prone youngsters with the most to prove

"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away," is a saying fit for many of the youngsters who made it to the NBA in the past 4 seasons based off their play at lower levels of competition, but have been unable to make a mark on the league because of injury troubles.

Normal people find it discomfiting when they haven't had a clean bill of health to walk around as they wish for a couple of days. Imagine how humbled these young players have felt in the past couple of seasons as they rehabbed from severely debilitating foot, shoulder, hip, back and arm injuries.

Fortunately for them and for sports fans who live and by the fortunes of their teams, the players we mention on this list have the opportunity to feel themselves, maybe become better than they ever were in the 2018-19 season. The following 5 players will have inordinate amounts of pressure placed on them given their age, but all of them have the skills, situation and hopefully, the mental drive required of them to become better than they've ever been:

#5 Markelle Fultz

The spotlight is on and squarely in the Sixers' 20-year-old #1 overall pick from the 2017 NBA draft after he finished the queerest season ever played by a #1 overall pick in 2017-18. Fultz reconstructed his jumpshot after putting on some shoulder and arm weight in the summer of 2017 with disastrous effect.

The Sixers' shooting trainer said he'd 'gotten the yips' and forgotten how to shoot, and after appearing in their first couple of games, Fultz was shut down indefinitely. A late-season comeback for the combo guard saw him become the youngest player in NBA history to compile a triple-double, but he failed to see much action off the bench for his team in a second-round playoff exit.

Even if Fultz were never to get his jumpshot back, he could still be a really valuable player for the Sixers given his special driving ability and the dynamic feel he has for the game. But he did work out this offseason with the famed Drew Hanlen, who has helped the likes of Blake Griffin, among others, in developing an NBA-level jumpshot.

Now that he's done with his rookie season, the pressure on him this year will not be nearly as much as 2017-18. But it is still a fair amount of hype for a youngster to deal with, especially considering that he's on one of the most stacked rosters in the Eastern Conference and will be expected to be a valuable contributor.

#4 Dante Exum

While Exum is among the 2014 draft class high picks who seem like they've been around forever, he hasn't had a clean bill of health for a single year except his rookie season, when he played all 82 games and averaged 4.8 points and 2.4 assists in 22.2 minutes of game time.

In 2015, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee playing for the Australian national team, which ruled him out of the entire 2015-16 Jazz campaign. After that, he's had a shoulder surgery through the summer of 2017, following a comeback from this ligament tear.

Niggles and small tweaks have deprived him of the opportunity to grow into the backup PG role that he's eminently capable of fulfilling. His most recent injury came in Game 4 of the second round of playoffs against the Rockets - a hamstring strain that ruled him out of the final Jazz game of the season.

The front office has decided to persist with the youngster, who's still only 23 years old right now and could conceivably be an asset to the team. But he does need to steer clear of injury for that to happen.

#3 Jabari Parker

Boston Celtics v Milwaukee Bucks - Game Four

As the 2nd pick of a loaded 2014 draft, Jabari Parker's health, or the lack of it, has held him back from having a true breakout season with which to establish his credentials as an elite NBA player. He was on the verge of it, however, last season, when he played 51 games and scored 20.1 points per game in those outings.

He went down with a torn ACL in his left knee last February, and consequently missed 51 games of the 2017-18 season. His comeback was not strong enough for the Bucks to contemplate tying him down to the franchise long-term, and this paved the way for a hometown return for the Air Mormon.

Signed by the Bulls to a 2-year, $40 million deal with a team option for the second season, Parker's contract is really not too risky as the team will be bad for at least one more season before entering playoff contention. This deal does, however, leave a benchmark for Parker to live up to - if he fails to be worth his contract in the next season, that would mean curtains to any chances he has of still being the offensive superstar that he was projected to be before draft night in 2014.

#2 Joel Embiid

Philadelphia 76ers v Boston Celtics - Game Five

The Sixers' resident on-and-off-court superstar has had a tumultuous time in the league ever since he made his debut for Philly at the start of the 2016-17 season. His first full season of note, 2017-18, saw him voted into a starting berth in the All Star Game by fans - a fully justified selection, moreover.

The 23-year-old Cameroonian is already a two-way superstar as he proved last season as a big factor in Philly's 52-30 record and his 3rd place finish in the DPOY sweepstakes. But he now enters the first year of a 5-season deal that could be worth as much as $178 million over 5 years.

Now that the Sixers have proved themselves as a credible Finals threat from the Eastern Conference, it is up to their superstar youngsters - and particularly to Embiid - to live up to this billing. Embiid could have been even better during this year's playoffs if he'd had time to recover from an orbital fracture he suffered late in the season.

He needs to improve his conditioning and his ability to play his way out of double-teams. This is the first fully uninterrupted offseason that he's had to work on his game after turning pro, so the onus is on 'The Process' to show us that the moniker he bears is more than just hype.

#1 Zach LaVine

The 13th pick in the 2014 NBA draft, former Timberwolves player Zach LaVine's major claims to fame are his back-to-back wins at the Slam Dunk Challenge in 2015 and 2016. He is one of the most athletic players in the league ever, with a vertical leap of 46 inches.

Before going down with a torn ACL on his left knee in February last year, LaVine was averaging a career-best 18.9 points per game. His potential led to him becoming a makeweight on an offseason trade which sent him and Kris Dunn to the Chicago Bulls and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota.

LaVine missed over half of last season's campaign with the Bulls and ended the season with a field goal percentage below 40%. The Bulls have, however, tied him down to a 4-year, $78 million contract over this summer as a free agent.

Just like Jabari, there is no reason why a fully fit LaVine wouldn't be able to fulfil the expectations that his paycheck brings. LaVine shot over 38% in his final two Timberwolves seasons from downtown, and like Parker, he needs to work on his defensive awareness, positioning and has to sustain the effort through entire games.

Edited by Kishan Prasad