Even though we commonly refer to the post-All-Star portion of the NBA season as the “second half,” we’re well past the halfway point of the 2024-25 campaign. Most teams have fewer than 30 games left. This is the stretch run, which, before we look ahead, gives us a good opportunity to look back at the first two-thirdsish of the season and take stock of how we got here.
It’s safe to say that the Cavaliers, Thunder and Celtics have been the best teams, with the Grizzlies, Knicks and Nuggets all looking like fringe contenders. But who have been the best players? It’s a two-player race for MVP, barring injury, between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic, but the order remains in the air.
Below those two, there are a lot of extraordinary players having extraordinary seasons, and I’ve decided to run the fool’s errand of trying to rank them. You will not see names like Luka Doncic or Paolo Banchero or certainly Joel Embiid as they simply haven’t played enough.
Reasonable minds can always disagree on lists like this, but this is how I would personally rank the top 25 players in the league so far this season. This is not who I believe the actually best 25 players are, or who will be by the end of the season, but who have been the best so far.
(Note: This list was compiled before the news of Victor Wembanyama’s season-ending injury. Since it is looking at the season to this point, Wemby remains in the top five.)
Jokić isn’t the betting favorite for MVP and probably wouldn’t win the award if the season ended today, but he should. He’s been the best player not just this season, but this is one of the greatest seasons we’ve ever seen from anyone at any time. Jokić is on pace for the highest PER in history. He third in points per game, second in assists, fourth in rebounds and fourth in steals. The Nuggets’ point differential plummets by 24 points per 100 possessions when he leaves the court, per Cleaning the Glass. Slice it any way you want: Jokić is the best player in the world and has been the best player this season.
Taking nothing away from the MVP favorite, who is having an extraordinary season. SGA leads the league in scoring at 32.5 PPG the most efficient shooting and scoring marks of his career. He’s impossible to keep out of the paint and a virtual certainty to either score or get fouled once he gets in there. If you’re looking for one number to justify as SGA over Jokić for MVP, Oklahoma City has outscored opponents by a total of 692 points with SGA on the floor this year, by far the highest individual point differential in the league and more than 200 points better than Jokić’s mark. The next highest Thunder player, Lu Dort, is more than 300 points lower than SGA, so it’s not as much of a team effort as you might think.
Last season, Giannis became the only player in history to average at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists on 60% shooting. This season, he’s doing it again — and he’s clearing those statistical bars by an appreciable margin, too. Top five in scoring and rebounding, Giannis scores more points in the paint than any player alive and has the Bucks fighting for a top-four playoff seed after a disastrous 2-8 start to the season.
Before the news of his season-ending blood clot, Wemby was a virtual lock for Defensive Player of the Year. The Spurs are optimistic about a full recovery ahead of next season, and they’ll hope Wembanyama can pick up where he left off with a sensational sophomore season that ended too early. Entering Thursday, Wembanyama was in the top 20 in 3-pointers made per game at nearly the same efficiency as Jayson Tatum. He averaged 24 points and 11 boards per game, and seemingly has barely scratched the surface of all the things he can do offensively. Spurs lineups that included Wemby and have played at least 100 non-garbage possessions together outscored their opponents by a combined 45 points per 100 possessions, per CTG. These are winning numbers for someone who figures to be a perennial MVP candidate.
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Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that surprising when Davis got injured in his first game with the Mavericks, who should’ve known better than to trade a 25-year-old God-tier player for a 32-year-old center who has been sidelined by injury for at least 10 straight games seven times over the last seven years. Having said that, it also was not surprising that Davis was dominating that game for Dallas before he went down — as he has been doing all season at better than 25 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks a night.
Even without LeBron on the floor, Davis was enough for the Lakers to post a plus-3.7 point differential per 100 possessions, per CTG. Flip that and put LeBron on the floor without Davis, and the Lakers were a minus-2.7. He won’t stay high on a list like this for long because he’s out now, but to this point, he’s been a top-five player in my book so far.
