![]() Washington is the lowest-ranked team on this list that doesn’t have a chance to win the title this season. That’s the best we can say about the Wizards’ youngsters, after five drafts in a row with a top-15 pick and not much to show for it. Kram: Deni Avdija posted very good advanced defensive stats last season. Claxton won’t ever be an offensive hub like Adebayo, but as long as he can defend across the positional spectrum, he’ll retain value in the modern NBA. ![]() Claxton switched on 15.9 picks per 100 possessions last regular season, according to Second Spectrum among rotation players, only Bam Adebayo (17.7 per 100) switched more often. Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas showed flashes in limited playing time as rookies and Nic Claxton still profiles as a mobile, defensively versatile center. But at least their youth squad has a bit more juice. Kram: Like the Bucks, Lakers, and Clippers, the Nets are firmly in win-now mode. Among players who averaged at least 10 minutes and five shot attempts per game, he posted one of the worst rookie shooting seasons since the turn of the century, at 38.5 percent from the field.ĭame Is Doing It His Way 27. The other is Brandon Boston Jr., who had some tantalizing outbursts during his rookie year, but was unable to shed the brutal inefficiency that has plagued him over the years. He’s a hypothetical shooter at this point, but he has the size, ranginess, and activity to potentially become a switchable nuisance defensively. Diabate is a physically gifted 6-foot-10 forward who was snagged in this year’s second round. The first was on Moussa Diabate, which might be a name you’re hearing for the first time. Mann: The Clippers are not young, but I do think they’ve taken a couple of notably intriguing boom-or-bust upside swings, each of which could legitimately go either way. The Best Young Cores in the NBA, 2021 The NBA’s Young Core Rankings, 2020 NBA Young Core Rankings, 2019 28. It could be entertaining at times, but when it comes to meaningful basketball, I’m not holding my breath. That said, it’s hard to justify Walker being much more than a microwave offensive tool without any kind of consistent efficiency. He’s the type of player who could thrive with LeBron’s decision-making-a classic template at this point. He’s a supremely confident herky-jerky-dribble shooter who plays primarily off the catch, with a gradual increase as the handler in ball screens. I loved Lonnie Walker IV’s game in high school and during his brief time in college at Miami. Are they going to bolster the glaring needs for this Lakers roster? Again, I’d argue probably not. Are they a group that can be built upon? I’d argue they are not. In fact, their under-25 players make up just 0.07 percent of their payroll. Kyle Mann: The Lakers have as much youth as a Facebook comment section. ![]() Photo by Jeff Bottari/NBAE via Getty Images 29. That’s a trade-off they’re surely willing to make. But they also won a title with this older core and rank among the favorites to win again this season. All 10 of their rotation players last postseason were already older than 25, and they’re not adding much youth because they’ve traded so many first-round picks for proven vets such as Jrue Holiday and P.J. The Bucks fit the bill, as they rank last for the second season in a row. Zach Kram: There’s no shame in ranking at or near the bottom of this list, as long as the team in question has enough veterans to win now. We averaged the two scores together, broke ties in favor of the young core judged to possess more upside, and ordered the final list from the worst young core in the league at no. Kyle Mann, our resident young-player guru. But this time around, we’re blending two different sources to produce a composite score: a “stat ranking,” which uses FiveThirtyEight’s wins above replacement (WAR) projections over the next half decade, and an “expert ranking,” based on the subjective analysis of J. As usual, only players under the age of 25 are considered. So with the 2022-23 season tipping off next week, let’s zoom in on the cream of the NBA’s young crop, with our annual Young Core Rankings. The league’s average age, weighted by minutes played, has been tied for the lowest figure ever three seasons running. Even as a couple of outliers excel into their late 30s-looking at you, LeBron and Chris Paul-the NBA, on the whole, is as young as it’s ever been.
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