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Welcome back to NBA Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players getting the most buzz around the league. Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing – it simply means you're capturing the NBA world's attention. This is also not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order. This column will run every week throughout the regular season. 

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Victor Wembanyama
SA • C • #1
PPG20.7
RPG10.1
BPG3.29
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Over four games post-All-Star break, Wembanyama is averaging 21.1 points, 11.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 4.8 blocks, and 3.3 steals. I hate the word insane. It gets thrown around way too easily in NBA parlance. That is insane. 

Last Friday, Wembanyama became the youngest player ever – and just the 15th total – to join the exclusive 5x5 club, which requires the recording of at least five points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in a single game. He did it against the Lakers... in the fewest minutes ever. 

What's crazy: Wembanyama missed a 5x5 game by just one assist the night before, posting 19 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks, five steals and four assists against the Kings. 

Think about that. Only 14 other players in history have pulled this off, and this dude, a 20-year-old rookie, nearly did it on consecutive nights. He also joined Michael Jordan as the only players in history to record five blocks and five steals in back-to-back games. 

It's not even March, and Wembanyama is already the first player in history to record 150 blocks, 150 assists, and 75 made 3-pointers in a single season. Just before the All-Star break, Wembanyama carded 27 points, 14 rebounds, 10 blocks, five assists and two steals against the Raptors on 71% shooting. No other player in history has met those single-game benchmarks. 

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
OKC • SG • #2
PPG31.2
APG6.6
SPG2.14
3P/G1.268
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Gilgeous-Alexander has scored at least 30 points in six straight games after hanging 31 in a win over Houston on Tuesday. All told, he has hit the 30-point mark a league-high 43 times this season. 

As if the best driver in the game wasn't impossible enough to cover, SGA is now shooting 59% from 3 over 10 games in February and over 46% since the start of January. It's not high volume, but it's a confident, repeatable stroke that demands respect, which only opens up his off-beat, long-stride penetrations even more as you find yourself inching closer to cover the step-back. Honestly, good luck guarding this guy. 

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Nikola Jokic
DEN • C • #15
PPG26.1
RPG12.3
BPG.91
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Jokic is the betting favorite to win his third MVP, and you get the feeling that he and the Nuggets are about to come off cruise control and hit the gas toward the playoffs. In his first three games out of the All-Star break, Jokic has three amassed monster triple-doubles: 

  • Feb. 22 vs. Wizards: 21 points (10-of-10 FG), 19 rebounds, 15 assists
  • Feb. 23 vs. Trail Blazers: 29 points (12-of-17 FG), 15 rebounds, 14 assists
  • Feb. 25 vs. Warriors: 32 points (13-of-24 FG), 16 rebounds, 16 assists

A few notes, as covered in this piece from our Jack Maloney: First, the Wizards were the only team Jokic had never recorded a triple-double against. Scratch that off the bucket list. Jokic joins Russell Westbrook and LeBron James as the only players in history to post a triple-double against every team in the league. 

Next, Jokic is now the only player in history to record at least 14 assists and 14 rebounds in three straight games and the second player in history to have at least 80 points, 50 rebounds, and 45 assists in a three-game span, joining Wilt Chamberlain, who did so in March of 1968. 

The showing against Golden State was the third time that Jokic has gone for at least 30 points, 15 boards and 15 assists. That moved him past Wilt Chamberlain (two) for the second-most such games in history. Only Oscar Robertson (11) has more.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo
MIL • PF • #34
PPG30.8
RPG11.3
BPG1.05
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The Bucks laid an absolute beating on the Hornets on Tuesday. Late in the third quarter, Milwaukee was up by 49 points. The Hornets scored just 26 points in the entire first half. Giannis only needed 24 minutes to score his 24 points against Charlotte, continuing his stellar play coming out of the All-Star break with 63 points, 25 rebounds and 14 assists in wins over Minnesota and Philadelphia. 

If Luka or Jokic had made this pass that Giannis made against the Wolves, we would still be talking about it. 

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Luka Doncic
DAL • PG • #77
PPG34.3
APG9.5
SPG1.47
3P/G3.898
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Doncic, who is a lock to win the scoring title barring an extended injury absence, has exploded out of the All-Star break for 119 points over three games. He went for 45 points, 14 assists, nine rebounds, and one steal against the Cavs on Friday and appeared to deliver the game-winning dish to P.J. Washington with 2.6 seconds left. 

Until Max Strus did this:

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Max Strus
CLE • SG • #1
PPG12.1
APG3.8
SPG.91
3P/G2.321
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Speaking the Strus, while not the level of player who typically qualifies for the Star Index, the man went on a real-deal heater with five 3-pointers over the final three minutes and change of the fourth quarter, capped with the bomb buzzer-beater. 

Strus finished with 21 points on 7-of-10 3-pointers. 

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Domantas Sabonis
SAC • C • #10
PPG20
RPG13.2
BPG.53
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Sabonis has turned his All-Star snub into three straight triple-doubles coming out of the break. 

  • vs. Heat: 14 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists
  • at Clippers: 17 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists
  • vs. Spurs: 22 points, 11 assists, 11 rebounds

Sabonis has now notched an incredible 40 consecutive double-doubles (10th player in history to record a streak this long), and he leads the league with 21 triple-doubles (sixth player in history with 20 triple-doubles in a season).