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The NBA's youth movement is picking up more steam as the Eastern Conference finals begin Tuesday with Pacers vs. Celtics, followed by Mavericks vs. Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals on Wednesday. The final four features a new crop of exciting, young stars between the likes of Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards. 

It's just the second time in the shot-clock era (since 1955) that the final four playoff teams all have an All-Star in their age-25 or younger season. It also happened in 2001 with a quartet of future Hall of Famers: Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. We can only hope we're witnessing four more legends in the early stages of their careers as the 2001 quartet combined for 54 All-Star selections and 12 NBA championships.

This year's group is all searching for their first ring as it continues the NBA's changing-of-the-guard that our Colin Ward-Henninger wrote about last month. We are truly transitioning from a group of legends to a wave of brash, young talent. This was the first time since 2005 that none of LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry made the second round of the postseason. And with the Nuggets now eliminated, the next age group of superstars is also all out between Nikola Jokic (age 29), Giannis Antetokounmpo (age 29) and Joel Embiid (age 30).

That leaves us with the youngest group of leading scorers for the four conference finalists in the last half century. 

They may not be the names we are used to at this time of year, but the infusion of youth could be more entertaining as they bring a wealth of highlight-reel dunks, stepback threes and eurosteps -- a perfect picture of today's NBA.