NBA Starting Lineup Power Rankings: The top No. 5 options who tie it all together for their teams

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.

While depth was vital to the success of the Thunder and Pacers last season, and we understand coaches often say, “It’s about who closes the game; not who starts it,” the pursuit of a roster’s most cohesive five-man unit is still paramount. Three of last year’s top four starting lineups on our list — the Thunder, Knicks and Timberwolves — reached the conference finals.

In this series, we rank each team’s starters for a broader look across the league. 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. How close does your team come to an ideal lineup?

(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

No. 5s: The Fifth Starters

What is a No. 5? Here is how we described him last year …

He is the one who ties the starting lineup together. When you have pieced together your four best players, what is missing? Ball-handling? Size? On-ball defense? Shooting? Positional versatility? He might not be able to give it all to you, but he better fill the gaps, or he will find himself replaced soon. Or in a platoon. He may not be better than the sixth man, but he should make better sense in a quintet.

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Perfect. You know a fifth starter when you see him, and you may not see him in the starting lineup every night. More than a handful of fifth starting spots are still up in the air at the time this is being published, and that should not be a surprise, because these guys will be cycled in and out, depending on matchups.

Lastly, we sourced these lineups and each player’s status within them with beat reporters around the league. We appreciate everyone who casted a roster; there are too many people to thank in this space. And we recognize that not every player listed here will be in an opening-night starting lineup. Injuries occur. Coaches change their minds. But just know that this is our best guess at the rotations we will likely see most often from each team.

We’ve unveiled our rankings of the top No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 options. Without further ado, your five best No. 5s (most likely, most often, however you want to slice it) …

1. Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City Thunder

How do the Thunder tie together a long and ferocious defensive lineup that features Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Lu Dort? With more size and defensive ferocity, of course.

Hartenstein is one of the NBA’s best rim protectors, as is Holmgren. Both can defend in space, and the presence of Hartenstein allows Holmgren to serve as a roving menace. Offensively, Holmgren’s shooting makes room for Hartenstein to operate in the middle, where he serves as an exceptional screen-setter and connective passer. There may be no more underrated center in the league than Hartenstein.

Lineups boasting both Hartenstein and Holmgren outscored opponents by 13.5 points per 100 meaningful possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass, operating like the NBA’s most efficient offense and its fourth-rated defense. Remove Holmgren, leave in Hartenstein, and the Thunder still outscored opponents by 11.7 points per non-garbage possessions, working like the league’s top-rated defense.

That is the beauty of Hartenstein. Of course, even the Thunder had reservations about their fifth starter in the playoffs, replacing Hartenstein with the smaller Cason Wallace to start the NBA Finals. But when it came down to a win-or-go-home scenario against Indiana, coach Mark Daigneault stuck with Hartenstein.

2. Christian Braun, Denver Nuggets

What a perfect fit Braun is for the Nuggets, who boast Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Cam Johnson as clear-cut top-four options — and damn good ones at that. They need a shooting guard who will not act like the shooting guards you most often imagine, chucking shots at every opportunity.

They need someone who can knock down open 3-pointers when left open (Braun shot 40% on 2.8 3-point attempts per game last season), who can defend like hell (Braun often defended the other team’s best guard, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the playoffs) and who can cut to the rim at a moment’s notice, so as to become a Jokić target (few players moved around the court more than Braun on offense).

Called upon to fill the spot vacated by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s departure last season, Braun doubled his scoring average, netting 15.4 points as efficiently as he has in his career (58/40/83 shooting splits). He is 24 years old, a freakish and skilled athlete and a plain old winner. What else do you want?

3. Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons

Duren averaged a double-double in 26.1 minutes per game for a team that won 44 games last season, and he was born after LeBron James entered the NBA. He does not turn 22 years old for a month. Consider the ceiling for this athletic 6-foot-10, 250-pound monster of a man higher than most anyone on this list.

