NBA 2017: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kristaps Porzingis, DeMarcus Cousins Lead League In Scoring

There have been plenty of surprises in the first two weeks of the 2017-2018 NBA season. Look no further than the scoring leaders for evidence that the start of the year hasn’t exactly gone as expected.

Names like Kevin Durant, LeBron James and James Harden are absent from the top five. Stephen Curry comes in at No.4 on the list, but he hasn’t been able to crack the top three. Those positions are currently occupied by players that have never held them before.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMarcus Cousins and Kristaps Porzingis have the three-highest scoring averages as October comes to an end.

No one has had a better start to the season than Antetokounmpo. His 34.7 points per game are far and away the best in the league, and he’s done much more than just score. The 22-year-old is the early frontrunner to win the NBA MVP award, leading the Milwaukee Bucks with 10.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game.

Cousins isn’t unfamiliar with being among the NBA’s scoring leaders. He was tied for sixth last year and ended the previous season with the fourth-highest scoring average. His 29.7 points per game this year are a career-high, and he’s doing it while playing alongside another dynamic scorer.

Anthony Davis is fifth in the league with 27.7 points per game, but he’s now the No.2 scorer and rebounder on the New Orleans Pelicans with Cousins in the mix. The pairing has a real chance to get the Pelicans back to the playoffs for the first time in three years.

Porzingis’ overall numbers don’t come close to matching that of Antetokounmpo or Cousins, but he’s made the biggest leap of the three players. He’s averaging 29.3 points per game, becoming the first New York Knick in history to score at least 30 points in five of the season’s first six games.

New York had to trade Carmelo Anthony in the offseason to allow Porzingis to flourish. The former No.4 overall draft pick averaged 18.1 points per game last year when he shared the starting lineup with Anthony. The 7’3 “unicorn” is taking nearly eight more shots per game, leading the NBA in that category.

Antetokounmpo and Cousins are second and third, respectively, in shot attempts per game.