NBA Player Power Rankings: It's getting crowded at the top

With only a quarter of the season remaining, it's time for the penultimate version of our 2014-15 NBA Player Power Rankings.

Remember, these rankings do not account for past seasons or future projections. They're merely a ranking of player performance over the course of the 2014-15 season.

If you're wondering where reigning MVP Kevin Durant is - or maybe why Hassan Whiteside didn't creep in - the criteria is that a player must play in at least half his team's games and must log at least 24 minutes per night.

Now onto the rankings ...

10. DeMarcus Cousins
23.4 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.7 BPG, 1.5 SPG
PER: 24.27
Win Shares: 4.2

His efficiency is sliding and he's turning the ball over too often, but it's hard to overlook Boogie's overall numbers, especially when you consider that a 21-38 Kings team is actually outscoring opponents when Cousins is on the court.

9. Damian Lillard
21.2 PPG, 6.1 APG, 4.8 RPG, 1.4 SPG
PER: 21.02
Win Shares: 8.3

Sure, Dame has been slumping of late, but his overall body of work reads 21, six and five on above average efficiency for a 41-19 Blazers team within two games of second-place Memphis in the West.

His recent play can be called into question. His place among the top-10 players this season cannot.

8. Jimmy Butler
20.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.7 SPG
PER: 21.32
Win Shares: 9.5

The loss of Derrick Rose to a knee injury - again - garnered more headlines, but anyone who's paid attention this season knows that losing Butler for three-to-six weeks is a bigger blow for Chicago.

The 25-year-old has seen his All-Defensive team credentials slip, but he's also one of only 15 20-point scorers in the league right now, and he's doing it despite a moderate Usage Rate of 21.6. That would make Butler the first player in seven years  - and just the 13th ever - to average 20 points or more while using less than 22 percent of his team's possessions.

7. Marc Gasol
18.2 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.7 BPG
PER: 22.35
Win Shares: 8.0

When a player has as dominant a two-way season as Gasol is enjoying for a top-three overall team, they're usually a shoo-in for the MVP race. Unfortunately for the best all around center in the game right now, this season is unlike any other when it comes to the top-six players on this list demoralizing the rest of the league.

6. Chris Paul
18.5 PPG, 10.1 APG, 4.8 RPG, 1.8 SPG
PER: 25.22
Win Shares: 11.3

Last season it was Blake Griffin who carried the Clippers when Paul went down. This year, CP3 has raised his game in Griffin's absence, helping L.A. to a 7-4 record in their first 11 games without Blake, despite a brutal schedule.

Paul's recent play, especially, is a wakeup call for those of us who thought the Point God had lost a step earlier in the season, as the 29-year-old has averaged 26.8 points and 12.5 assists on a 54-36-91 shooting split over his last six games.

5. LeBron James
26.3 PPG, 7.3 APG, 5.8 RPG, 1.6 SPG
PER: 26.38
Win Shares: 7.6

Between the 1986-87 season and the 2003-04 season - an 18-year span - a 26-7-5-1 season had only been recorded twice, once by Michael Jordan and once by Larry Bird. LeBron is on track to record his seventh such season in the last 11 years, according to Basketball Reference (with James Harden and Russell Westbrook on track to join him).

Oh, and the Cavs are 37-15 with him in the lineup this season, are 2-9 when he sits and perform more than 17 points per 100 possessions better with James on the court as opposed to on the bench.

4. Russell Westbrook
27.4 PPG, 8.1 APG, 7.0 RPG, 2.1 SPG
PER: 30.06
Win Shares: 7.6

As if that TNT graphic of biblical proportions wasn't enough, Westbrook then put together a 43-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist performance in Thursday's loss to the Bulls.

There's almost no modern precedent for the incredible run Russ is on as he comes off of one of the greatest statistical months in NBA history. He's been the best player in the game - bar none - over the last five weeks or so. If he can keep it up for another month, he'll finish the season No. 1 on this list.

3. Anthony Davis
24.2 PPG, 10.3 RPG, 2.8 BPG, 1.7 APG, 1.5 SPG
PER: 31.66
Win Shares: 10.3

The Brow finds himself outside the No. 1 spot for the first time this season, but it has nothing to do with the regression of his game and everything to do with his durability.

He's missed 11 of the Pelicans' last 23 games, and if he misses one more down the stretch, he'll head into his fourth season without ever having hit the 70-game mark.

Beyond that, he's on track to become only the ninth player ever to average 24 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal in at least one season.

2. James Harden
26.9 PPG, 7.0 APG, 5.8 RPG, 1.9 SPG
PER: 26.95
Win Shares: 12.4

The MVP race is as wide open as it has been in a quarter century, but in looking at Harden's prodigious numbers, observing his improved defensive effort, studying his supporting cast in the absence of Dwight Howard and considering he has the Rockets in the hunt for a top-two seed in one of the most competitive conferences ever, it will be tough to look elsewhere when deciding on the Maurice Podoloff Trophy.

1. Stephen Curry
23.8 PPG, 7.8 APG, 4.5 RPG, 2.1 SPG
PER: 27.92
Win Shares: 11.4

Some of the other superstars on this list have posted gaudier numbers and have perhaps had higher peaks, but if these rankings are to reflect the 2014-15 season as a whole, Curry's consistency from start to finish - on both ends of the floor - for the league's best team help him edge Harden.

(PER courtesy of ESPN, Win Shares courtesy of Basketball Reference)