NBA: Best young cores

When NBA teams fail to win a championship they are forced to look to the future and sacrifice a chance of winning now for winning later. These teams trade for draft picks and promising young talent, hoping they pan out and deliver pieces that can be used to build a contender.

This team’s recent draft history has panned out greatly and set these teams up for years of success with dominant young cores.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Sam Presti, general manager of the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC), has had the reins of this team since 2009. Presti has shown his drafting prowess with the first iteration of elite OKC teams with a core of James Harden, Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook, all winning league MVP at some point in the 2010s.

Now in the year 2024, Presti has put together another elite squad that looks ready to make a deep playoff push after being eliminated in the second round last year.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads this young core as the superstar of OKC. An NBA MVP finalist last year, Gilgeous-Alexander runs the offense, averaging 28 points and six assists per game. He also plays good defense averaging two steals and one block per game. Surrounding Gilgeous-Alexander is a core of complimentary pieces that play well into his style.

The biggest of these pieces, literally, is 7-foot-1 Chet Holgrem. Taken second overall in the 2022 NBA Draft, Holgrem would not play until the 2022-2023 season due to injury. Once he played, however, he helped elevate OKC from the 10th seed in 2023, to the first seed in 2024. Holgrem, averaging 2.5 blocks per game, anchors OKC defensively, helping them become the fourth-best defensive team last season.

Jalen Williams is the second option in OKC, behind Gilgeous-Alexander, with 22 points and five assists per game. Where Williams makes a bigger impact, however, is on the defensive end. Another elite OKC defender, he averages 2.2 steals and is able to guard almost anyone on the court. His defensive versatility and offensive output are a core contributor to the success of OKC.

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets are finally starting to show signs of success following the trade of James Harden in January of 2021. The Rockets missed the playoffs last season with a 41-41 record, but with an 11-5 start to the 2024 season, this young Rockets team looks like they may be putting it all together.

The Rockets are led by the dual offensive threats of Jalen Green and Alperen Şengün while being surrounded by key role players. Jalen Green is the Rocket’s leading scorer with 19 points and three assists per game. While Green has yet to have a true breakout season like Gilgeous-Alexander did in 2022, there is still hope he will make a similar jump in the near future.

Şengün has earned the nickname “Baby Jokic” due to a similar playstyle to the three-time NBA MVP. Şengün has been impressive at only age 22, averaging 18 points, 11 rebounds and five assists per game. If he continues to develop his scoring and playmaking ability, he could truly warrant comparisons to Jokic and help lead this Rockets team to the postseason with Green.

Amen Thompson surrounds these two as both a defensive and offensive threat. Only in his second year, Thompson has an extremely high ceiling that could lead him to become one of the best defensive players in the league and a real third option behind Green and Şengün.

Orlando Magic

The Magic are now a team with real expectations after making the playoffs last season. Led by all-star Paolo Banchero, this Magic team is one of the biggest offensive threats in the NBA.

Before his injury, Banchero was averaging 29 points, nine rebounds and six assists per game. He was looking to have a breakout season and compete for league MVP. In Banchero’s absence, the Magic’s other stars have stepped up and made names for themselves.

Franz Wagner has been carrying the load for the Magic. Wagner, in his fourth year, is averaging career highs in points per game with 22, rebounds with six and assists with five. The most impressive part of this improvement is his lack of turnovers. Averaging only two per game, Wagner is having a breakout season right when the Magic needed him to most.

Jalen Suggs is one of the best defensive guards in the NBA, finishing 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season. He has doubled his blocks per game in an expanded role with Banchero out and has improved his offensive game too. Like Wagner, Suggs is averaging career highs in points per game with 15, rebounds with five and assists with four.

Carter Brooks is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email cjb7448@psu.edu.