Welcome back to our NBA Star Power Index -- a weekly gauge of the players who are most controlling the buzz around the league. Reminder: Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the NBA world's attention. Also, this is not a ranking of any kind. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column will run every week for the rest of the season. 

Being that this column is devoted to the players, before we get into this week's list I would be remiss to not at least mention the job Brad Stevens is doing with the Celtics. I mean, wow. Earlier this week, Boston became the first team in history to win 10 straight games with six rookies making an appearance in at least one game. Two of those rookies, Jayson Tatum and Daniel Theis, are playing major roles, and Semi Ojeleye is logging real minutes. 

There are coaches in this league who hesitate to play rookies at all, let alone in crunch time. Stevens' Celtics have now won 13 straight with an almost brand-new team, including four new starters that look as though they've been playing together all their life. That is not an accident. Stevens puts every one of his guys in a position to succeed. He designs around strengths, but doesn't hide from weaknesses. This is a guy who has helped turn Marcus Smart into a really good player despite being one of the worst shooters at the guard position in NBA history. And remember when everyone said Kyrie Irving couldn't play defense? 

"That's why I say this is a coaches' league," says David Thorpe, who was with ESPN for 10 years as an NBA analyst and has long been a consultant, personal coach and adviser to NBA teams and players. "How many examples are there of guys being different players under different leadership, in different structures? 

"To me, this is what sets apart a Steve Kerr, a [Gregg Popovich], a [Tom] Thibodeau, a Stan Van Gundy, an Eric Spoelstra and certainly Brad Stevens. The elite coaches do the best job of letting their guys know exactly what they're supposed to do on both ends, and then, developing a culture and a level of trust to let them do their only their job. So can we please stop saying that any team Kyrie Irving is on can't play defense, or that Kyrie can't play defense himself? In Boston, guys do their job."

*** I spent a couple hours talking all things NBA with Thorpe this week. He had a lot to say about some of the players on this list, and his comments will be included throughout. 

Now, on to this week's list ...

Star Power Index
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LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers F
What a week for LeBron James, who just continues to play the league and its fans -- both on social media and the court -- like a fiddle. The jab at Phil Jackson, the almost too-perfect Instagram indie co-starring subway guy -- it was all preamble for maybe the most exciting night of the young NBA season at the Garden, where LeBron toyed with anyone and everyone (poor Enes Kanter ...) as he brought the Cavs back from a 23-point deficit by scoring or assisting on 28 fourth-quarter points, including this dagger 3-pointer, all while putting the crunch-time clamps on Kristaps Porzingis, which nobody has been able to do this year.

It was a magical 12 minutes of basketball, and somehow, the fun was only getting started. After the game, this was the back and forth between Kanter and LeBron.

Kanter: "I don't care who you are. What do you call yourself? King, Queen, Princess. Whatever you are. We're gonna fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us."

LeBron: "I'm the King, my wife is the queen, and my daughter is the princess, so we got all those covered." 

Then the King left a little nightcap for all of New York to chew on.

Seriously, just stop coming at the King. 

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Paul George Oklahoma City Thunder F
Even if you end up getting the same amount of food, there's a difference between eating the main course and feasting on the leftovers. Through 11 games, Oklahoma City's Big 3 of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony had all scored exactly 201 points, but George was clearly the third wheel as he struggled to find his niche beside two one-track-mind scorers -- as evidenced by this:

That's right, not a single shot in the fourth quarter for one of the best players in the world. That just can't happen, and George and the Thunder immediately made the adjustment. 

This week, George busted out with 42 points against the Clippers and 37 vs. Dallas -- notably averaging 11.5 fourth-quarter points. He also tallied a combined 17 boards, 12 assists and five steals over the two Thunder victories, all while shooting 12 of 19 from 3-point range -- where he is now connecting at just under a 42-percent clip for the season. 

Going deeper, George is posting a terrific 63.2 effective field goal percentage on catch-and-shoots, via Synergy, which is a huge stat for a guy who is going to spend a lot of his time fielding kick-out passes from the ever-penetrating Westbrook. He's also been OKC's best defender -- his 2.5 steals a night lead the league. 

