It's early and the order will be shuffled and some players near the top will drop down, while others will rise.
But already, a solid mix of defenders have staked their claim as the league's elite takeaway specialists, aka theft artists.
Through Monday, here are the league's top seven in steals: Niigata's Shunki Hatakeyama (2.5 per game), Hokkaido's Asahi Tajima and Shibuya's Kenta Hirose (2.2), Akita's Kevin Palmer (2.0) and Tokyo's Daiki Tanaka, Nagoya's Seiya Funyu and Tochigi's Jeff Gibbs (1.8).
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