Stunning stat highlights NBA's youth movement
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Chet Holmgren.
The youth movement is taking over the NBA.
This year’s playoffs don’t feature LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry in the second round for the first time in 19 years. If that milestone wasn’t a sign of things to come, here’s another: only six of the remaining 40 starters in the postseason are aged 30 or over.
Among the eight teams still standing, the Thunder, Cavaliers and Knicks don’t have a single player aged 30 or more in their starting units. While the Thunder’s opening five comprises Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (25), Jalen Williams (22), Chet Holmgren (21), Luguentz Dort (24), and Josh Giddey (21), the Cavaliers have Donovan Mitchell (27), Darius Garland (24), Max Strus (27), Jarrett Allen (25) and Evan Mobley (22) in their starting ranks.
The Knicks — known for their old-school, rugged style of basketball — have featured only one player over 30 (Bojan Bogdanovic) in their nine-man rotation thus far. Their starters — Josh Hart (28), Jalen Brunson (27), OG Anunoby (26), Donte DiVincenzo (27) and Isaiah Hartenstein (25) — are all in their athletic primes.
Elsewhere, the Pacers have only one starter in Pascal Siakam who turned 30 in April, and the defending champion Nuggets’ Kentavious Caldwell-Pope turned 31 earlier this year. As for the Celtics, the 33-year-old Jrue Holiday is the odd man out in an otherwise in-their-prime core five.
In comparison, last year’s playoffs featured 14 starters over 30 in the second round — James, Durant, Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, James Harden, Gary Payton II, JaMychal Green, Al Horford, Tobias Harris, P.J. Tucker, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love and Chris Paul.
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