The fifth spot was another tough choice. Jalen Brunson is the beating heart of a Knicks offense that has been a force this season and he could well be No. 5 on my board, but the defensive concerns and credit for that offense also going to Karl-Anthony Towns bumped Brunson down one spot in my book to sixth. By the end of the season, this may flip.

This stretch of January around Martin Luther King Jr. Day is usually peak evaluation time in the NBA front-office world. It’s one of the milestone points where teams will have full-staff pow-wows and talk things out,