The best active NBA player from every country

Bruno Fernando originally planned to enter the NBA in 2018, but he withdrew from that year's draft class and returned to Maryland. As Emily Giambalvo of The Washington Post wrote, Fernando became the first Angolan drafted by an NBA franchise in 2019. The forward averaged 4.8 PPG and 3.1 REB in his first 20 pro outings. 

Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons produced a historic rookie season in 2017-18, one that drew comparisons to Magic Johnson and propelled the 22-year-old up player power rankings. Nevertheless, Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving, born in Melbourne, Australia, gets the nod here. The 27-year-old one-time NBA champion is arguably his era's greatest ball-handler, and the three-pointer he drained over Stephen Curry late in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals will be replayed in highlights for decades to come. He may want to avoid future hoops debates involving children, but that's a different story for a different day. 

San Antonio Spurs big man Jakob Poeltl stands alone among NBA players born in Austria. The 24-year-old, in his fourth season, entered the league via the Toronto Raptors as the ninth-overall draft selection of the 2016 NBA Draft, and he was the only Toronto player to appear in each of the team's 82 regular-season games for 2017-18, per The Associated Press (h/t ESPN ). Poeltl was part of the trade that resulted in the San Antonio Spurs sending Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors for DeMar DeRozan. 

Phoenix Suns center DeAndre Ayton, was among the favorites to win Rookie of the Year honors last season, eventually coming in third. This holiday season, though, it's Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield representing the Bahamas. The 26-year-old was named to the 2016-17 NBA All-Rookie First Team and last season had career-high averages in PPG (20.7) and APG (2.5). 

Bojan Bogdanovic likely would have ranked ahead of Jusuf Nurkic a couple of years ago, but that was before Nurkic enjoyed a breakout campaign during his first full season with the Portland Trail Blazers when he shot over 50 percent from the field while averaging over 14 points, nine rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He had similar numbers last season.

Neither Utah Jazz guard Raul Neto nor Chicago Bulls forward Cristiano Felicio possess resumes that compare with that belonging to Houston Rockets veteran Nene. Granted, the 37-year-old missed the first 21 games last season because of a strained calf, but his career averages of 11.3 PTS, 6.0 REB) set him apart in this list. As explained by David MacKay of Rockets Wire/USA Today , guard Chris Paul once told reporters that Nene "gives us a confidence and he just knows how to play both ends." 

We are sure Luc Mbah a Moute, the former Los Angeles Clipper, and Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam leave it all on the court whenever possible. Deadspin's Giri Nathan referred to Siakam as "fun for the whole family." However, we are trusting The Process as it pertains to the best player from Cameroon. Joel Embiid is a superstar and the face of the Philadelphia 76ers, a walking and breathing double-double who continues to improve at both ends of the court and who was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate in his second season and came in the top 10 of MVP voting last season.

You may not imagine Canada as a basketball hotbed, but several players from up north are generating headlines with their play. Tristan Thompson posted career numbers last season, and there remains hope Andrew Wiggins will figure things out and reach his high ceiling with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ontario's Jamal Murray is, simply put, on a different level. The 22-year-old earned 80 starts his second season in the league with the Denver Nuggets, and he went from scoring 9.9 points per game as a rookie to dropping 16.7 a game in 2017-18 and 18.2 last season. Somewhat remarkably, he's not Denver's top international starter. More on that man later. 

After shooting nearly 40 percent from three-point range and averaging career bests in PPG (14.6), RPG (6.7) and APG (2.6) during the 2017-18 campaign, forward Dario Saric seemed part of the Philadelphia 76ers' often-publicized "process." That changed the following season though, when he was packaged in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves that sent Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia. Saric averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds with the T-Wolves before being sent to his current club, the Phoenix Suns. 

Washington Wizards guard Tomas Satoransky has no competition, as he's the only active player from the Czech Republic in the NBA today. The 28-year-old with three seasons under his belt produced solid figures in a handful of starts last season, and he then signed a three-year deal with Chicago, where he is currently averaging 9.7 points.

With Bismack Biyombo averaging around four points a game with the Charlotte Hornets last season, Emmanuel Mudiay's spot on the list seems rather safe. Once seen as a draft bust traded by the Denver Nuggets in February 2018, Mudiay averaged over 14 points per game as part of the Knicks. Now with the Utah Jazz, he is averaging 7.2 points.

Even if 76ers forward Al Horford faced competition, he'd probably still receive the shoutout here. With both Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward sidelined, Big Al nearly dragged the Cs past the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals two season ago, and the veteran who doesn't always fill a box score remained a consistent starter with Boston and, when healthy, capable of contributing at both ends of the court. Now with Philadelphia, he is averaging over 14 points per game. 

Forward OG Anunoby, the only NBA product from England this fall, was part of the NBA champion Toronto team, and he hasn't disappointed. Last season, he averaged 7.0 points per game, and this season he has improved that number to 10.9 so far.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were looking to topple the Golden State Warriors and win the NBA Finals last season. Obviously that didn't happen, and forward Abdel Nader, Egypt's only NBA player at the moment, didn't play much of a role in that pursuit. The 26-year-old had a poor start to his season and was assigned to G-League side OKC Blue. This season, he has appeared in 13 games.

