The NBA is loaded with young talent. But which NBA rosters contain the cream of the crop?
First, we must define it. What, specifically, is a young core in the NBA?
A young core, for this article’s purposes, will be referred to as segment of a roster that has four or more players under the age of 25, are the focal point of the roster and have a substantial amount of potential or tangible success in the NBA.
Basing the value of a young core purely on potential is easy, but would be doing the fans reading the article and the teams listed a disservice. There are a sufficient amount of teams who have players that have had a significant amount of time in the NBA, thus we label them as stars or veterans. Whereas, if these players were participating in what we deem a “normal life” they would still be dubbed “young professionals”.
It’s not fair to disregard their youth despite the fact that they may have been in the league for three or four years. Most people their age are experiencing the real world for the first time in their lives.
However, potential must remain a factor, as if we were to go solely off experience, the list would become much, much shorter. Guys like Karl-Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and Devin Booker would make up the entirety of the list and we’d miss out on talents like Kevin Huerter and Michael Porter Jr., who haven’t been in the league as long, but have plenty of time to make a name for themselves going forward.
With that combination of experience and potential comes the possibility of championships in the future. Much like it’s useful to pay attention to the college basketball scene to know who’s on the come up and will likely be drafted into the NBA fairly high, it only makes sense to keep tabs on the top young cores vying for relevancy in the league.