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Atlanta Hawks

After trading Dwight Howard to the Charlotte Hornets for Marco Belinelli, Miles Plumlee and a second-rounder, then letting Paul Millsap go in a sign-and-trade to the Denver Nuggets, the Atlanta Hawks have plunged firmly into a rebuild. General manager Travis Schlenk isn't quite willing to call it that, but let's not dance around too much.

This is, unequivocally, a rebuild.

The Hawks can boost up Dennis Schroder, John Collins and Taurean Prince as their featured long-term pieces, but that's not the extent of their youthful talent. DeAndre' Bembry is an intriguing piece, and there's no telling how much production they could squeeze out of Dewayne Dedmon and Diamond Stone.

Brooklyn Nets

Kudos to Sean Marks for engineering a fantastic offseason, one in which he kept absorbing salary to land talent.

He first did so by accepting Timofey Mozgov's deal to acquire D'Angelo Russell from the Los Angeles Lakers. Then he somehow managed to turn Andrew Nicholson into Allen Crabbe, essentially completing the offer sheet to which he'd originally signed the swingman last summer.

All of a sudden, the Nets could be staring at a starting five of Jeremy Lin, Russell, Crabbe, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Jarrett Allen—not bad for a team that entered the offseason with no noteworthy draft picks, precious little free-agency appeal and a stunning dearth of talent and potential.

Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks aren't truly rebuilding, but they're still in the process of acquiring talent. Even at full strength, the current core isn't enough to compete with the true juggernauts in the Western Conference, nor will it be enough to make a serious playoff push.

Sure, head coach Rick Carlisle is a master of milking production out of overlooked and written-off players, but the upside just isn't there. Dirk Nowitzki's return on a bargain of a contract helps; it's still not enough when he's joined by Harrison Barnes, Yogi Ferrell, Dennis Smith Jr., Seth Curry, Wesley Matthews and (maybe?) Nerlens Noel.

Dallas doesn't have any reason to be desperate during the tail end of Nowitzki's career, and it's doing the right thing by continuing to chase after upside and talent.

Phoenix Suns

Kudos to the Phoenix Suns for their continued investment in youthful pieces. They have untapped potential at every part of the lineup, given the presences of Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, Josh Jackson, TJ Warren, Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender and Alan Williams.

Are the Suns going to be any good in 2016-17? Probably not.

But at this stage, that's irrelevant, so long as they continue to let their up-and-coming talents develop on the floor during action that matters.

Sacramento Kings

Even after Buddy Hield blossomed during the second half of his rookie season, the DeMarcus Cousins trade was a mistake. The Sacramento Kings simply didn't squeeze enough talent out of the New Orleans Pelicans, especially now that Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway have departed. Factoring in the first-round pick that changed hands and was subsequently dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers, they turned Cousins into Hield, Justin Jackson and Harry Giles.

But since that initial decision that firmly forced Sacramento into a new era, the Kings have done a fantastic job acquiring talent and veteran leaders who can help facilitate growth from their tutees.

George Hill, Zach Randolph and Vince Carter can help both on and off the floor. More importantly, Hield, Jackson, Giles, De'Aaron Fox, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Skal Labissiere, Willie Cauley-Stein and Georgios Papagiannis could all prove worthy of featured status in the coming months.