Projecting the 20 most promising young duos in the NBA

What they might lack in postseason experience, the NBA’s best young tandems make up for in potential for the future of their franchises.

The NBA is a young man’s league. At least that’s what you say when your team isn’t very good and needs to sell its fanbase on hope for the future instead of success in the present.

Championship contenders tend to have rosters filled with established veterans who have playoff experience. If the franchise is a consistent winner, its younger talent probably won’t be can’t-miss superstar prospects, since better teams typically have lower draft picks from year to year.

When identifying the NBA’s best young duos — “young” in this case meaning under the age of 25 — there’s a slant toward teams that are closer to acquiring lottery ball combinations than Larry O’Brien trophies. These teams have been building through the draft with high picks in recent years. They aren’t among the league’s elite now, but might be in a few years as their youngsters mature.

One exception to the rule is the Denver Nuggets.

Last season was a collective breakout campaign for the Nuggets, who extended what looked like just a surprisingly hot start into a No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

A team with one former All-Star in the rotation going into the season (veteran forward Paul Millsap) rode its young core to a 54-28 record — better than the James Harden-led Houston Rockets, the Russell Westbrook-led Oklahoma City Thunder and the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers, among others.

The Nuggets’ core includes center Nikola Jokic (24 years old), point guard Jamal Murray (22), shooting guard Gary Harris Jr. (24), backup point guard Monte Morris (24) and backup shooting guard Malik Beasley (22), all of whom averaged double-digit scoring last season.

Whichever two of those you’d pick as Denver’s No. 1 and No. 2, they’re going to occupy a high spot on a ranking of the league’s top young tandems because their team is good right now, not just going to be good later.

While this is more of a projection for the future than an assessment of the present, it would be useless trying to predict whether these duos will stay together long enough to reach their potential as a unit. There is too much player movement in the NBA to take on that challenge. So for these purposes, let’s pretend these duos will remain intact and take their shot at becoming the next Shaq-and-Kobe or LeBron-and-Wade.

Many of the players mentioned here also appear on The Step Back’s 25-under-25 list for the 2019-20 season. Here are the NBA’s 20 most promising young duos.