theScore's All-Half-Decade team: Top 15 NBA players of the 2020s
Time flies when you're having fun - or, in the NBA's case, when you're making money hand over fist.
The Oklahoma City Thunder's 2025 championship marked the halfway point of the 2020s, giving us a chance to reflect on the last five years. Over the next three days, we'll unveil our All-Half-Decade team: the best 15 players of the 2020s so far, broken down into three positionless teams in accordance with modern All-NBA squads.
Before we get to the All-Half-Decade third team, there are a few honorable mentions. We'll begin with Kawhi Leonard. When healthy, he remained a top-five-caliber superstar over the first half of this decade. However, Leonard's litany of injuries has limited him to an average of 41.8 games per season since 2020-21. Anthony Davis hasn't been quite as injury-prone as Leonard, but given the narrow gap between his performance and the performance of the last few entires on our list, AD's 141 missed games over the last five years came back to bite him.
Karl-Anthony Towns' sparkling offensive talent and production put him on the fringes of this team, but his defensive shortcomings, big-game inconsistency, and a general feeling that he leaves us wanting more made him one of the final cuts. Finally, Jalen Brunson's admirable ability to squeeze every ounce out of his undersized frame - and his proven resume as a postseason performer - have helped lead the Knicks to legitimate contention for the first time in decades, but like Towns, Davis, and Leonard, the star guard fell just short.
All stats and accolades listed are from the 2020-21 season through the 2024-25 campaign.
All-Half-Decade third team
Anthony Edwards
2020-2025 stats: 23.9 PPG, 56.6% TS, 5.3 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.9 Stl+Blk
2x All-NBA, 3x All-Star
The timeframe in question covers Edwards' entire five-year career, making his inclusion on this prestigious list quite remarkable. Not many players could hold the first chapter of their career up to the primes of other legends, but Ant Man has earned this selection.
Edwards overcame some predictable efficiency issues as a rookie to emerge as one of the great scorers in the modern game and was a near-40% 3-point shooter on 10 attempts per game last season. His continued growth as an offensive engine and processor have been rapid, he's taken his defensive responsibilities more seriously, and he embraces the spotlight and pressure of big games like few others. That explains how he's led the Timberwolves to two straight Western Conference finals appearances after Minnesota had advanced that far only once in its previous 34 years of existence.
Devin Booker
2020-2025 stats: 26.5 PPG, 59.2% TS, 4.5 RPG, 5.8 APG, 1.2 Stl+Blk
2x All-NBA, 3x All-Star
Booker endured some grotesque seasons in Phoenix before the Suns finally got him help. Once they did, his impact on winning could no longer be denied. Booker blends volume and efficiency - he's a three-level scorer who's averaged as many as 27.8 points per game in a season and an underrated playmaker who averaged a career-high 7.1 assists last season. He began the decade as the best player on a Finals team and followed that up with a top-four finish in MVP voting in 2022. He's kept going about his business as a franchise star even as the Suns have collapsed into chaos around him.
Donovan Mitchell
2020-2025 stats: 26.2 PPG, 58.6% TS, 4.5 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.7 Stl+Blk
2x All-NBA, 5x All-Star
Don't let his postseason flameouts prevent you from appreciating Mitchell's excellence. He's been a driver of elite offenses for almost his entire career; his combination of shooting, driving, and shot-creation is a devastating mix, whether in Utah or Cleveland. Quibble about his defensive shortcomings if you must, but Mitchell's teams have won 68.5% of games when he's in the lineup over the last five years (a 56-win pace), during which he's one of only seven players to make five straight All-Star Games. His Jazz and Cavs teams finished atop their respective conferences twice this decade and top five all five years, while those same squads finished first in offensive efficiency twice and top four three times.
Tyrese Haliburton
2020-2025 stats: 17.5 PPG, 60.6% TS, 3.7 RPG, 8.8 APG, 2.1 Stl+Blk
2x All-NBA, 2x All-Star, 2024 APG leader
Speaking of drivers of elite offense, Haliburton's combination of shooting and playmaking resuscitated Indiana, giving the Pacers the closest thing to prime Steve Nash the game has seen since the two-time MVP.
Haliburton's style of play transformed the Pacers; their brand of basketball is completely tied to his identity and unique skill set. He's a deadeye shooter from everywhere on the court but also a generational playmaker who's racked up the fourth-most assists of the 2020s. His ability to push the pace with hit-ahead passes and perfectly balance his scoring and table-setting made the Pacers one of the must-watch teams of the last few years and one of the toughest to beat, as evidenced by a 2025 Finals appearance after a 2024 conference finals berth (and 2023 NBA Cup final). His clutch heroics and flair for the dramatic during that 2025 Finals run before his heartbreaking Achilles injury in Game 7 cemented his place here.
Domantas Sabonis
2020-2025 stats: 19.4 PPG, 64% TS, 12.8 RPG, 6.8 APG, 1.4 Stl+Blk
2x All-NBA, 2x All-Star, 3x RPG leader
The player Haliburton was traded for similarly transformed the Kings, though Sacramento has since reverted to its dysfunctional ways. Sabonis' bruising interior game, dominance on the glass, and, most importantly, his ability to run the offense as a dribble-handoff hub made the big man Sacramento's north star.
I suspect a debate will ensue about whether Sabonis deserved this spot over Davis, with the Kings' single playoff appearance serving as an indictment of the former's true value. However, with such thin margins between the star big men, I rewarded Sabonis for playing 96 more games during this period. Sacramento's on-court performance and off-court structure is always volatile, but Sabonis remains inevitable in bullying his way to an efficient double-double that's both mesmerizing and forceful.
Check back Wednesday for our All-Half-Decade second team!
Joseph Casciaro is theScore's lead NBA reporter.