Losing sucks. I get it. It’s completely valid to question Troy Weaver. HOWEVER. things are not as hopeless doom and gloom as everyone is saying. Troy weaver has proven to be excellent at selecting talent. And looking at the age of our players, I’m shocked at how young all of them are.
Cade & Jaden Ivey are part of the same class. Cade declared for the draft in 2021 after his freshmen year of college, and Jaden Ivey declared after his sophomore year in 2022. Both would be seniors in college this year.
Ausar Thompson & Jalen duren are both 20 years old and would be juniors in college this year.
Isaiah Stewart is 22 and would be a senior or grad student this year.
Cade Cunningham- 22 years old (senior)
Jaden Ivey- 21 years old (senior)
Ausar Thompson- 20 years old (junior)
Beef Stew- 22 years old (senior/grad)
Jalen Duren- 20 years old (junior)
Honorable mention
Killian Hayes- 22 years old (senior)
Marcus Sasser- 23 years old (grad)
We have the youngest starting lineup and it isn’t close. We are literally throwing out a lineup of college guys to play NBA games. The talent of Cade/ivey/ausar/duren is better than anything we’ve had since 2008. Let’s just hope troy and Monty can figure out how to translate talent into wins.
Interesting how having a college-aged starting lineup isn’t stopping the Magic, Rockets or Thunder from showing signs of life despite them having been in a rebuild for as long as us!
Can’t wait for someone to hand wave this away by telling me we had no assets five years ago
But to be honest, their young starting lineups have all positions covered. We didnt start Ivey at the 2 until recently which was dumb, Stewart at 4 is not ideal, and Duren was out most the season. It was basically just Cade and Ausar playing their position, and Cade has been given horrible shooting