Cleveland Cavaliers: Ranking the NBA’s best young cores

5. Atlanta Hawks

Potential All-Stars: Trae Young, John Collins, De’Andre Hunter

Now we’re getting to the truly fun teams. On paper, the 2019-20 Atlanta Hawks are one of the most exciting squads the NBA has to offer this year. A lineup completed with players that compliment each other well, the Hawks are going to be explosive.

It all starts with Trae Young. The crafty guard showed his limitless range and gifted court vision in his rookie season.

His career got off to a shaky start, but he hit his stride in the middle of the year, putting up 25.5 points and 9.4 assists per game during a 16-game stretch from January to early March.

Young is an incredible offensive talent, but he does have his downfalls. His tendency to go for the highlight play often results in a turnover, which is why he averaged 3.8 turnovers last season. Furthermore, he is one of the worst defenders in NBA history, and I do not say that lightly.

Young had a defensive rating of 114.8 last year, ranking 498th in the league.

So, how is Atlanta going to overcome this glaring issue? Well, they did what every other great team has done in this position, create a dynamic roster filled with versatile wing players that can switch and cover up Young on defense.

The ACC Defensive Player of the Year, De’Andre Hunter, has drawn comparisons to Kawhi Leonard for a reason. His gigantic hands and strong frame will make him an elite defender in the NBA right away.

Meanwhile, Cam Reddish displays similar characteristics but will need a little bit more work to reach elite status. Combined, these two should have no trouble covering up Trae on the defensive end.

This isn’t even mentioning how Reddish or Hunter could fit in offensively with the Hawks, providing more variety in their offensive attack. Hunter is a skilled slasher while Cam has the talent to be a scorer from anywhere on the floor.

All of this and we haven’t even talked about the high-flying John Collins or the 2018-19 All-Rookie, Kevin Huerter. The Hawks have already seen success from Collins’ ability to rebound and jump for lob passes, while Huerter helps expand their offense with his shooting and shot creating.

The dynamic between these five players is going to be so much fun to watch and I can’t wait to watch how they mesh together.

Cavaliers takeaways:

While neither Collin Sexton or Darius Garland seem like they are as bad as Trae Young defensively, the Cavaliers should look to surround these two guards with wing defenders to cover up some of the holes in this teams defense.