This year's Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class is dominated by the WNBA: Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw will don the coveted orange jackets during Friday's enshrinement ceremony, while six-time All-Star and 14-year veteran Amar'e Stoudemire will be the only NBA player inductee.
Looking ahead, the NBA should boast deeper Hall of Fame classes over the next three years. While ageless stars LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant keep pushing off retirement, a bunch of 2010s-era standouts are ready for consideration, including two no-brainer first-ballot selections.
Let's examine 11 potential candidates for the next three Hall of Fame classes. Remember, Hall rules require that NBA players "must be fully retired for three full seasons before being eligible."
LaMarcus Aldridge
Mary Altaffer/AP Eligible: Now
Aldridge should feel great about Stoudemire's induction.
Although Aldridge wasn't a regular on highlight reels like high-flying contemporaries Stoudemire and Blake Griffin, the midrange maestro quietly went about his business and accumulated more than 20,000 career points and 8,000 career rebounds in his 16-year career. That's rare air: Antawn Jamison is the only other retired player to hit those benchmarks who isn't a Hall of Famer, and LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only active players in the 20,000/8,000 club.
Aldridge's career averages (19.1 points per game, 8.1 rebounds per game, 20.7 player efficiency rating) are right there with Stoudemire's numbers (18.9 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 21.8 PER), and he maintained them while playing nearly 10,000 more minutes than the former Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks star. While Aldridge never won a ring with the Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs or Brooklyn Nets, he earned seven All-Star nods and racked up 115.6 career win shares -- far more than either Stoudemire or Griffin, who was a 2026 Hall finalist.
Marc Gasol
Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports Eligible: Now
Gasol didn't make the cut this year despite being an international nominee, but the Spanish center should be joining his brother Pau, a 2023 inductee, before long.
Gasol's combined NBA and international résumé is simply too decorated to snub: A 2019 NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, a 2013 Defensive Player of the Year award with the Memphis Grizzlies, and three All-Star selections, plus two Olympic silver medals, two FIBA World Cup gold medals and five EuroBasket medals as part of Spain's "Golden Generation."