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Youth Is Here

Over the past 20 seasons (1995 was 20 years ago), here is a full list of teams that ranked among the five youngest in the league and then went on to advance past the first round of the playoffs:

  • 2004-05 Suns – Of all those seven-seconds-or-less Suns teams, this early version was the only one that finished very first in the league in both pace and offensive efficiency. Brilliant and unforgettable – the force of a 22-year-old Amare Stoudemire (scoring 26.0 per game), Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Quentin Richardson. They swept the Grizzlies (the Pau Gasol-on-the-Grizzlies) and beat the Mavericks in six before falling to the Spurs in one of those seasons when the Spurs would not be losing to anyone.
  • 2004-05 Wizards – The year Gilbert Arenas started going for 40+ regularly, and also when the extremely contract-year Larry Hughes averaged 22.0 per game and led the league in steals. Kirk Hinrich, who still plays for the Bulls and will always play for the Bulls, played for the Bulls this season also, which was 10 seasons ago. The Wizards beat the Bulls in six games in the first round and then got swept by the Heat. Dwyane Wade was pretty serious around this time.
  • 2006-07 Warriors – Baron Davis led a 42-win eight seed to a first round stunner over the 67-win Mavericks, the team that shares the best post-MJ regular season record (with last season’s Warriors). This had been the coolest thing to happen in North America for some time. When you type “Baron Davis” in YouTube today, the third suggested result is “Baron Davis dunks on Kirilenko” and that is the only thing anyone remembers from the second round matchup for the Warriors (and rightfully so), even though the Jazz won in five.
  • 2010-11 Thunder – This was Year 2 of the Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka foursome. Durant, all of 22 years old, led the league in scoring. In the first round, they won in five mostly competitive games against one of those super-deep post-Carmelo Nuggets teams. Then they beat the Grizzlies in seven games before succumbing to the in-a-championship-mood Mavericks team that went on to slay the original edition of the Heatles.
  • 2011-12 Thunder – The final year of Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka, and in the lockout-shortened season. And also the last (and only) time the Thunder made the Finals (so far). They swept the Mavericks in the first round, blew past the Lakers in five games in the second round, and topped the Spurs in six fantastic conference finals games. And then LeBron won his first ring, in five games, in what looked at the time like an over-and-over Finals matchup.
  • 2011-12 76ers – Derrick Rose tore his ACL in Game 1 of the first round, and the eight seed 76ers (carried by Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday, Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young) took it from there. They fell to the Celtics in seven games in the second round and then opted out of the NBA as we know it within a year.

Out of those 100 young teams, that was it.

As mathematics has it, the Bucks are the fifth-youngest team in the league this season.

Young Bucks

This is not a hold-up, hold-up, hold-up, hold-up story about penciling the Bucks into the second round. Even generous preseason predictions rarely had the Bucks in the top four of the East or making it out of the first round (my heretofore unpublished prediction, pretty convenient now, was 42-40). And that is just fine and just reasonable. From the 1-3 start, it looks like the Bucks will finish better than they start. They say the NBA is a young man’s league… and it is (Giannis, at 20, for instance, looks like the best player on the team). But the point is, it takes something pretty exceptional for a team this young to take that next big step. If the Bucks do it, that will be exceptional. And if not, that hardly counts them out in the long run.

Youngest Teams

Looking at the 12 youngest teams in the league this season, just one was projected as a Finals contender (Thunder), and only two others gained any type of serious playoff backing (Bucks, Celtics). Meanwhile, nine of the 10 oldest teams in the league are considered easy postseason picks (with the Pacers being the only exception).

Last season, the Bucks were the only team among the five youngest to make the playoffs. This is their third straight season among the five youngest in the league. They join the 76ers, Magic, and Jazz in that company. This Bucks team will not approach its peak this year. They are still looking up. Things are still looking up.

 

*Ages and numbers in this article were found on Basketball-Reference.com