"Funny how time flies when the schedule features a silly number of games packed into a relatively brief timeline, and as of Monday, the majority of the league's teams were already approaching the one-third mark of this odd but entertaining NBA campaign. Here are some key topics the Stew has been pondering as we begin Week 6:

Exactly how valuable is Paul Millsap? Utah's starting PF got off to a relatively unspectacular start (12.7 ppg in his first nine games), but lately Millsap has gone flat-out berserk, averaging 21.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.8 spg and 0.7 bpg on a high-volume 52.7 percent from the floor in his last nine games. That makes Millsap the No. 4 overall player in Basketball Monster's 9-category rankings during that stretch (behind only Chris Paul, Kevin Durant and Kevin Love), and for the season, he has surged to No. 8 overall on the Basketball Monster leaderboard. It may be a bit ambitious to think that Millsap can remain in the top-10, but the 26-year-old is looking like no worse than a second-round value this season.

Is Blake Griffin finally ready to add "Consistent Shot-Blocker" to his resume? Griffin matched his old career-high with two impressive blocks against Memphis on Thursday, then set a new career-high with four blocks against the Nuggets Sunday night. That recent binge gives him an average of 1.3 bpg in his last eight games, many of them downright monstrous (including one Al Harrington layup that he swatted off the backboard Sunday evening)."