* (a giant, yawning chasm) *<\/p>\n
- \n
- Jalen Duren, Detroit 27.9<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
And here\u2019s what the top five looks like for BPM:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Nikola Joki\u0107, Denver: 18.5<\/li>\n
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee: 12.7<\/li>\n
- Luka Don\u010di\u0107, L.A. Lakers 11.6<\/li>\n
- Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Oklahoma City: 11.1<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
*(a vast, empty void encompassing multiple solar systems)*<\/p>\n
- \n
- Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland: 8.2<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Let\u2019s start with the Joker, who somehow is still finding new ways to reinvent the game. He\u2019s leading the league in assists from the center position and is somehow on pace to achieve the impossible feat of leading the NBA in both rebounds and dimes in the same season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easier when you get both on the same play. Watch him chasing the rebound with his back to the play but still knowing, while the ball is still in the air, that he\u2019s going to turn and whip a TD pass to Christian Braun as soon as he catches it. His anticipation and court sense remain on another level:<\/p>\n
Want to see it again? Let\u2019s see Patrick Mahomes stand in against this kind of rush and still airmail a dime to Peyton Watson like this:<\/p>\n
Joki\u0107 has actually dialed back his shot volume considerably, only taking 21.2 field goals per 100 possessions compared to 25.5 and 25.6 the past two seasons. Of course, the only other time his shooting rate was this low was Denver\u2019s championship season in 2022-23, so maybe he\u2019s on to something.<\/p>\n
Also, he\u2019s adopted a new life hack called \u201cnever missing.\u201d He\u2019s shooting impossible 76.8 percent on 2s, including 65.3 percent in the floater death zone between 3 and 10 feet. The video clips here aren\u2019t breathtaking; it\u2019s just a bunch of contested jump hooks that just go in the basket, time after time. His shot making turns normal defense on its head, because this is normally a shot you want the other team to take, but he\u2019s automatic at it.<\/p>\n
Once again, his impact stats are off the charts. The Nuggets once again are getting outscored in the non-Joki\u0107 minutes, but that hardly matters when they carry an absurd plus-19.7 net rating when he is on the court.<\/p>\n
Also \u2026 Water polo, anyone? Here\u2019s the moment Tim Hardaway Jr. realized his life was about to change:<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo has been so good that he\u2019s becoming his own paradox: The biggest reason the Bucks aren\u2019t under pressure to trade Giannis is because Giannis is making them so competitive all by himself. The Bucks are 7-4 and have the underlying stats of a certain playoff team.<\/p>\n
Impact-wise, they are getting smacked in the non-Giannis minutes, although that\u2019s partly because Doc Rivers has leaned into five-man bench units to keep the starters together. They just make it up with interest when Giannis is on the court.<\/p>\n
Does he not know he\u2019s supposed to be getting old? At 31, whatever he\u2019s lost athletically has been more than offset by increasing awareness of how to take advantage of driving lanes and increased willingness to brute force his way there. Once at the cup, he\u2019s still an overpowering force, even against opposing centers. Like, what are the poor Rockets supposed to do about this? They had four guys on him!<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo\u2019s stats indicate that he\u2019s doubled down on the physically imposing parts of this game, an atypical adjustment for a player in his 30s. Thirteen of his 14 field goals against Houston came inside the charge circle. He\u2019s nearly doubled his offensive rebound rate from a year ago, he\u2019s leading the league in free-throw attempts for a fourth straight season, and his 48 dunks through nine games had him on pace to blow away his previous career high of 279 of 2018-19. Always an elite at-rim finisher, he\u2019s taken nearly two-thirds of his shots in the basket area but has done it while making fewer turnovers than ever.<\/p>\n
And when he\u2019s needed to move farther away from the hoop, his shaky jumper has proven more reliable, as the Indiana Pacers can attest. Aaron Nesmith is a big, mobile defender, and Isaiah Jackson is a bouncy center making a strong late contest, but neither had any chance of affecting this buzzer-beating shot.<\/p>\n
In Oklahoma City, the defending champ and MVP Gilgeous-Alexander has had to drag his squad through a sluggish start during which injuries have forced him to take on a huge minutes and usage role. As a result, the Thunder are only 10-1.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s slow, steady refinement of his craft is hard to appreciate unless you start looking across multiple seasons. For instance, he\u2019s slowly but steadily tightened his handle to the point that it\u2019s a news alert when he turns it over; he\u2019s gone from miscues on 13.7 percent of his possessions in his first season as the Thunder\u2019s leading man in 2020-21 to a meager 6.3 percent this season. That makes his 64.3 percent true shooting on high volume even more devastating, as it has come with virtually no cost in turnovers.<\/p>\n
Despite his skinny frame, Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s ability to play with physicality but stay under control is a cheat code. He\u2019s a master of getting his shoulder into a defender and creating space without using his off arm to push off. In a related story, he\u2019s taken 238 shots this season and committed one offensive foul.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also devastatingly consistent. The Thunder needed all 55 of his points to beat Indiana in double overtime in the second game of the season (part of a series of efforts that make him an early favorite for the Clutch Player of the Year Award), but otherwise, he\u2019s been a scoring metronome: He enters Tuesday with seven straight games between 30 and 35 points.<\/p>\n
As with Joki\u0107, his being a killer from midrange has turned the logic of the game on its head; he\u2019s shooting 58.7 percent on 2s despite hardly ever getting all the way to the rim and earns heaps of free throws along the way. Unlike Giannis, he also makes all of them, converting 90.4 percent from the stripe so far.<\/p>\n
Finally, there\u2019s Don\u010di\u0107, who\u2019s been so good in the early going that it might get his former GM fired. \u201cSkinny Luka\u201d entered the year on a mission and has delivered, averaging nearly a triple-double (37.0 points, 10 rebounds, 9.5 assists) despite an early-season shooting slump.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>It\u2019s just fun to watch him, see him have that joy on the court,\u201d said Maxi Kleber, his longtime teammate in Dallas and L.A., before Sunday\u2019s game in Atlanta. \u201cI don\u2019t want to put any fire in this narrative because, if a player comes out and gets a 30-10-10, it\u2019s kind of hard to argue about conditioning.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>You can\u2019t guard him one-on-one, so if it\u2019s a one-on-one matchup, he\u2019s going to score very high and efficiently, and that forces his team to double, and he has the ability to find open people and make the right decision every time. So if you put him in a pick-and-roll, if it is a trap, if it\u2019s a regular coverage, he will make the right decision 99 percent of the time, so that just makes basketball a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s scary about Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s performance so far is how much money he\u2019s left on the table as a scorer while still raining buckets at such a prolific rate. He\u2019s only made 32.1 percent of his 3s and 79.3 percent of his free throws thus far; while those two areas have never been strengths for him, he shot 36.8 percent and 38.2 percent from 3 the past two seasons on similar volume.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible his scoring will decline as the Lakers become less heliocentric once LeBron James returns.\u00a0On the other hand, the heliocentrism suits Don\u010di\u0107, who has a 37.8 percent usage rate; nobody is better at orchestrating an attack and picking apart a set defense. And the work that \u201cSkinny Luka\u201d has put in has already yielded one benefit: his first dunk as a Laker! (Sort of.)<\/p>\n
- Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland: 8.2<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/USATSI_27528603-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\n