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Assembling the top 5 NBA hometown squads

Jesse D. Garrabrant / National Basketball Association / Getty

What if NBA players could only play in their hometowns? First, "hometown" needs to be defined. A player may be born in one place, but it doesn't mean he spent most of his formative years there. Cases in point: Carmelo Anthony was born in New York City, but his family decamped for Baltimore when he was 8 years old. Steve Nash is as identifiable as a Canadian as anyone, but was actually born in South Africa.

Furthermore, "hometown" will mean the metropolitan areas of a city, or in one case, the urban agglomeration of two nearby cities. Using the formula of where a player grew up, including - but not limited to - where he spent some part of high school, here are the five best NBA hometown squads featuring active players.

5. Indianapolis

G G F F F 6th
Mike Conley Eric Gordon Gordon Hayward Trey Lyles Zach Randolph George Hill

We're cheating a bit because Zach Randolph is actually from Marion, 90 minutes north of Indianapolis. Trey Lyles moved there from Canada as a child. But this is a decent team.

4. New York-Long Island-North Jersey

G G F F F 6th
Kemba Walker Kyrie Irving J.R. Smith Tobias Harris Karl-Anthony Towns Lance Stephenson*

New York City used to churn out NBA stars at a rapid rate, but that's no longer the case. Last season, less than a dozen players who grew up inside the five boroughs played in an NBA game. Yet, once you include Long Island and northern New Jersey, the talent pool blossoms.

* - Lance is partly for comic relief. One could also go with Kenneth Faried or Danny Green, among others.

3. Chicago

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

G G F F F 6th
Derrick Rose Dwyane Wade Jabari Parker Jahlil Okafor Anthony Davis Patrick Beverley

This backcourt is a little long in the tooth, but each of these players were well-known even as high schoolers in hoops-crazy Chi-town.

2. D.C.-Maryland-Baltimore

G G F F F 6th
Markelle Fultz Victor Oladipo Carmelo Anthony Rudy Gay Kevin Durant Jeff Green

Combining Washington, D.C., and Baltimore may be contentious, but the region is often considered as one metropolitan area, home to almost 10 million people. The Maryland suburbs between D.C. and Baltimore is a fertile basketball hotbed that has produced the likes of Kevin Durant, Markelle Fultz, and many more.

1. Greater Los Angeles

G G F F F 6th
Russell Westbrook James Harden DeMar DeRozan Paul George Kawhi Leonard Klay Thompson

Make no mistake: The Los Angeles area is the center of the basketball universe, and it's not just because NBA players tend to congregate there in the offseason. Would it matter that this squad features no traditional bigs in competition against the other teams here?

Honorable mentions: Atlanta (Dwight Howard, Derrick Favors, Malcolm Brogdon, Lou Williams), Cleveland-Akron (LeBron James, C.J. McCollum), Dallas (LaMarcus Aldridge, Myles Turner), Houston (Jimmy Butler, DeAndre Jordan), Philadelphia (Kyle Lowry, Dion Waiters), Seattle (Isaiah Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Zach LaVine), Toronto (Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson).

And while it's not a city, the state of North Carolina deserves a shoutout for its point guards alone - Stephen Curry (Charlotte), Chris Paul (Winston-Salem), and John Wall (Raleigh).

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