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Marcus Smart Boston Celtics G
I'm not sure if the buzz around Marcus Smart -- which really only exists among hard-core NBA junkies -- is good or bad, but he's fascinating either way. With his sub-30-percent shooting percentage (not from three; from everywhere), we're legitimately talking about one of the worst shooters ever, and yet it's impossible to deny the positive impact he's having on the Celtics this year. And it's not just his defense, which is so good, or his competitiveness and toughness, which are second to none. It's more. This is just mind-bending from Boston's win over Brooklyn Tuesday night:

Matt Moore has done a better job than I could ever do explaining this phenomenon, but I know this: Two defenders following Smart anywhere, at any time, is a mistake. So, yeah, as long as defenses are doing dumb stuff like this following clip illustrates, leaving actual good shooters wide open so they can stay glued to a guy who can't make anything from anywhere, I suppose his offensive rating is going to look pretty good. 

Coach Thorpe's comments: Smart is different than other guys who struggle to shoot, because his toughness is just so much a part of [Boston's] culture. Without him, there's a wrinkle in who they are as a team.

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Joel Embiid Philadelphia 76ers C
So you were wondering just how silly Embiid's numbers might get when the Sixers finally decided to loosen the leash on his playing time? Well, he played a season-high 36 minutes in a win over the Clippers on Monday, and all he did was put up 32 points on 11 of 20 shooting to go with 16 rebounds -- all while continuing to cement his place as the game's best current trash talker. This is timely, and highly important work by SB Nation:

Listen, for my money, Larry Bird is the all-time trash talker. Every time I think about him saying he's pretty sure the statue the Hawks erected of Dominique Wilkins was "not made in a defensive stance," I die laughing. But Embiid calling Willie Reed, this poor sap he just spent an entire game undressing, "What's his name" is starting to creep into Bird territory. The disrespect is just off-the-charts hilarious. 

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Lonzo Ball Los Angeles Lakers G
If it weren't for Marcus Smart, this kid would be the worst shooter among guards in the league, but he did become the youngest player in NBA history, at 20 years and 15 days, to record a triple-double with his 19 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds in a loss to the Bucks this week. LeBron James, who held the previous record at 20 years and 20 days when he posted a triple-double back in 2004-05, had this to say to ESPN's Dave McMenamin when he was asked about Ball's feat: 

"I think he's going to be a really, really good point guard in our league, probably a great point guard if he continues to work on his craft, which it seems like he does. They got a good one."

In other words, cue the LeBron-to-the-Lakers mania.  

Coach Thorpe's comments: I think Lonzo is a special talent. He's an elite passer. I don't know anything about him as far as how he is as a leader or anything like that, but I will say it'll be tough for him to reach his potential if he can't improve his shooting. ... Passing on its own just isn't valuable enough. You can take a guy like, say, Malcolm Brogdon, a solid player who can shoot the three and pass the ball fine -- maybe not as well as Lonzo, but fine -- and get him for less. 

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Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors G
Whatever buzz is around Curry this week isn't about anything he did on the court -- scoring a ho-hum 22 points in another Warriors blowout vs. the Sixers before sitting out Golden State's win over Orlando with a thigh contusion. It's about this eloquent, deeply hopeful message he penned for the Player's Tribune . With all that's going on in the world right now, I can't stop thinking about Curry's final words of the piece: "Let's use our platforms, and take this day, to talk about how we can be louder than all of this silence — and quieter than all of this noise."
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Kyrie Irving Boston Celtics G
The masked man returned from his one-game absence to lead Boston to its 13th straight win Tuesday night, scoring 25 points with a broken face. What continues to impress me about Irving is the way he's leading the Celtics in the most crucial moments of all these tight wins they're pulling out. In 24 clutch minutes (defined as a five-point game with less than five minutes to play) this season, Irving is shooting 57 percent from the field, and his seven assists in those stretches are second in the league, so he is making plays for others -- an ability, or willingness, that a lot of people question when he came to Boston. He has just been so good on a team chock full of good players. In other news, tell me you couldn't watch this video for hours:
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Andre Drummond Detroit Pistons C
Drummond's last three games: 38 points, 58 rebounds, 15 assists and four blocks on just under 54 percent shooting -- all Detroit wins, by the way. In fact, the Pistons have  now won five straight and sit at No. 2 in the East with a 10-3 record as of Wednesday, largely because of Drummond, who has now logged at least 12 boards in all 13 games this year, the longest streak to start a season since Kevin Love did it in 12 straight games in 2011-12. Perhaps most importantly:

