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10 facts to know from the 2020-21 NBA Roster Survey

Interesting facts abound in the NBA's annual look at opening-night rosters.

Per the latest NBA Roster Survey, Taurean Prince is this season’s composite player.

The new season is underway and with it comes the NBA’s annual (and very detailed) analysis on each team in the league. In the annual NBA Roster Survey, the league breaks down rosters by height, weight, age, league experience and more for every player on opening-night rosters.

Note: The survey compiles data for rosters as of opening night, not rosters as of today. Players on two-way contracts are not included in the survey.


1. The average NBA player was 6-foot-6.39, 219.02 pounds, 26.28 years old and had 4.56 seasons of NBA experience. Last season, the averages were 6-foot-6.54, 219.33 pounds, 26.18 years old and 4.59 seasons of NBA experience.

2. Taurean Prince most closely resembles the average NBA player based on height, weight, age and experience. Prince is 6-foot-6 1/2, weighs 218 pounds, turns 27 in March and has played four seasons (through 2019-20) since being drafted 12th overall in the 2016 Draft. In recent seasons, the NBA Roster Survey composite player was Glenn Robinson III (2019-20), Andre Roberson (2018-19), Tony Snell (2017-18) and Klay Thompson (2016-17).

3. Miami’s Udonis Haslem was the league’s oldest player at 40. Miami also had the NBA’s second-oldest player (Andre Iguodala, who turns 37 on Jan. 28).

4. Three players are the NBA’s most experienced: Portland’s Carmelo Anthony, the Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James and Haslem — all of whom are in their 17th season.

5. Oklahoma City’s Aleksej Pokuševski was the youngest player. He was 18 when the season started and turned 19 on Dec. 26.

6. Kentucky had the most players (29) on opening-night rosters for the ninth straight season. After Kentucky, the most represented colleges are as follows: Duke (24 players), North Carolina (11), Texas (11), Kansas (10), UCLA (10), Arizona (9), Michigan (9), Villanova (9), Washington (9).

7. Nos. 3 and 8 were the most popular jersey numbers, worn by 21 players each. The next most popular was No. 1 (20 players) followed by No. 0 (18 players), Nos. 5 and 11 (17 players) and Nos. 4, 9, 10 and 22 (16 players).

8. The Minnesota Timberwolves had the youngest team in terms of average age (24.00 years old) while the Los Angeles Lakers had the oldest team (29.35 years old). The Memphis Grizzlies, in terms of average NBA experience, had the lowest amount of average seasons (2.87) while the Lakers had the most (7.36).

9. The Chicago Bulls had the NBA’s tallest team in terms of average height (6-foot-7.55), while the Boston Celtics were the smallest team in terms of average height (6-foot-4.49). The Bulls also had the highest average weight in the NBA (226.93 pounds) while the Thunder had the lowest (209.53 pounds).

10. Rosters included 107 international players from 41 countries, including a record 17 Canadian players and a record-tying 14 African players.

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