NBA Star Power Index: Trae Young quietly becoming mid-range maestro; Lakers back to life without LeBron James

Also, Stephen Curry woke up in the middle of a Mikal Bridges nightmare

Welcome back to NBA Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the players creating the most buzz around the league. Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It just means you're capturing the NBA world's attention. This is also not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column runs every Wednesday throughout the regular season. 

Trae Young has crested the 30-point mark in his last four outings and the Atlanta Hawks, after a seven-game losing streak, have won seven of their last eight. Young is up to 41 percent from 3 for the season, per Cleaning The Glass, which by far would rank as a career high if sustained. He's also hitting 55 percent of his almost five midrange shots per game between 10 and 19 feet, per NBA.com. 

Young's midrange prowess has, through the early stage of his career, been largely a product of his elite floater; he's never been a conventional Chris Paul 15-foot pull-up guy. But that's changing more this season.