Tatum’s 45/35 shooting percentages won’t wow you, but his volume of 3-pointers (over 10 per game and nearly 50% of his non-garbage-time attempts) still make for an efficient scoring season at over 27 points per game. Plus, Tatum does so much more than score. He’s Boston’s best facilitator at nearly six assists per game, a career high, and he’s right on part with the best rebounding and steal marks of his career. A true do-it-all player who is the go-to guy for what is still the league’s best team until proven otherwise.
Towns has been incredible for the Knicks from Day 1 in New York. It took him a brief moment to figure out his place within a deep starting five in terms of shooting volume and overall offensive aggression, but that’s a mere footnote to a season that has seen his average 25-plus a night and over 13 rebounds (second only to the Kings‘ Domantas Sabonis) on superb 53/44/84 shooting splits. Towns can score from anywhere, either as the floor-spacing shooter for which the masses know him most well, or as a closeout attacker and/or post punisher. Towns’ five 40-point games tie him with Giannis and Anthony Edwards for the third most in the league.
Slightly overshadowed by Towns, the Knicks’ shiniest new toy, Brunson is yet again playing at an All-NBA level at over 26 points and seven assists a night. Brunson is shooting his normal 40% clip from 3 and he’s having the most efficient scoring season, on a points per 100 shots basis, since coming to New York. The Knicks rely on Brunson to breach the paint where he has an old-school array of weapons to deploy. Elite footwork and a buttery fall-away make him devastating in the short mid-range area. Towns is getting more national attention, and deservedly so, but Brunson still makes the league’s second-best offense go.
Two players are averaging at least 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists this season. One is the best player in the world, Nikola Jokić, and the other is LeBron, who held that title for at least a decade-plus and, at 40 years old, is still playing at an extraordinarily high level. Since the Luka trade, LeBron has averaged better than 27 points on 53/49 shooting splits. He’s shooting just under 40% from 3 for the season and since Jan. 1 he’s over 43%.
Don’t let the narrative that the Suns stink and this top-heavy superteam has been a failure persuade you into believing that Durant has been anything other than extraordinary this season and for the entire time he’s been in Phoenix, or anywhere else for that matter. This season, Phoenix is 24-17 with Durant in the lineup and 2-11 when he isn’t. He remains the most surgical mid-range shooter in the game at over 55%, and at better than 27 points a night his ability to get any shot he wants, against any kind of defense or defender, seemingly hasn’t diminished one bit.
Edwards has had to become a much more voluminous 3-point shooter this season than at any point in his young career, in part because the swap of Julius Randle for Karl-Anthony Towns has pinched Minnesota’s spacing and in part because that’s just the way the game is going. Edwards, the league’s No. 5 scorer, has held up, making 41% of his 3s on over 10 attempts a night. Only in a league this talented would a guy who is averaging over 27 points a night while leading the perimeter charge of a top-six defense not be anywhere near the MVP conversation.
The Pistons, who were 8-46 at this point last season, have jumped 21 wins and counting and would be the No. 6 seed in the East if the playoffs were to start today. Remarkable. Cunningham deserves outside MVP discussion as one of two players, with the other being Jokić, averaging at least 25 points, nine assists and six rebounds.
Cunningham’s 45/35 shooting splits might seem underwhelming, but he gets so much defensive attention and still consistently gets in the paint via 17.3 drives per game, third most in the league. Cunningham is not settling and is always on the downhill attack, and as long as he’s doing that, he’s so big and such a good passer (only Jokić and Trae Young have accounted for more assist points than Cunningham, according to PBT Stats) that he’s always either scoring or finding open teammates against defenses that he has single-handedly put into a scramble drill.