Indeed, Drummond continues to reshape the trajectory of his entire career with this sudden free throw revelation -- a career 38.2 percent shooter from the stripe, he's connecting on better than 63 percent of his free throws this year. Throw out the 0 for 7 he logged from the stripe last Wednesday vs. Indiana, and he's shooting 72 percent. For the season he's averaging just under 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Coach Thorpe's comments: [Drummond] is maybe a quiet MVP candidate. He would never win because he's only a 15-point-a-game guy or so, but the confidence he gives that team with his presence defensively and his rebounding, and now he's finishing free throws, that's a team that might finish No. 1 in the East. They really might.

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James Harden Houston Rockets G
Harden is now up over 30 points a game, second in the league to Giannis Antetokounmpo's 31.3 a night. He posted a nine-assist first quarter (yes, you read that right) against Indiana on Sunday; check out these two dimes, starting with a through-the-legs gem:

And then behind-the-back in traffic:

Last Thursday, in one of the best games of the year so far, Harden out-dueled LeBron and Co. with 35 points, 13 assists, 11 boards and five steals to lead the Rockets past the Cavs. Not bad company:

Coach Thorpe's comments: To me, LeBron, Curry and Harden are the three best offensive players in the world. Westbrook isn't quite there. Durant, to me, is just outside that group just because he's not that lead ball-handler.

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Nikola Jokic Denver Nuggets C
Jokic was named the Western Conference player of the week after averaging 22.7 points, 13.3 rebounds and 5.6 assists on 53-percent shooting, including 6 of 15 from three. It was a good week. The Nuggets won three straight and are starting to really find a rhythm offensively. But it wasn't a better week than Harden laid down in averaging 33.3 a night over three straight Houston wins, including that aforementioned triple-double against the Cavs. All told, Harden posted 99 points, 36 assists and 20 rebounds last week. Not that he cares about a conference player of the week award, but he was robbed. 
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Giannis Antetokounmpo Milwaukee Bucks F
So this Eric Bledsoe trade is working out pretty well so far. The Bucks have won three straight since he arrived, and life for Giannis has gotten a little bit easier with another playmaker in the fold. At this point, 30-point efforts are an average night for the Greek Freak, but attention remains squarely on him as maybe the most electrifying player in the league. Seerat Sohi wrote a cool piece for Fansided about Giannis and the chances that we're watching a truly once-in-a-lifetime player. 

Slowly, you can see Giannis starting to stroke his jumper a little more effectively. He still aims it and typically only takes it when forced up against the shot clock, but it's starting to go down. If that trend continues, you can forget about trying to guard him. Just save your energy for something less futile. 

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De'Aaron Fox Sacramento Kings G
New rule: You hit a game-winner, you make the Star Index. Fox did exactly that against Philly last week:

OK, it wasn't a buzzer-beater, but that's a big-time shot for a rookie to hit, and it capped off a really impressive stretch run in which Fox scored a tough hoop in transition to cut Philly's lead to four with just over a minute to play, then found Garrett Temple for a three, before finally hitting the winner. 

Keep in mind that just prior to hitting that shot, Fox nearly turned it over on a wild drive to the hoop. To have the confidence to come right back and not only take that shot, but make it, says a lot about a young player, particularly one with a reputation as a sub-par shooter to begin with.