RealGM

Who is your top 5 and why?

Counting "young" as 25 and under, and "core" as plural, and thus can't be heavily weighted toward a single player, and also not a serious risk to leave in free agency, i.e. not eligible for free agency or restricted free agency this offseason...

Suns: Booker & Ayton
Boston: Tatum & Brown
Pels: Zion & Ingram
Nugs: Murray & Jr.
Spurs: No major standouts, but damn near entire team is young and promising

Probably forgetting someone but this is off the top of my head

Easily:

Jokic 26
Murray 24
MPJ 22
Gordon 25

Not the best but very deep with young contributors:
Morant
JJJ
Clarke
Melton
Bane
Tillman
Allen
Brooks
Playing 500 or just above ball in the western conference without their second best player

Maybe not the best, but Hornets have....

LaMelo Ball - 19
PJ Washington- 22
Miles Bridges - 23
Malik Monk - 23
Devante Graham - 26
Terry Rozier - 26

Denver.

They've been a top WC team for several years yet no one is close to their prime and 2 guys have been added to the mix with MP Jr and Gordon....now imagine Bol pans out, lawd.

Denver

But New Orleans core could be something special with Zion, Ingram, Lonzo and Hayes

flranger wrote:Easily:

Jokic 26
Murray 24
MPJ 22
Gordon 25

Lol

Memphis, Pelicans, Mavs (every other team would trade all their young pieces to have him), Phoenix and Atlanta

_qubik wrote:Memphis, Pelicans, Mavs (every other team would trade all their young pieces to have him), Phoenix and Atlanta

Brunson is good, and actually plays both sides of the floor, but come on now.

cores with Luka, Zion, Trae and LaMelo are self explanatory. Their best player is likely better than your best player or will be. Personally I think Cade will be with them.

Tatum/Brown are two way elite scorers/probably tertiary playmakers would be my first full young core.
Ja/JJJ-but my interest go further into the young team
Booker/Ayton
Murray/Porter Jr.

honestly most of the young cores don’t impress me that much. While it’s absolutely not a case of under/over ratings just acknowledging player movement(trades and FA) the stringent idea that this core has to or will be your core is completely archaic and simply unlikely. Your best player timeline is the cores timeline and chaos ensues.

If draft picks count then OKC needs to be up there

flranger wrote:Easily:

Jokic 26
Murray 24
MPJ 22
Gordon 25

Feels like Aaron Gordon been in the league for a decade and pushing 30

OKC easily:
SGA
30 picks

The teams with Zion and Luka.

flranger wrote:Easily:

Jokic 26
Murray 24
MPJ 22
Gordon 25

What Denver has done in a small market that cannot attract Free Agents is wildly impressive. I hope all 4 of those guys decide to stick it out together for the long haul

Denver ain't young, those dudes are mid 20s and their bodies have been through wars. I'm going with Minny, they have the best high level potential that hasn't been tapped yet.

Hawks young core is pretty dang good

Clint Capela - 26
Deandre Hunter - 23
John Collins - 23
Trae Young - 22
Kevin Huerter - 22
Cam Reddish - 21
Onyeka Okongwu - 20

Cam and Onyeka are the worst of the bunch right now but even those 2 are really good defenders and are super young. They got a ton of maturing to do at their age.

Big J wrote:Denver ain't young, those dudes are mid 20s and their bodies have been through wars. I'm going with Minny, they have the best high level potential that hasn't been tapped yet.

All three of Minnys stars/potential have fatal flaws. It would be ok if it was only one of them, but not all three. Hence they can’t even win games when healthy.