JJJ has been Memphis’ best player this season and it’s not particularly close. He’s averaging 23 points on 36% 3-point shooting (almost six attempts per game), but he does even more damage in the paint (12 PPG, top 15 in the league) with an array of floaters/jump hooks/push shots with either hand. Defensively, Jackson is a long, mobile monster. Among all players defending at least 12 shots per game this season, JJJ’s 41.1% opponent field goal percentage is the best in the league, and a lot of his defensive impact metrics are right in line, if not a little above, Wembanyama and Evan Mobley, whom we’ll also see on this list.
Mitchell’s stats might make it seem like Darius Garland is having the better season, and a reasonable argument can be made in Garland’s favor, but I give the edge to Mitchell because he’s the top guy on the scouting report. Garland is great. He’ll show up soon on this list. But Mitchell has taken a subtle step back for the good of the group without compromising his aggression. That’s a hard balance to strike. And listen, if 24 PPG on a career-best 39% 3-point shooting is taking a step back so others — like Mobley — can fully thrive, the Cavs will take that all day long.
For me, it’s dealer’s choice who’s been the best Cavs player this season. I’ll give Mitchell the slight edge as the go-to guy to create advantages, but Mobley has been turned loose offensively to go at mismatches and even lead breaks off rip-and-run rebounds to the tun of 18.5 points a night on 57% shooting. Mobley has also doubled his 3-point volume from a year ago to almost three per game and over 37%, all while being one of the league’s most dominant defensive presences. Look at Cleveland’s on/off splits, and it’s Mobley and Mitchell who stand out on a team perceived as a sum-of-its-parts operation.
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The second-best player on the team that is tied for the most wins in the league, Williams was rightfully rewarded with his first All-Star nod after averaging 21/5/5 while missing just three pre-All-Star games. Williams is at the core of OKC’s league-leading defense with long, strong and in-your-face pressure; Williams is top 10 in both steals and deflections, and on average, shooters’ efficiency falls by 5%, a significant number, when he’s defending them.
Among all starting point guards, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is scoring more points per 100 shots than Garland’s 126.9, per CTG. He comes in below two of his teammates because Mitchell gets the toughest defenders and Mobley is a two-way force, but that’s merely a function of how good the Cavs’ starting five has been. The bottom line is this: Anyone scoring over 21 PPG on 43% high-volume 3-point shooting and creating the ninth-most points for his team via assists, per PBP stats, is having a top-25 season.
Irving is having another stellar season for the Mavericks at better than 24 PPG and just under five assists. At 41% from 3 he’s hovering percentage points below the super-elite 60% true-shooting line. Toss out the Cleveland game when the Mavericks got clobbered the day after the Luka trade, and Irving has this team at 4-2 since the deal. He has emerged as one of the league’s true veteran leaders, cultivating a calm and steady environment for a team that very well could have fallen into chaos. How’s that for irony.
It’s tough to evaluate Curry this season because he’s been playing, until Jimmy Butler recently arrived, with a bunch of guys for which defenses have exactly zero fear. He has been smothered, even more than usual, so you give latitude on the 43/39 shooting splits and his first sub-60 true-shooting season, and his lowest scoring output (23.4 PPG), in over a decade. But it’s true he’s no longer an every-night flame thrower; it’s more like once a week or so, and he has been more of a volume scorer of late. Over his last seven games, Curry has taken 24 shots a night; twice he jacked up over 30.
But let’s not get too picky about 23 points, six assists and nine rebounds while leading the league in 3-pointers just because it hasn’t quite been up to the superhuman Curry standard. And now he finally has some help. He’s kept the Warriors afloat admirably at nearly 37 years old, but now it’s time for Butler to assume his share of the scoring load, if only so Curry can keep gunning but just on an easier shot diet.
Sabonis was robbed of an All-Star spot. He should’ve been in over James Harden at the very least, and if LeBron had bothered to let anyone know he wasn’t going to play then Sabonis could’ve been his replacement. Don’t fall for this empty-stats talk that some people like to use to drown out Sabonis’ impact; he leads the league in double-doubles and rebounding and is top 10 in basically all advanced metrics.
