With the NBA's transactional silly season winding down and teams shifting focus to how they'll fill out the ends of their benches, it's a good time to remember that none of these low-level moves actually matter.
OK, that's an exaggeration. But all the attention paid to midlevel exceptions, second-round picks and fringe-rotation free-agent acquisitions makes it too easy to forget that every team is only as good as its alpha. The NBA is still all about cornerstones, and we're going to highlight and rank the very best ones.
Bleacher Report NBA staff writers Dan Favale and Grant Hughes will tackle the task, using fairly simple parameters: These are the players you'd pick to lead your team over the next five years. The aim is to win as many regular season and playoff games as possible, with championships as the ultimate goal.
Critically, we're looking at an entire five-year window. That makes age a factor here and explains why a handful of 30-somethings don't make the cut.
These are the stars most capable of anchoring a big-time winner over the next half-decade.
Honorable Mentions
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns
For whatever reason, Booker continues to be ranked a cut below the league's foremost megastars. And that's...weird. Not only is he just 26 (turns 27 in October), but he boasts one of the Association's most complete scoring packages.
Booker has the acceleration to blast through to the basket, his mid-range game is the stuff of picture-perfect legend, and he's probably under-utilizing his off-the-dribble three. There is also a palpable "Kevin Durant but with more movement" scalability to his offensive fit away from the ball. Coupled with his advancement as a defender and passer, Booker is more than deserving of an honorable nod.
Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
Curry is entering his age-35 season, which all but disqualifies him from the top five. At the same time, his offensive transcendence hasn't been ravaged, at all, by the passage of time.
There's a real chance he remains a top-five player for the lion's share of this half-decade window. You can't reasonably say the same for Durant or Kawhi Leonard or anyone else on the wrong side of 30.
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves
Edwards, 21, feels like the player most likely to crash the top-five-player discussion over the next half-decade (non-Victor Wembanyama division, of course). His domineering drives and finishes need no clarification, but his progression as an impact defender, engine-of-the-offense playmaker and operable spot-up shooter still fly under the (national) radar.
Off-the-dribble jumpers feel like his swing skill. (It could still be his ceiling as a defender.) He isn't the most efficient pull-up marksman, but he can generate a ton of separation and just drained over 38 percent of his step-back triples.
