Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeff Teague has long been a promising player with all the tools required to be an elite guard in the National Basketball Association. But until this year he’s been just that: a promising player, but not an elite guard. Something has changed though in his game, and his play of late has been nothing short of superb.

Teague is having a career year in several standard statistical categories (points: 18.9 per game, field goal percentage: .481, free throws attempted: 6.3 per game, and assists: 7.2 per game), and is among the league leaders in the more advanced metrics used for precise player valuations.

Teague has the 7th best Player Efficiency Rating (PER) (a metric that attempts to summarize a player’s contributions through a detailed formula that accounts for positive and negative statistics on a per-minute basis) among all point guards and is 6th in both Estimated Wins Above Replacement and Value Added (an estimation of how many points any given player contributes to his team over a replacement-level player).

To put it simply, he’s been one of the best guards in basketball for a team that needs him to be, especially recently.

Over the Hawks’ past four games (prior to their blowout of the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday in which he was needed for only 21 minutes), he’s averaged 26.5 points per game on 53% shooting while also making 33 of his 35 attempted free throws. He’s been a team leader, and is getting to the rim and free throw line with ease.

Teague’s progression was to be expected, as he’s improved statistically every year he’s been in the league, but the emergence of second year guard Dennis Schroder has been a pleasant surprise.The Hawks drafted Schroder in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft as a promising, but unproven playmaker from Basketball Löwen Braunschweig, a competitive team in Germany’s highest league of professional basketball.

He showed flashes of brilliance in the 2013 NBA Summer League, but failed to crack the regular rotation in his first year with the team and even spent some time with the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League.

Like most first year guards, he was turnover prone, struggled with his shot and spent more time on the bench than the floor and entered this season as the third-string point guard behind Teague and fourth year guard Shelvin Mack.

That didn’t last long. Though Mack is still part of the rotation, and often plays alongside Schroder, the latter has clearly been the better backup.

Over his past three games, Schroder’s averaged 12 points on 61% shooting in just 16.6 minutes played, and is often on the court in the fourth quarter of close games. Additionally, his PER of 19.87 is 12th best among NBA point guards and ranks him above All-Stars Tony Parker and John Wall.

He is playing with a confidence uncommon of a 21 year old frail guard in a man’s league, and is connecting on 53% of his shots after shooting just 38% as a rookie, but there are still areas of his game that need improvement. He is still making careless turnovers, and is shooting a horrendous 22% on three-point attempts.

If Schroder continues to blossom, and adds a consistent three-point shot to his repertoire, the Hawks could soon have one of the scariest point guard combos in the league as Teague is showing no signs of slowing down.