1: Donovan Mitchell

Despite Anthony Edwards' recent playoff success and drawing comparisons to the greatest to ever play basketball, along with Jaylen Brown recently being named Finals MVP, Donovan Mitchell in my opinion is still a small tier above the two. Firstly, despite not playing many games this season compared to his peers, he still looked as great as ever, incredibly explosive and benefitting his team when he was on the floor. He came to a Cavs team that couldn't get out of the Play-In and brought them up all the way to a 2 seed midway through this season. Unfortunately, after he got injured, the team tanked, getting passed up by Milwaukee and New York. I firmly believe that he is the best shooting guard in the league due to what he can bring to any NBA team. About to enter his prime, he benefits his teammates, the most notable example throughout the years being Georges Niang. He was a benchwarmer before getting his chance to play in the bubble. After sinking many of his 3-pointers, most being set up from Mitchell, he got a 2-year, MLE deal from the Philadelphia 76ers. Now he's back on the Cavaliers with his former teammate, where this season he averaged a career-high in points.

2: Devin Booker

Devin Booker is also one who could be easily overlooked. This past season, he had to shift and play point guard for the first time in his career with the arrival of Bradley Beal. He's still a natural shooting guard, so he'll be on this list. Despite him and Kevin Durant not being able to go any further than the 6th seed and a sweep in the first round, he is still a very talented player despite what the standings show. He just received a nod to the All-NBA 3rd Team, the first in his career, and his 2nd All-NBA team, his first in 2022. Booker can do it all on the floor. Can score at all levels, an average defender, and has shown to be able to play make despite not being his normal role. He has been able to perform in the playoffs, especially this year where his scoring increased on higher efficiency vs. the Timberwolves. His turnovers have also gone down, which is special for him this year because he had to handle the ball more.

3: Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Brown from a very academic school in UC Berkeley just got named the Final MVP over Jayson Tatum, who many said underperformed in the Finals until Game 5. The contract he got this offseason which at the time was the largest in NBA history had fans scratching their heads. The main thing people had against him was his lack of dribbling with his left hand. However, over the offseason, he worked hard on this skill, and it showed this season. Also, they said that Brown and Tatum couldn't co-exist, as both were the number #1 option. However, with two new arrivals of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, it seems as if the two had solved the problem. Both started taking less shots, and it slowly dissolved into something similar to the duo in Dallas of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Jaylen Brown is still the two-way athletic wing other teams could only dream of. Two seasons ago, Brooklyn offered Kevin Durant to the Celtics, with the intent of getting back Jaylen Brown to be their number #1 option. As talks went on, no team got anything done, and Boston is now in good hands with their duo for the foreseeable future.

4: Anthony Edwards

This might be a controversial take and be what loses me the challenge. If it does, so be it. I'd rather lose while giving my honest opinion than lose while trying to pander to the community. Anthony Edwards just proved why he is the guy for Minnesota. Willing them past Denver despite them taking a 3 - 2 series lead, eerily similar to the 2022 Bucks. Unfortunately, Ant couldn't keep up the same production vs. his series with the Dallas Mavericks, and with his falling production fell the team. He did just get named to All-NBA 2nd Team, but he didn't carry the team by himself. They had the DPOY in Rudy Gobert, 6MOY in Naz Reid (completely undeserved, I'm still salty about Malik not winning), alongside fellow bench piece Nickeil Alexnder-Walker, and a 22 PPG scorer in Karl Anthony-Towns. That doesn't mention the rest of the pieces this team had, don't act like a top seed was so shocking with such young pieces alongside veterans meshing perfectly from the get-go. This isn't to say he sucks, he still is probably the best dunker in the NBA, incredibly clutch, and is slowly developing a consistent 3-point shot.

5: James Harden

While last season harden took the point guard spot and Paul George instead played the 2, Hollinger's advanced stat metrics for shooting guards qualified Harden but not Paul George, so I'll use those metrics. Over the past 3-4 seasons, Harden has stopped his excessive scoring which didn't lead to much winning and has shifted his focus to being a playmaker. This has led to scrutiny from fans who thought that he fell off of sorts, but in reality he has been trying to win, not padding his points per game. He hasn't lost the art of scoring either, if he wants to score 40 points per game he still can. He proved it at times this season. It looks like he may have found a team he can stay with for over 1 season with his hometown LA Clippers after he just resigned for 2 years, $70 million.