Cleveland Cavaliers: Ranking the NBA’s best young cores

2. New Orleans Pelicans

Potential All-Stars: Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball

What a whirlwind of a year it has been for the New Orleans Pelicans. It felt like the franchise had it’s back to the wall when Anthony Davis demanded a trade. Everyone knew it would take a miracle to repair the damage of losing a player like Davis, and well, that’s exactly what happened.

It all began when the Pelicans struck gold and won the NBA Draft lottery despite having just a 3.0 percent chance of pulling it off. With this came the guarantee that they could draft the biggest collegiate star of the century, Zion Williamson.

More importantly, the Los Angeles Lakers landed the fourth pick in the draft, opening up a path to finally complete a trade involving Davis.

Ther package that NOLA managed to receive for Davis is breathtaking. A total of three first-round draft picks (including the No. 4 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft) plus the likes of Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart completed one of the biggest deals in NBA history.

Last season, Ingram finally showed a glimpse of how productive he could be as a pure scorer. During a six-game stretch in late February, Ingram put up 27.8 points per game on an amazing 57.0 percent shooting from the floor.

Meanwhile, Ball built up a reputation for locking up opposing guards, sporting a defensive rating of 106.1.

At this point, the Pelicans had lucked into acquiring a generational talent in Williamson, then worked their way into a trade that brought in two potential All-Star caliber players in Ingram and Ball.

While BI and Zo might have had their reputation take a hit in recently in LA, there is no questioning the offensive potential in Ingram and the defensive skills of Ball.

Of course, the Pelicans didn’t stop here. On draft night, the Pels flipped the No. 4 pick into the No. 8, 17 and 35 pick as well as a 2020 second-round pick. These selections turned into Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Marcos Louzada Silva.

Now, the Pelicans are able to surround Zion with more than enough young talent to build a competitive team right away.

The torch will be Williamson’s to carry right away, but unlike many other NBA greats, Zion won’t have to struggle through playing alongside a bad supporting cast to start his career. Instead, the Pelicans have provided him a squad with talent and big-time potential.

Cavaliers takeaways:

There really isn’t much to say here. A combination of luck and wizardry from David Griffin all played a role in building this NOLA team. Maybe the Cavaliers shouldn’t have let go of Griffin when they had him in the past.