The guy is averaging better than 20 points and 14 boards on 60% shooting (including 45% form 3). The only other player in history to reach those statistical bars for an entire season is Wilt Chamberlain. Hell, even if you take out the 60% shooting bar, the only other player in the league averaging 20 points, 10 boards and six assists this season is Jokić. Also, just for the nerds out there, the Kings are 14.4 points better per 100 possessions with Sabonis on the floor. That’s basically the same individual point differential that SGA, the likely MVP at this point, owns in Oklahoma City.
By conventional standards, Hart does not belong on a list like this. He’s not an All-Star and very likely never will be. But if you don’t think he’s been one of the 25 best players, or most impactful, or however you want to frame it, this season, then you either haven’t watched the Knicks play much or you have zero idea what winning basketball looks like.
Hart does everything and is basically always on the court; he’s missed one game, averages 38 minutes a night and has played at least 40 minutes 17 times. He’s the best rebound-and-push guard in the league. Scoring almost 15 points a night in the cracks, Hart is making 66% of his 2-pointers for a 61% EFG mark, up from 49% last season (the biggest jump among all players who’ve taken at least 500 shots). Hart is a top-20 steal and deflection guy. He’s recovered more loose balls than anyone on the league.
In just about every Knicks game there are three to five plays that Hart makes that have every basketball coach in the world standing up to applaud. These are game-swinging plays. Regularly. To those of you thinking Hart doesn’t belong on a list like this for traditional statistical reasons, consider there are two players averaging at least 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists and one steal this season: Hart is one, Jokić is the other.
This guy is the definition of a winning player. Hart is a unique case in so many ways. You have to look at his game through a different lens. When you do, it becomes immediately apparent that he should probably be even higher on lists like this.
Wagner didn’t make the All-Star team because he’s only played in 36 games, but that’s just enough for my ranking considering how terrific Wagner has been when he’s been out there (he’d be even higher on this list with a handful more games played). Even with Paolo Banchero out, Wagner led the Magic to 12 wins in 13 games before he went down himself. He’s scored at least 30 points in more than a third of his games and he’s averaging 25 a night. His 3-point shooting still leaves a lot to be desired, but he’s so good at getting downhill and either finishing or creating with craft that he’s still an elite scorer. If he ever dials it in from beyond the arc, you’re going to be looking at an All-NBA player.
Year 2 in Milwaukee has gone much better for Lillard, who’s averaging better than 25 points and seven assists with a true-shooting percentage (62.3) right on par with his best years in Portland. Among starting point guards, only SGA and Darius Garland (by two tenths of a point) are averaging more points per 100 shot attempts that’s Lillard’s 126.7, per CTG. Things started so poorly for Milwaukee this season that it became easy to let last season’s disappointment bleed into this year’s evaluation of Lillard, but he has played extremely well for the most part.
Siakam is one of the better players that you hear almost nothing about. He’s a 20-point guy who’s shooting 52% and burying 40% of his 3s this season (on over four attempts a night, a big number for him). Siakam is also one of the only reasons Indiana’s defense is even palatable. No perimeter player can lift a defense by himself, but when he’s sharing the court with Andrew Nembhard, the Pacers are only allowing 105 points per 100 possessions. That’s a better mark than any team other than Oklahoma City. Siakam has been so steady for an Indiana team that has quietly climbed into a top-four seed, scoring at least 20 points in 31 of his 53 games.
Sengun is probably the best player on a Rockets team stocked with young talent. He’s averaging better than 18 points and 10 boards and at five assists a game is sort of the JV version of Jokić as a passer. Sengun is a top 10-20 guy in almost all the advanced metrics and leads the Rockets in on/off splits. Sengun was a worthy All-Star, but a reasonable argument can be made that he hasn’t been a top-25 performer this season. Guys like Norman Powell, Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey, LaMelo Ball, Tyler Herro, Jarrett Allen, Derrick White, Zach LaVine, Devin Booker and James Harden would all have cases over Sengun.
