In this imperfect world, NBA teams are often viewed through two prisms: Either you’re competing for a championship or building with your young pieces. The rest of the teams are painfully stuck in the middle, deciding which path to take.

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This week we’ll take a look at which teams have the best young cores. But instead of being completely arbitrary, there had to be some level of structure. The players had to be 26 or under, and they were individually ranked in terms of potential in four categories: rotation player, starter, All-Star and franchise player.

View photos Kristaps Porzingis (L) and Luka Doncic could form a remarkable duo. (Getty Images) More

From there, the value can be a little arbitrary, but without further ado, here are the top young cores in the NBA.

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No. 5: Sacramento Kings

They were close to crashing the playoff picture before faltering over the last few weeks, and it would’ve been a valuable experience for a franchise that hasn’t sniffed the postseason in the last decade. But a starting backcourt featuring arguably the league’s fastest player in De’Aaron Fox, 21, and one of the game’s best shooters in Buddy Hield, 26, is fertile land to build upon. Fox made big strides in Year Two, while Hield rewarded the promise of being the centerpiece from the DeMarcus Cousins trade in February 2017.

Marvin Bagley III, 20, survived a rocky start in which he wasn’t getting enough playing time but now looks worthy of the No. 2 overall pick. What’s more, they seem to play well together and enjoy it, celebrating in each other’s success — a key in terms of future growth. They each have All-Star potential, but none of them being a true franchise player is what keeps them from ranking higher.

No. 4: Boston Celtics

One would think the young Celtics would be higher, the products of Danny Ainge’s 2014 fleecing of the Brooklyn Nets for draft picks. The players in their young core performed well last spring when the Celtics came within a game of the NBA Finals.

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier III all played over their heads to ramp up expectations for the present and even the future, although that’s come to bite them a bit this season as they’ve struggled.

Tatum, 21, is the closest to a franchise player, but there’s questions as to whether he’s skilled or athletic enough to carry a franchise should he get the opportunity. Brown, 22, certainly has All-Star potential, but he could be destined to be a solid starter on a title team, like Andre Iguodala.

Rozier III doesn’t have the high ceilings of Tatum and Brown, and Marcus Smart has settled into a role as a defensive stopper and irritant — and both just turned 25.

No. 3: Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets have the best of both worlds in a sense. They drafted a franchise player in Nikola Jokic, 24, while also possessing a treasure trove of young players who have potential to grow into star performers. They’ll have decisions to make in the future with Jamal Murray, Monte Morris, Gary Harris and Malik Beasley because of positional duplication, but they’ve seemed to thrive with the competition.

Murray, 22, is a hidden gem of sorts who’s emerged this season, showing explosiveness at times. Harris, 24, seems to have curtailed after surprising folks, but he’s a solid two-way player. And of course, there’s Jokic, who’s on the outside looking into the MVP conversation.

Whatever you believe he lacks in traditional athleticism, he makes up for with a skillset that’s easy to build around. You have a feeling that no matter how the other pieces around Jokic develop through the years, as long as he’s healthy the Nuggets will be annual contenders.

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