The return of Chicago Bulls forward Lauri Markkanen, Finland's only NBA player and a star, couldn't save coach Fred Hoiberg's job. The 22-year-old reached 100 three-pointers faster, as a rookie, than any player in league history, and he also topped 1,000 points and 500 rebounds, the first Chicago rookie to do so since Elton Brand accomplished that feat in 1999, per Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago. Last year, he neared that number with 974 points and 470 rebounds.

We're old enough to remember when Tony Parker was the face of French NBA basketball players. The veteran and others from the same country all have taken a back seat to Rudy Gobert. The 27-year-old Utah Jazz center won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2018 and '19, and he continues to improve that aspect of his game, as explained by Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune. 

As Ben Weinrib of Yahoo Sports wrote, a picture of 6-foot-11 forward Goga Bitadze being ignored by reporters went viral before the Indiana Pacers acquired the 20-year-old. Will that be the defining moment of his NBA career? While he wasn't a full-time starter for the Pacers early into his pro tenure, the only NBA player from Georgia as of the final month of the decade, averaged 4.7 PPG and 3.3 REB in his first 15 appearances. 

As much as we wanted to dedicate this spot to Dirk Nowitzki as a career-achievement honor, he's a retired player. Dennis Schroder had eclipsed Nowitzki, averaging over 16 points per game and shooting over 35 percent from beyond the arc coming off the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder part of last season. The days of Schroder being accused of tallying empty points are over now that he's escaped the Atlanta Hawks and is playing for a real contender.

Milwaukee Bucks unicorn Giannis Antetokounmpo has no direct equal as it pertains to his country of origin or one-on-one battles. The Greek Freak averaged career bests in PPG and RPG last season and he was named NBA MVP. It seems a matter of when, not if, he'll be the league's best player. 

Skal Labissiere, the only player from Haiti currently in the league, Labissiere was left behind even as a bench player with Sacramento, as he was averaging a career low in minutes two months into last season's campaign. He was traded to Portland midseason but played in only nine games. This season, in 22 games he is averaging 6.1 points.

Last season, forward Danilo Gallinari was a mainstay in the starting lineup for the Cippers, and he weas scoring and shooting better than ever, as described by Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times. He finished the season with a career high in points scored. Now with the Thunder, he is averaging 18.5 points in 20 games played. 

Per Emily Caron of Sports Illustrated, Gonzaga product Rui Hachimura is the first Japanese player ever drafted via a first-round pick. The ninth selection of the 2019 NBA Draft averaged 14.1 PPG and 5.7 REB in his first 20 games with the rebuilding Washington Wizards. As Kevin Broom of Bullets Forever wrote, Hachimura does get shots blocked far too often for a 6-foot-8 forward, but he's got plenty of time to correct that issue.  

We understand Kristaps Porzingis did not feature for the New York Knicks once last season as he worked to return from a torn ACL. The 24-year-old nevertheless remains Latvia's best NBA player and, now with Dallas, Lordzingis is back on the court and averaging 16.8 points per game. He was averaging a career-high 22.7 points per game and shooting a career-best 39.5 percent from three when he went down. 

The NBA's only Lithuanian-born player (Domas Sabonis was born in Portland and lived in Oregon until he was 5 years old, per Jason Quick of Oregon Live ), Jonas Valanciunas traded starts with Serge Ibaka before being traded to Memphis last season. This rotation caused Valanciunas' minutes to decrease to under 20 per game for the first time of his pro career, but the throwback 7-footer has shown he can still offer, averaging 14.5 PPG and 10.0 RPG so far this season with the Grizzlies.

It took him until Dec. 5 last year, but Cheick Diallo, then with New Orleans, finally notched his first double-double of the campaign when he scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The 23-year-old, who is the only current NBA player born in Mali, has struggled to earn even 10 minutes of playing time per game this season with his team, Phoenix. As Franklyn Calle of Slam Online wrote in 2015, Diallo, first began playing basketball in 2010. 

The altercation between Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis when the two were teammates with the Chicago Bulls in October 2017 may have been the best thing to happen to Mirotic's career. Chicago traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans in February 2018, where he became a starter enjoying what Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune called a "career year." Last season, he was traded to Milwaukee, where he averaged 11.6 points. He is currently playing in the EuroLeague.

Per ESPN , Oklahoma City Thunder Steven Adams finished third behind only Andre Drummond and Karl-Anthony Towns in total minutes played for the 2017-18 season, and the big man from New Zealand averaged 33.4 minutes per contest last season. The 26-year-old is averaging 10.4 points and 9.0 rebounds so far this season as well as 26.4 minutes per game. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves spent the 20th pick of the 2018 NBA Draft on guard Josh Okogie, who flashed plenty of promise over the first month of his debut season. Then the Timberwolves sent Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that delivered both Robert Covington and Dario Saric. Okogie quickly became more a spectator than a contributor off the bench. This season he has appeared in 18 games and is averaging 8.4 points. 

