The Young Core NOONE Talks About | 30 Teams 30 Days

The Young Core NOONE Talks About | 30 Teams 30 Days

Teams like the Rockets, Spurs, the Magic, the Pistons, they’re known for having some of the best young cores in the NBA. A group of guys where at least one of them is guaranteed to become one of the league’s best players. But there is a team in Portland that we are forgetting about and with backto backto back successful drafts. The Portland Trailblazers have quietly built one of the best young cores in the NBA. Let’s break down the NBA’s hidden young core. Welcome to 30 Teams in 30 days. Let’s get into the Portland Trailblazers. Starting off with the youngest player in the core, let’s talk about Yang Hansen. Now, I’m going to go on record right now, and I’m putting all of my stock in this year’s Blazers first round pick. We probably won’t see him consistently start, but I expect that he is going to get some decent minutes as the 20-year-old has become a superstar in his showing at the Summer League. He averaged nearly 11 points, five rebounds, four assists, and over two blocks per game. His play style itself has garnered a lot of attention and a comparison to Nicola Joic who of course is another playmaking based center that’s not much of an athlete. Hansen is an excellent playmaker for center. He can run the offense out of the post. He has great body control. He’s a good finisher around the rim and to complement his playmaking game, he is a good backto basket scorer. He wasn’t touted as much of an outside shooter, but he demonstrated this in the summer league. Shooting 33% from three and 87% from the line. shooting that well from the line, especially as a center, is pretty indicative of him having the potential of being a good future shooter. His overall speed and athleticism is a little bit questionable, and it’s probably going to limit him in this upcoming season, but I expect that his highlights are going to be garnering international attention. Next is the 21-year-old Scoot Henderson. Scoot is going into his third year in the league, and after having a little bit of a disappointing start, especially in his rookie season, he is looking to take that third-year jump. something we’ve seen guards like John Morant, Tyresese Hallebertton, or Devin Booker accomplish. Scoot’s stats last year weren’t that impressive, being around 133 and five. However, it was his game that took some much important leaps. While he was still a bit inefficient, he did take a leap as a scorer, becoming a much better three-point shooter, shooting 35% from three. Scoot was touted as an athletic finisher, and he did a better job showing that off, going from 47 to 55% at the restricted area. He also did much better just as a whole compared to his rookie season. In his rookie year, he had an on-off of 100 possessions of minus8. Last year, that was up to plus three. Add on top of that that his turnovers dropped. And it’s pretty clear that he had an overall improvement across the board. As we know, Henderson is also a gym rat who is confident not only in himself, but in his abilities. After all, he was drafted at 19 years old to be the savior of a franchise that has majorly struggled. He needed time to adjust to the NBA and it may just start paying its dividends this year. There is a bit of pressure on him to start off the season as this could be the year that differs him from being a future star or just an average NBA player. But even if Scoot Henderson doesn’t work out, the Blazers have another young star guard to look into and that is Shadeon Sharp. Shaden Sharp was the team’s second leading scorer averaging 184 and three in the most recent season. His two-point efficiency took a leap going from 45 to 55%. And at the restricted area, like Scoot Henderson, he saw a huge increase being even more major as Sharp went from 54 to 71% at the restricted arc on the same volume. 71% would put him as one of the best slashers in the entire NBA. Add into the fact that he is incredibly athletic at 6’6, and that could be a recipe for disaster for opposing defenses. Now, his three-point efficiency did drop a little bit, albeit that was on increased attempts. I do have some slight hope for Sharp, though. He did shoot 36% from three in his rookie season, and he shot 40% from the corner in that rookie season as well. Sharp also sits in the 70th percentile of isolation scores and the 67th percentile of pick and roll ball handlers. He also jumped from a 42 to a 46% mid-range shooter while increasing his volume. Shaden Sharp is already one of the better scorers in the NBA and he just needs to take that next step from three to become a leading one for the Portland Trailblazers. Not to mention, he also took some pretty major strides on the defensive side of the ball and he just needs to improve that and his playmaking to become a great all-around player. And the last player to mention and someone who might just have the highest upside of this core and that is the jack of all trades, Denny Avita. Avita is coming off of a career year for his first time in Portland. He averaged 177 and four, but he did have a shooting slump to start the season. From December onward, he averaged 50% from the field, 38% from three at 19 points per game. This made him the most efficient scorer on the Blazers roster. When you look at his magnitude at 6’9, Avita is a great playmaker at his size. While he’s a good rebounder and also an improving defender, he sits in the 91st percentile in isolation scoring, 72nd percentile as a pick and roll ball handler, and 50th percentile as a pick and roll man. He’s kind of a guy that can just do everything for this team. Last season, he made the Blazers seven points better per 100 possessions on offense, while he put up careerh highs in his peer, true shooting percentage, win shares, box plus minus, and value over replacement player. Something rare about Denny Avita is that he is actually on a decreasing contract. Meaning that yearbyear his contract is actually going down. This puts him at one of the best salaries in the NBA because 2 years from now he could be an even bigger star and he’s going to be getting paid less than what he has now. Like many other players of this core, Denny Avida is described as a tough unselfish player who is a hard worker in the gym. of anyone on this team. I think he possibly has the best chance to break out into an all-star caliber player this season, which is difficult but doable in a very tough Western Conference. The Blazers are hardly talked about, and if they are, it is in their recent acquisitions of Damen Lillard and Drew Holiday. And by the way, both of those players are going to be great mentors for this core. But while other teams are known as having one of the best young cords in the NBA, it’s the Portland Trailblazers who have just as good of a future as anyone. Assuming some of these guys make the leap, they could give Damen Lullard the best roster he has ever had for that 2027 season. Avida and Hansen give playmaking, toughness, and isolation scoring, while Scoot can attack the perimeter, the rim, and make plays with Shaden Sharp become one of the league’s best slashers and an improved mid-range scorer. Not only is this young core talented, but they are incredibly diverse, and that should make Portland Blazers fans incredibly excited for this upcoming season. This was 30 and30. If you like the video, you know what to do.

The Portland Trailblazers have one of the best young cores in the league. Between Yang Hansen, Shaedon Sharpe, Deni Avdija, and Scoot Henderson, the Blazers have a group of incredible young talent that compliment each other well. Let’s break down the NBA’s hidden core.