It's an exciting time to be an NBA fan. The future looks incredibly bright with young up-and-comers like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Karl-Anthony Towns, while transcendent stars in the form of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook are putting numbers in their primes that we haven't seen in decades — maybe even ever.
Then there's the older folk, who are still fighting for a storybook ending with 10-plus years of professional basketball under their belts. That begins with LeBron James' pursuit at ending Cleveland's championship drought, and transitions to Tim Duncan getting the farewell present his Hall of Fame career so greatly deserves.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the best NBA players by age, selected by Sporting News' Scott Rafferty to be based on how good the players are today, not how good they will be or were in their primes.
Booker would've likely occupied this spot before the All-Star break, but he's hit a rough patch lately now that he's the primary focus of opposing teams. Winslow, meanwhile, has helped the Heat find their groove in their climb up the Eastern Conference standings by filling in for Chris Bosh as a small-ball four. It doesn't even matter that Winslow can't yet shoot because he's already a difference-maker on defense and his ability to make hustle plays keep him from sticking out like a sore thumb on offense.
Further helping Towns' case is that he's already one of the more effective rim protectors in the NBA, according to Nylon Calculus. Basically, he is already playing like a star, and this looks like the start of a career that ends with speech in Springfield, Mass.
While he isn't scoring 30 points on a nightly basis like McGrady and Durant were at 21, Antetokounmpo is a jumper away from being in the All-Star conversation. Perhaps that day will never come and we'll forever wonder how dominant he could've been if he hadn't bricked 70 percent of his jump shots. Or perhaps it'll eventually click and he'll transform into a multi-positional, triple-double machine that can do just about anything he wants on the court.
Whatever the case may be, it's exciting to see some of the pieces of the puzzle come together for The Greek Freak.
Further helping Leonard's case is that he's the best two-way player in the game, having already won a Defensive Player of the Year Award before being named an All-Star for the first time of his career. Compare Leonard to the other players in his age bracket, and it only makes what he has already accomplished more impressive.
Birthdate: Aug. 13, 1990.
While you could make a case for any of those players, let's focus more on Cousins being an anomaly. There are only two players in NBA history to average 25 points and 10 rebounds while knocking down one 3-pointer per game, and they are Cousins and Kevin Love. Furthermore, Cousins is on pace to become the first player ever to average 27 points, 11 rebounds and one made 3-pointer per game. That's helped him wiggle his way into the top-10 of Real Plus-Minus this season, as well as PER, even though his attention to detail continues to waver at an infuriating rate.
Then, there's the eye test. Harden's defense has reverted back to being laughable this season and the Rockets have struggled to establish a rhythm on either end of the court. He's also the reason Kevin McHale is no longer the coach in Houston and why they franchise tried to ship Dwight Howard out before the trade deadline, depending on whom you listen to.
Put those two factors together and it's tempting to give it to a two-way star like Butler or Thompson, but that would ignore Harden being one of the more unique offensive talents in NBA history. Plus, the injury bug has hit Butler and Griffin hard this season, and Thompson has the luxury of playing alongside Stephen Curry. Those factors only help make the argument for Harden.
OK, maybe not everything, but most things.
Even so, Curry is putting up numbers that make Michael Jordan's best individual seasons look normal. The Warriors are on pace to become the winningest team in NBA history, too. It all boils down to Curry having a historic season on a historic team, and that can't be overlooked.
Whether or not his future is in Memphis remains to be seen, but Conley is expected to field max offers from just about every team on the market for a point guard. He deserves to be highly recruited, too, because Conley is a rare breed of point guard in today's game who can hurt opponents in three key areas: efficient scoring, savvy playmaking and ball-hawking defense.
Besides, the other players at his age are either role players or sad cases of could-have-beens, while Conley is still writing his story.
Don't get it twisted — the Clippers need Griffin if they have any hope of upsetting the Spurs and Warriors. They'll be in a position to put that to the test in the second round of the playoffs, though, thanks to Paul.
So even though he's no longer the NBA's star attraction thanks to Stephen Curry and the record-chasing Warriors, James continues to put up numbers that we've rarely seen. Let's not lose sight of that, especially if he's unable to put an end to Cleveland's championship drought this season.
Parker feels so good, in fact, that he's calling this one of the best seasons of his career. That might be a bit of a stretch given the success he's enjoyed over the years, but he's embracing his new role on an absurdly good Spurs team. That's impressive considering how long he's been around the game.
Nonetheless, there isn't much competition in his bracket. Kyle Korver has struggled to find his shooting stroke all season long, Zach Randolph's dominance is coming to a swift close and Joe Johnson's time with the Nets ended in a buyout. Wade still has enough in the tank for a vintage performance every now and then, too, and it never gets old to see him slice his way to the basket for acrobatic finishes.
Is it a strong case? No. But it's better than the rest in a surprisingly weak group.
Duncan's doing this on a team that's matching the Warriors step-for-step, too, while his fellow elder statesmen are either headlining mentorship programs or chasing rings. And who knows, maybe Duncan will be back again next season. There's no doubt the Spurs need him.
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