Cleveland Cavaliers: Ranking the NBA’s best young cores
By Tony Pesta
The NBA has some great young teams, but where do the Cleveland Cavaliers rank against their competition?
It’s a great time to be an NBA fan. Due to numerous shifts across the league, multiple teams have a legit chance at winning the 2020 title. Despite this, the Cleveland Cavaliers remain one of the squads that are unlikely to compete for a championship just yet.
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However, with a strong young core being built, the Cavaliers might be on their way to competing once again.
Last season, Cleveland began their rebuild by selecting Collin Sexton in the 2018 NBA Draft, who went on to break multiple franchise rookie records as he earned a spot on the All-Rookie second team. Meanwhile, Cedi Osman stepped up as one of the NBA’s Rising Stars.
In addition to Sexton and Osman, the Cavaliers have continued to add more young talent to the roster. The 2019 NBA Draft brought in three players, all with promising futures.
Prospects such as Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr. and Dylan Windler help round out the rest of the Cavaliers young lineup.
While the future looks bright in Cleveland, they are only one of many up-and-coming teams. Let’s take a second to break down the best young cores in the league today and see where the Cavaliers rank.
Furthermore, we will try to analyze what the Cavaliers can take away from each of these squads.
Before we get into the list, we need to set the criteria. In order to qualify for this ranking, the team will need to have at least two of their key players be under the age of 25.
The amount of young talent on the team and the value of each player will be evaluated when putting these squads into order. Lastly, I have noted how many potential All-Star players each core could eventually have in the future.