Duren converted 69.2% of his field goals last season, almost all of them around the basket. He made 219 dunks. He will not try to do much more with the ball in his hands, except he is much more. His five screen assists per 36 minutes are third among all players who logged 2,000 or more minutes last season, behind only Domantas Sabonis and Rudy Gobert. Duren can collect regular assists, too, adding 2.7 per game.

Defensively, there is much to improve. He commits 4.4 fouls per 36 minutes. Opponents shot 62.9% against him around the rim — close to their season averages. The defense was actually 3.7 points per 100 non-garbage possessions better when he was off the floor. But he has the size and athleticism to defend in space and protect the rim, and here is a vote of confidence in his ability to do both well this season.

4. Mitchell Robinson, New York Knicks

Robinson is an absolute beast when he is healthy, and he was for the playoffs, where he wreaked havoc on the defending champion Celtics on both ends of the floor. They had no answer for his work as a rim protector and as an offensive rebounding machine. His hustle and athleticism made for a plus-minus god.

Of course, Robinson only started four of New York’s 18 playoffs games last season en route to the Eastern Conference finals. The Knicks often featured Josh Hart, an exceptional wing, in smaller lineups — with Karl-Anthony Towns at the 5 — that struggled defensively (115.8 points per 100 non-garbage possessions) and only narrowly outscored opponents (+4.1 points per 100 meaningful possessions).

But it does seem as though new head coach Mike Brown will sub Robinson into the starting lineup, as he has in three of their four preseason games. Regardless, Hart would be ranked just as high on this list, if not higher. Robinson, though, raises their threat level on both sides in a way Hart cannot at 6-4.

5. Jakob Poeltl, Toronto Raptors

The Raptors may not boast an elite-level superstar, but their starting lineup is rich with talent — quite literally. They will pay five different players between $19.5 million and $38.7 million this season, and Poeltl, carrying a $19.5 million salary — cheapest among Toronto’s five starters — counts as their best bargain.

Poeltl has averaged 14.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and two blocks per 36 minutes for his career, and he has been right around those numbers per game for the last four seasons. Though he has declined from his peak on the defensive end, he remains a high-level rim protector, holding opponents 5.6% below their season shooting averages around the rim. When he was on the floor, the Raptors allowed 112.8 points per 100 meaningful possessions, close to a top-10 rating if they had managed to average it over a full season.

Offensively, Poeltl finishes roughly two-thirds of his shooting attempts around the rim, and he is a 50% shooter from midrange. He does not take shots he should not. All of it makes him a wonderful fit on a better team, and who knows — maybe by the end of the season he will be, in Toronto or elsewhere.

The honorable mentions

6. Al Horford, Golden State Warriors

7. Dennis Schröder, Sacramento Kings

8. Dereck Lively II, Dallas Mavericks

9. Walker Kessler, Utah Jazz

10. De’Andre Hunter, Cleveland Cavaliers

11. Wendell Carter Jr., Orlando Magic

The rest

12. Mike Conley, Minnesota Timberwolves; 13. Jeremy Sochan, San Antonio Spurs; 14. Rui Hachimura, Los Angeles Lakers; 15. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Memphis Grizzlies; 16. Zaccharie Risacher, Atlanta Hawks; 17. Derrick Jones Jr., LA Clippers; 18. Donovan Clingan, Portland Trail Blazers; 19. Nikola Jović, Miami Heat; 20. Reed Sheppard, Houston Rockets; 21. AJ Green, Milwaukee Bucks; 22. Neemias Queta, Boston Celtics; 23. Ryan Dunn, Phoenix Suns; 24. Yves Missi, New Orleans Pelicans; 25. Kelly Oubre Jr., Philadelphia 76ers; 26. Kyshawn George, Washington Wizards; 27. Isaiah Jackson, Indiana Pacers; 28. Egor Demin, Brooklyn Nets; 29. Ryan Kalkbrenner, Charlotte Hornets; 30. Isaac Okoro, Cleveland Cavaliers