Ranking the NBA’s No. 1 options: Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and the league’s best leading men

Anyone can list the best players in the NBA, but basketball is as much about chemistry as it is talent. Within each of the league’s 30 teams is a hierarchy, and how well each of the five players on the court understands and performs his role within that hierarchy is every bit as important as his individual skill.

Ideally, a lineup has its superstar, a deferential co-star, a third star who owns his role, a fourth option and a fifth starter to tie it all together — clear Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. In this series, we rank the five best players from each tier for a broader look across the league. How close does your team come to an ideal lineup?

No. 1 options: The Leading Men

What is a No. 1? He is the team’s alpha — often by personality, always by ability. Ideally, everyone recognizes he is the top dog on the squad; teammates fall in line behind him, and opponents make him the primary focus of their game plans. Clutch situations typically run through your No. 1. He settles you down when you are on the wrong end of a run. He bails you out if possessions go haywire. He gets his.

He comes in many forms, but you know him when you see him. King James or The Hick from French Lick. Air Jordan or The Chairman of the Boards. Magic Johnson or The Big Fundamental. Dr. J or The Mailman. In whatever form, he is the one in pursuit of the pantheon, for you cannot be an all-timer as a No. 2.

Without further ado, your five best No. 1s …

1. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets

Do we really have to explain why Jokić is one of the best No. 1 options in basketball? He has won three of the past four regular-season MVP awards and should have won a fourth, instead taking home Finals MVP. If we forgot how frequently in recent years we have agreed that he is the game’s best player, he reminded us at the Paris Olympics, where he and some guys you have likely never heard of nearly upset Team USA.

The Nuggets are +3,464 when Jokić is on the floor and -1,829 when he is on the bench in his nine-year career. You could argue he is the game’s most efficient high-volume scorer, its best passer and one of its greatest rebounders. He is practically 7 feet and 300 pounds and will finish this season with more career triple-doubles than Magic Johnson. We would say he is a unicorn if he were not so much a rhinoceros.

Everyone who plays with Jokić is better for it, and that is not lip service. Since joining forces with Jokić, Jamal Murray, Jerami Grant, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Gary Harris, Will Barton and Bruce Brown — none of whom has ever made an All-Star appearance — have signed more than $1 billion in contracts.

I do not know how many other ways there are to laud Jokić. He owns the highest Player Efficiency Rating ever — higher than Nos. 2 and 3 Michael Jordan and LeBron James. If that is not enough to convince you, what will? A fourth MVP award? A second title? These will only vault him higher up the all-time rankings.

2. Luka Dončić, Dallas Mavericks

Dončić has made the All-NBA first team for five years running. The list of players to earn that many nods to the top roster before turning 26 years old: Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant and Dončić. Not bad company.

Dončić is a points factory. There are few players, if any, more dangerous with the ball in his hands, and nobody has the ball in his hands more than Dončić. He has led the NBA in usage rate in three of the past four seasons, scoring or assisting on 52 points per game in that span. He has created 13,926 points — about as many as Kawhi Leonard has scored in his career — over the last four years. These are absurd numbers.

The Mavericks had no business reaching the NBA Finals last season. Their 6-foot-2 second-best player submarined his three previous franchises. Their top defender was a minimum-salaried journeyman. Their rookie center factored heavily into the rotation. But they had Dončić, and he was the rising tide in Dallas.

If last season taught us anything, the gap between Jokić and the field is not as wide as we once thought because Dončić exists. Now imagine he arrives to training camp, like so many, in the best shape of his life.

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

Underestimate Antetokounmpo at your peril. Over the past two seasons, the Bucks have cycled through four coaches and lost twice in the first round of the playoffs. Last season, they failed to win 50 games (or its equivalent) for the first time since 2018, when The Greek Freak was a neophyte. His supporting cast members have aged into their mid-30s, and Milwaukee has few other resources to upgrade its roster.