It doesn't feel like all that long ago when Polish center Marcin Gortat being traded from the Washington Wizards to the Los Angeles Clippers would have been viewed as a negative. While the Wizards were a mess last season, Gortat was a starter for the Clippers. He finished hte season averaging 5.5 points, and he now is a free agent.

Dallas Mavericks point guard J.J. Barea isn't a starter these days, but the 35-year-old called the team's "old head" by The Ringer's Haley O'Shaughnessy was at one point last season a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. Younger stars such as Dennis Smith Jr. and Luka Doncic dominated Dallas headlines last season and understandably so. But the veteran in his 14th season is still a contributor on the team. ESPN's Zach Lowe joked about Barea's longevity: "In 2035, half the earth will have melted, and 51-year-old J.J. Barea will be getting buckets on the pick-and-roll with an undersized center from Kazakhstan." 

Platooning with Jonas Valanciunas worked just fine for Toronto Raptors big man Serge Ibaka, for a part of last season in what M Scott of Hoops Habit recently referred to as a "sudden career renaissance." Ibaka, 30, averaged 15 points last season and 9.4 in the postseason, as he helped his team to the NBA title.

It's anybody's guess if we'll see a single Russian-born player participate in the 2019-20 season since Orlando Magic center Timofey Mozgov, who was out all of last season due to an injured right knee is now playing overseas. The 33-year-old who averaged 4.2 PPG and 3.2 RPG in 31 appearances with the Brooklyn Nets two seasons ago, remains on a massive contract that doesn't expire until the summer of 2020 but the Magic have been granted salary cap relief. Nobody can take his money or his ring away from the man still beloved by the Cleveland faithful.  

As Derek James of 1500 ESPN explained, center Gorgui Dieng became part of a short Minnesota Timberwolves rotation after the team traded Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers. Nobody will confuse the product of Senegal for being at the same level as Karl-Anthony Towns, and the 29-year-old still owed over $30 million through 2021 on his current contract could most benefit his current club as an asset dealt in a future trade. Remember that he started 82 games for Minnesota only three seasons ago. 

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic isn't the best player from Serbia by default. At just 24 years old, Jokic is already the best passing big man in league history — a magician with the ball in his hands who produces video-game dishes seemingly on a nightly basis. ESPN's Tim Bontemps once tweeted that Jokic "is the only center in the last 30 years to have 15 or more assists in a game," something the big man had already accomplished three times in his first four seasons as of that date. 

As of the final month of 2019, it is still far too early to know what Luka Doncic will or won’t be when he enters his prime. What we do know is that he is the best 20-year-old to perform in the Association since LeBron James took the league by storm. Doncic was essentially averaging a triple-double 19 games into his second NBA season with 30.6 PPG, 9.9 REB, and 9.6 AST. At this rate, he’ll be an MVP and the greatest European to ever play in the NBA before his 25th birthday.

Thon Maker vs.s Luol Deng admittedly isn't a showdown or matchup that excites anybody. Deng, now 34 years old, is largely an afterthought who appeared in three of his team's first 25 contests last season and is now out of the league. Maker, in his fourth season and his second with Detroit, may never develop into more than a role player who comes off the bench. But his upside, with Deng's best days long gone, all give the advantage to the Detroit big man. 

Marc Gasol, raised in a suburb of Barcelona, Spain, won NBA Defensive Player of the Year in April 2013 , and he was an all-time defensive star for the Memphis Grizzlies, a club responsible for one of the league's best defenses over the first two months of last season, before being traded to Toronto where he won an NBA championship.

As Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinal wrote back in 2016, Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic is a citizen of Montenegro, but he was born in Switzerland. The 29-year-old called "the NBA Hipster's MVP" by Vice's Michael Pina , could've been described as being more important for the Magic than star forward Aaron Gordon last season. After putting up career bests in points, rebounds and assists,  the Magic signed him to a four-year $100 million dollar deal. 

Per Enes Kanter's own words , he considers himself "stateless" due to the fallout caused by his criticisms of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Because of that situation, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Cedi Osman, a Turkish citizen, earns a place on the list. The 24-year-old became a starter for a bad Cavs team after LeBron James took his talents west to the Los Angeles Lakers, and he averaged over 11 PPG through his first 22 post-LeBron appearances. Last season he averaged 13.0 points. You may have seen pictures of Osman once working out with his famous former teammate and other stars. 

Casual NBA fans probably won't see much of Alex Len since the center from Ukraine plays for the Atlanta Hawks. The 26-year-old in a timeshare at the 5 has played in 21 games so far this season for the Hawks, starting nine, after notching only 13 starts with the Phoenix Sunstwo seasons ago and 31 for Atlanta last season. 

Apologies to LeBron James, but James Harden ended the 2010s as the NBA's best American player and the league's greatest scorer. Harden lost out on MVP for the 2018-19 campaign, but he won the scoring title while averaging over 36 PPG, the highest number for a scoring champion in over three decades. The Beard turned 30 years old in the summer of 2019 and is aging like a fine wine. There's no reason he can't and won't play the best basketball of his career during the 2020s.