Cleveland Cavaliers: Ranking the NBA’s best young cores

8. Cleveland Cavaliers

Potential All-Stars: Darius Garland

Here we are, the Cleveland Cavaliers have made some big steps forward in their rebuild but still rank towards the bottom of our list due to a few reasons.

Let’s start with the positives. Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman both had strong seasons last year. Osman broke out as a rising star in his first run as a real rotational player in the NBA.

As for Sexton, he weathered the storm through a bumpy rookie season, emerging as a member of the All-Rookie team and proving he could become an elite scorer. While the two never established any on-court chemistry together, they were effective in their own individual ways.

The 2019 NBA Draft is where the Cavs really loaded up on talent, selecting three promising prospects. First, Darius Garland, who has been compared to former Cavaliers All-Star Kyrie Irving.

In his only collegiate season with Vanderbilt, Garland wasted no time showing off his limitless shooting range and crafty ball handling, averaging 16.2 points per game on 53.7 percent shooting.

Garland likely has the highest star potential of anyone on the roster, but names such as Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Windler is a dead-eye shooter and impressive rebounder for his size, while Porter is an uber-athletic guard that could blossom into an elite two-way talent.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with this team right now is figuring out how all of these pieces fit together. Three guards and two forwards make up the Cavaliers young core, most with similar skill sets that don’t complement each other very well.

Determining the role of each player will be a must, and until then, the Cavaliers rank eight on our list.

Takeaway:

Cleveland will need to experiment this season and figure out which lineups work the best. Finding a method to this madness is their number one goal.