Unclear if this take will belong in this thread or not; I'm just speculating.
We have had some spirited debates in other threads about where Jaylen Brown sits among the league's top players. Last year, he was good enough to be named to be one of the NBA's top 15, but that is probably not a consensus assessment among posters here, which have him anywhere from borderline all-NBA to outside the top 50 (the latter is nonsense, but whatever). There have also been some debates as to who is the better player, Brown or Porzingis.
What the debate tells me is that there are a lot of players that could be considered, say, Top 30 (splitting the difference between all-NBA and Top 50). There are probably 50-60 players vying for that top 30 slot, and those 50-60 players are spread around the league. And the gap between the top 1 or 2 players in the league and the others in the clear top 10 also seems to be narrowing. There are a lot of really good players in the Association this year, and every year there seem to be more coming in than there are retiring. That 2020 draft had some real players that are now just starting to come into their prime in Edwards, Maxey, Halliburton, LaMelo Ball (assuming he's healthy) and (cry) Bane. From 2022, we're seeing Banchero and Holmgren turn into possible stars. Going back earlier, we are seeing a healthy Zion turn the Pelicans into a tough out (they've beaten Denver, Clippers, Thunder). And of course there's Wemby, currently surrounded by a bad team but probably not for too long. There seem be far fewer gimme games than there were in 2008, never mind 1986.
There's going to be some surprising omissions when it comes to this season's All Star game. And this thread will be bumped at least another 20 times this season if not more.