What is the best five-man lineup in the NBA today? – NBA.com

The Suns have the most-used five-man lineup in the NBA at 525 minutes played through Feb. 7.

When it comes to analyzing the top lineups in the league heading into the All-Star break, it’s important to look at both usage and efficiency. Having a consistent five-man lineup night in and night out is nearly impossible in any season, but especially difficult in 2021-22.

Whether it be injuries, health and safety protocols or trades (with more to come in the next 24 hours), every team has had to juggle its lineups this season. In fact, through play on Feb. 7, the most games that any lineup had played together was 30 – a mark hit by one lineup from the Hornets and two from the Jazz.

• Utah: Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Rudy Gobert, Royce O’Neale, Donovan Mitchell
• Charlotte: Gordon Hayward, Mason Plumlee, Terry Rozier, Miles Bridges, LaMelo Ball
• Utah: Hassan Whiteside, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson, Royce O’Neale, Donovan Mitchell

While every team has played between 52 and 55 games, only 17 teams have a lineup that has shared the court for at least 20 games. But availability isn’t the only challenge, as it takes time for teams to find the right rotations and player combination to maximize efficiency and ultimately team success.

Here is a look at the 10 most-used lineups in terms of minutes played, as well as their point differential in those minutes.

LINEUPS	TEAM	GP	MIN	+/-
C. Paul, J. Crowder, D. Booker, M. Bridges, D. Ayton	PHX	27	525	64
M. Conley, B. Bogdanovic, R. Gobert, R. O’Neale, D. Mitchell	UTA	30	481	134
K. Walker, E. Fournier, J. Randle, M. Robinson, R. Barrett	NYK	24	428	-121
J. Green, W. Barton, A. Gordon, N. Jokic, M. Morris	DEN	23	424	127
G. Hayward, M. Plumlee, T. Rozier, M. Bridges, L. Ball	CHA	30	372	-11
S. Curry, D. Green, A. Wiggins, K. Looney, J. Poole	GSW	29	347	51
J. Valanciunas, B. Ingram, J. Hart, D. Graham, H. Jones	NOP	22	345	75
B. Beal, K. Caldwell-Pope, S. Dinwiddie, K. Kuzma, D. Gafford	WAS	26	319	-39
D. McDermott, D. Murray, J. Poeltl, D. White, K. Johnson	SAS	24	294	34
D. Lillard, C. McCollum, R. Covington, J. Nurkic, N. Powell	POR	17	274	7

Here we see one of the Jazz lineups to appear in 30 games – Conley, Bogdanovic, Gobert, O’Neale and Mitchell – as they rank second in minutes played (481) and first in point differential (134) of any five-man group so far this season.

Recent injuries to Mitchell (concussion) and Gobert (calf) have seen the Jazz missing one or both All-Stars for 10 straight games since they last played together on Jan. 17. Utah has gone 4-6 in that stretch; they are 7-5 on the season when at least one of Gobert or Mitchell plays, 1-5 when neither play and 25-11 when both play.

Another standout lineup from this list is Denver’s five-man group of Jeff Green, Will Barton, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic and Monte Morris, which has outscored its opponents by a total of 127 points in 424 minutes on court together – that is the third-highest plus/minus of any lineup this season.

Minnesota’s top five-man lineup has a net rating of 29.1 in 224 minutes together this season.

Between the Jazz (first at +134) and Nuggets (third at +127) in point differential is the Minnesota lineup of Patrick Beverley, D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Edwards, which has outscored its opponents by 130 points in just 224 minutes on the court together across 19 games.

That group from Minnesota tops our list of 13 lineups that rank in the top 25 in both minutes played and net efficiency rating. The Wolves have outscored their opponents by 29.1 points per 100 possessions with that five-man lineup on the court. The only other lineup that has a higher net rating that has played at least 100 minutes together is Atlanta’s lineup of Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic, John Collins, Kevin Huerter and Trae Young with a net rating of 32.3.

A few key stats that stand out from this list:

Minnesota’s 128.5 offensive rating: The Wolves and the aforementioned Hawks lineup share the top offensive rating of the 59 lineups that have played at least 100 minutes together this season. If we drop the minutes threshold to 50 minutes, it opens the field up to 175 lineups and the Wolves and Hawks drop to seventh in offense. Lineups from Utah (Conley, Whiteside, Bogdanovic, O’Neale and Mitchell at 145.5 in 53 minutes) and Philadelphia (Tobias Harris, Seth Curry, Joel Embiid, Furkan Korkmaz and Tyrese Maxey at 133.7 in 50 minutes) move to the top of the list.

Boston’s 89.8 defensive rating: The Celtics lineup of Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Robert Williams III has been absolutely stingy, allowing just 89.8 points per 100 possessions over 250 minutes played together – the best defensive rating of the 59 lineups to play at least 100 minutes. Again, we have to drop the minutes threshold significantly to find a better five-man defensive group. At 62 minutes played over 13 games, the Lakers’ lineup of Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Avery Bradley, Anthony Davis and Malik Monk tops the list at 82.0.

Milwaukee’s top lineup ranks ninth: The one stat that is constantly mentioned when discussing the defending champs is their record when the Big 3 of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday all play. With a win over the Clippers on Feb. 6, the Bucks are 22-5 when all three play, and as expected all three are part of Milwaukee’s top lineup. They are joined by Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen and post a 12.1 net rating in 207 minutes on the court together.

Phoenix’s top lineup ranks 12th: The Suns own the top record in the NBA at 43-10, so it seems a bit odd that their top five-man lineup does not rank in the top 10 in the league in net efficiency. However, when we take a closer look at all of Phoenix’s lineup combos, we see the secret to their success. All of Phoenix’s 12 most-used lineups – from the starting five of Chris Paul, Jae Crowder, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton (plus-64 in 525 minutes played) to their 12^th-most used lineup of JaVale McGee, Cameron Payne, Abdel Nader, Landry Shamet and Cameron Johnson (plus-8 in 32 minutes played) – have a positive point differential. To steal another team’s catchphrase, the Suns definitely have strength in numbers.