Young NBA teams surprise the league each year and take huge jumps in the standings. These jumps can range from sneaking into the playoffs to becoming a top-three team in their conference.<\/p>\n
Regardless, these young teams are often some of the best regular-season stories and are a lot of fun to predict. These are three young teams that could make a big jump in the 2023-24 NBA season.<\/p>\n
2022-23 record: 40-42<\/strong><\/p>\n The Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> are the most obvious young team to take a leap this year. OKC is coming off a surprising season where they made the play-in tournament and were one game away from earning a playoff spot. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a><\/strong> established himself as a consensus top-15 player in the league last season.<\/p>\n Alexander is surrounded by one of the most loaded young rosters in the league. This cast is highlighted by a group of versatile wings like Josh Giddey<\/strong>,<\/a> Jalen Williams<\/strong>,<\/a> and Luguentz Dort<\/a><\/strong>. OKC is also adding the second overall pick from last year\u2019s draft, Chet<\/a> Holmgren<\/a><\/strong>, and the tenth pick from this draft,\u00a0Cason Wallace<\/a><\/strong>, to their already impressive core. Holmgren is an intriguing modern big man who will immediately give the Thunder much-needed rim protection, while Wallace gives OKC another ball handler and perimeter player next to Alexander.<\/p>\n With a loaded core that will only continue to develop, OKC could surge up the standings, becoming a legit playoff squad. The Thunder checks every box for a young team that could take the league by storm.<\/p>\n 2022-23 record: 35-47<\/strong><\/p>\n Going into last season, most people projected the Indiana Pacers<\/a> to be one of the worst teams in the league. However, they surprised a lot of people and were somewhat competitive. In January, the Pacers were sixth in the conference before star point guard Tyrese Haliburton<\/a><\/strong> went down with an injury for a month, and they ultimately finished 11th. But the season’s opening stretch proved Indiana could be a competitive team and that Haliburton is a legit young star.<\/p>\n The Pacers improved their roster this off-season by adding Bruce Brown<\/a><\/strong>, Obi Toppin<\/strong>,<\/a> and eighth-overall pick Jarace Walker<\/strong><\/a>. Brown is another ball-handler and perimeter defender. Toppin is a versatile lob threat with a lot of upside. And Walker fits perfectly next to Myles Turner<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as an interior scorer, defender, and rebounder. Both Toppin and Walker address Indiana\u2019s need for versatile forwards. This gives the Pacers a roster that makes a lot of sense together and fits perfectly with Haliburton’s skill set.<\/p>\n At 23, Hailburton could take yet another jump which could help propel the Pacers in the standings. With roster improvements and such a well-constructed team around their star, everything is aligned for the team to make the next big jump. A top-six seed is within reach for this team.<\/p>\n 2022-23 record: 34-48<\/strong><\/p>\n The Orlando Magic<\/a> are a team to watch for a surprising jump this year. They have a young core loaded with size and versatility. Orlando was the 14th-ranked defense last year, but another season of development, along with the core’s physical tools, sets them up to be a top-ten defense this year and gives them an identity.<\/p>\n Paolo Banchero<\/strong><\/a> is the reigning Rookie of the Year, and Franz Wagner<\/a><\/strong> is coming off an impressive sophomore campaign. Banchero and Wagner are a high-upside duo that will continue to improve. Markelle Fultz<\/a><\/strong> and Wendell Carter Jr.<\/a><\/strong> round out Orlando’s core nicely. The Magic drafted Anthony Black<\/strong><\/a> with the sixth pick and Jett Howard<\/a><\/strong> with the 11th pick. Black will give the Magic another ball handler next to Fultz, and Howard fills the void of three-point shooting. The two rookies can make an immediate impact on Orlando.<\/p>\n Internal improvements will key in the Magic making a jump. Banchero and Wagner are poised to make star-level jumps that could catapult the team in the standings. Orlando could compete for a playoff spot and be one of the league’s more exciting stories next year.<\/p>\n All three of these teams have the chance to take the league by storm and shock the NBA world. Well, all three teams could make jumps; the immediate upside of the teams varies. A jump for the Thunder could be hosting a playoff series. A jump for the Magic could be sneaking into the playoffs. And the Pacers fall somewhere in between. Regardless, these three teams have a ton of potential and could provide us with some of the most entertaining basketball this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Young NBA teams surprise the league each year and take huge jumps in the standings. These jumps can range from sneaking into the playoffs to becoming a top-three team in their conference. Regardless, these young teams are often some of the best regular-season stories and are a lot of fun to predict. These are three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4779,"featured_media":51975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,11,62,50437,22,17],"tags":[4945,4755,4533,4292,4127,4609,4790,4800,4276,4462,668,637,4052,2617,3823,1489,2607,2802],"class_list":["post-51952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","category-nba-predictions","category-thunder","category-magic","tag-2023-2024-season","tag-anthony-black","tag-bruce-brown","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jalen-williams","tag-jarace-walker","tag-jett-howard","tag-josh-giddey","tag-lu-dort","tag-markelle-fultz","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba-predictions","tag-obi-toppin","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-tyrese-haliburton","tag-wendell-carter"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191932,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51952\/revisions\/191932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Indiana Pacers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Orlando Magic\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Last Word on <\/strong>3 Young NBA Teams Ready to Make a Jump This Season<\/h3>\n