5. De'Aaron Fox
Coming off of his first All-Star appearance, Sacramento Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox was immediately taxed with proving his success last season is the new norm. Through 14 games, he's done just that, averaging 30.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game.
This season, Fox has made more of a concentrated effort to improve his three-point game, both in terms of quantity and quality. Increasing his attempts from 5.0 per game to 8.2 is certainly an improvement, but he's knocking them down at a high clip as well, at 35.7 percent as opposed to 32.4 percent last season. His three-point attempt rate has also increased from .276 to .367 this season.
As Fox looks to lead the Kings to the playoffs following last season, when the team made their first postseason appearance in 17 seasons, Sacramento is well on its way already. With the fifth-best record in a challenging conference like the West, it's been steady sailing for the Kings so far, but they'll certainly need Fox to keep up this level of play to secure home-court advantage, at least for the first round.
In addition to the Kings finding themselves in the postseason for the second straight season, De'Aaron Fox is on pace to be named an All-Star in consecutive seasons as well. To do so, there is little room for error, unfortunately, as three of the four guards ahead of Fox on this list happen to share a conference with him.