Yet Antetokounmpo still finished third in MVP voting in 2023 and fourth last season. Before that he was an NBA champion and a two-time MVP. By any measure he is no worse than the world’s third-best player.

And by actual measure he is 7 feet, 3 inches of striated wingspan, careening through traffic like a Lotus, scoring 350 more points at the rim than anyone else last season. He is a nightmare in transition, so much so that entire lineups are rushing back, building walls at the free-throw line and trying to slow him down.

Sure, Antetokounmpo is no 3-point shooter in an era when they are more vital than ever, but as he said, “I cannot have everything in life. I cannot make 3s, too. God had to keep me humble.” He is nothing if not everything else, normalizing the notion that one man could lead a contender in every statistical category.

4. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics

If you did not have Jokić, Dončić and Antetokounmpo in some order as your top three, you have not been watching basketball. This is where things get interesting. There should be no unanimous top four.

You could easily make the argument here for any number of players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Jalen Brunson or Kevin Durant, but in my opinion they are either too young, too little, too injury-prone or too old to usurp Tatum, for he is none of those things.

Tatum was the best player on a team that won seven more games than any other team last season and cruised to the championship. He sacrificed statistics on a stacked roster and still averaged 27-8-5 on the highest efficiency of a career that has landed him on the All-NBA first team for three years in a row.

Much will be made of Tatum’s inefficiencies in the Finals and absences from the Olympics, but two things have been inarguable for years: The Celtics are incredible when he is on the floor, and he is almost always available. Those two consistencies helped Boston finish +755 with Tatum in a regular-season or playoff lineup, the best plus-minus of anyone in the league. Credit his teammates for that proficiency, but that would be ignoring the very real probability that Tatum is the most well-rounded basketball player alive.

5. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

Curry’s Golden State Warriors failed to make the playoffs for the second time in four years, and Edwards won 56 games on a Minnesota Timberwolves team that boasted two other recent All-NBA talents in their prime. But Gilgeous-Alexander won the West’s No. 1 seed without a single other All-Star in the rotation last season, and his Thunder gave the Mavericks more of a series than any other team in the conference.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the league in drives and steals last season, establishing himself as one of the most dangerous points of attack on either end of the floor. The slender 6-foot-6 point guard repeatedly knifes into the lane, where he can finish over, under, around or through anybody. He uses the same instincts and footwork to succeed defensively. The ball finds Gilgeous-Alexander, and he finds the net.

We should not have to explain further why the player who finished second in last season’s MVP race deserves to be on this list, but here goes: While other teams searched for more stars this summer, the Thunder hunted for high-level role players because they felt comfortable with who they have atop the bill. They do not wonder if Gilgeous-Alexander will be healthy, productive and engaged. They expect it.

The consistency with which Gilgeous-Alexander surgically slayed opponents last season may have been most impressive. His 30.1 points, 6.2 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game were not just averages; they were standards he met more often than not. And he is 26 years old. There is a chance he returns even better.

Of course, 20-year-old San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama is coming. I seriously considered listing him here in his second season. He is already the league’s best defensive player, and equal offensive domination is within the realm of possibility. Then, I remembered a 40-win campaign would be a victory for Wembanyama, while Gilgeous-Alexander could flirt with 60 wins as the lone star on a title favorite.

Honorable mentions

6. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

7. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

8. Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves

9. Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers

10. Kevin Durant, Phoenix Suns

11. Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks

12. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

13. Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies

The rest

14. Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers; 15. Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat; 16. Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans; 17. Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers; 18. Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers; 19. Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic; 20. De’Aaron Fox, Sacramento Kings; 21. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks; 22. Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz; 23. Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors; 24. Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons; 25. LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets; 26. Zach LaVine, Chicago Bulls; 27. Anfernee Simons, Portland Trail Blazers; 28. Jalen Green, Houston Rockets; 29. Kyle Kuzma, Washington Wizards; 30. Cam Thomas, Brooklyn Nets.