Game Theory podcast ranks NBA's best young cores (Rockets #5)

Nobody is Hakeem, Lebron, Kareem, Magic or Mike or even Luka.....no specific order.

But there is a worse teenager Joker on the team. And a couple starlets here and there.

The Team concept of multiple stars vs Only 1 superstar can work though but how do you pay them......

 

Basically get Fred Van Vleet off the team for 66 games and watch where they are with the playmaking.....

If they are still 40 game Win team, then kudos.

• The Spurs have a problem with an oversized monster in Wemby but nobody else who comes close to being real good.
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• And Wemby might not even be healthy enough down the line.....if Trae Young is the only guy in trade rumors I am not particularly thrilled....
• What the Wolves and Thunder have is a high octane, functioning team for the next years......
• The Rockets have a decent team with a borderline great coach that keeps them on the edge.

 

Ya without FVV we would top out at around 30 wins this season and nobody would be talking about our young core being top 5.

 

I'm not sure I really understand this concept.

The ranking is about "Young Cores", which suggests several players.

Yet Vecenie says San Antonio and Minnesota are #1 and #2 because both have one really good guy?

What a dumb ranking. If one player can skew it so badly what is the point of ranking cores? And if Wemby is meant to have GOAT potential, why doesn't San Antonio win more?

 

We should be 4th behind the Spurs, Timberwolves and OKC. Sengun is better than Bancheros, Jalen is better than Franz and Amen is a better defender than Suggs. We cannot forget about Tari, Cam and Jabari which are more talented than the Magic’s reserves

 

After watching Sengun outscore Wemby 30-0 in a half it's hard for me to wrap my mind around an argument that Wemby is on a possible GOAT trajectory.

 

People on this board underestimate how good Jalen Williams is for OKC. I want to hate on the ranking but can’t really disagree with where Houston is and I think it highlights so much of the chatter you see on the board with people who either dont believe in Sengun or Green OR who think they ultimately can’t coexist. While we are spending volumes of time arguing why Sengun or Green can be THAT DUDE, the teams above us in the ranking already know that about at least one or more of their rookie scale contract dudes.

…maybe Houston ends up with a better team overall - they certainly have more depth of high end talent and future assets than anyone there outside of OKC but it’s hard to argue with the point that the teams above us have young guys doing that thing now. Call it the echoes of the Silas babysitting gig but while we were trying to suck, we weren’t developing our young guys, or maybe call it bad luck not drafting the dude…

 

Wemby will be one of the softest faces of the league........you heard it here, I just do not think of French guys as hard guys.

I am likely eating crow but I take that chance.

Hey, at least we know that the generational player has opponents like Alpe who can dominate him.

 

My goodness smh

 

5 is probably about right but none of it really matters. Young cores generally don't grow up to win championships. Most rings are won because of one or two special players, not a group of guys. And on top of that, most times to get over the hump, you bring in players from outside that weren't drafted by your team. Drafting a bunch of good or really good young players is not likely a key to success unless you get into the discussion of trading those guys in a package for a superstar.

If the Rockets win a ring most of the guys on the team presently probably won't be around.

And look how this stuff changes from year to year: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/10/13/23401647/nba-young-core-rankings-2022-23

 

How is Banchero better than Sengun? Honest question. Here are the numbers:

Banchero: 22 / 7 / 5 / .55 TS%
Sengun: 21 / 9 / 5 / .585 TS%

 

How is that a crazy take?

Palo is probably one of the most overrated young players in the league. He's a big with a career scoring efficiency near Jalen Green with nearly the same output for their careers and one has been deemed as a top 10 "25 and under player" and the other people called a bust until a month ago. It's insane how over hyped Paolo is.

Sengun is undoubtedly better than Paolo.

 

The biggest benefit to having a lot of your value is one guy (ideally 2) is that you will always have that guy, or at least have a chance. The rockets core 6 is cool, but if all 6 hit it’s not like they will ever play together, they won’t. Okc will into this also with having 3 clear max/supermax guys

 

You're a machine. Much appreciated.

 

Banchero reminds me of a stiffer version of Giannis, Tmac and Barkley.

Is he ever going to be a transcendent superstar, who knows.

But he is so strong where you can see him becoming a Top 10 beast in the future versus the skinny Kobe comparisons with Jalen.

• Orlando really just needed a Van Vleet and they are 50 Game Winning team in the East, it is very easy to see what they need......
• They have the SF, PF and Center Position covered with good or very good players.

In the rare occurence that Banchero is just a minor star and does not improve much, they are still a 50+ Win team if they make the final move to get a very good traditional PG.

 

That bulk isn't helping much in terms of scoring efficiency compared to Green with his disadvantage of being "skinny"

 

Magic get credit because they have a great record on the back of only the core guys, our biggest impact player is fvv, and our record is still much worse

 

the two players with the highest usage on this team are 22 or younger.

And their record isn't that far off when you look at conference disparities.

 

Sure but fvv has been the most important player this season. If he didn’t sign we would be like 30-52 or so