The starting five is the group of 5 players a team sends out at the opening tip of a game. Starting isn't always a reward for being the best player, it's a lineup-construction decision, teams pick whichever 5 players they think fit best together to open the game, which can mean resting a star for the bench instead.
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Coaches usually announce starting lineups shortly before tip-off, and they can change night to night based on matchups, injuries, rest, or simply what combination of skills the coach wants on the floor first.
Traditionally the five spots map to the five positions, point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center, but that's softened a lot in the modern game. Plenty of teams now start two players who are functionally interchangeable, or go without a traditional center entirely.
Starters usually play the largest share of a game's minutes and set the tone before the bench rotation kicks in. A strong starting five that can jump out to an early lead changes how a coach can manage the rest of the game, resting players, avoiding foul trouble, and controlling pace.
Starting five chemistry, specifically how those 5 players perform together, is one of the most tracked lineup numbers in basketball (see Lineups). A team can have 5 great individual players and still have a bad starting five if they don't fit.
Players who've started 95%+ of the games they've played (min. 20 GP), ranked by total games started.
Almost always, but not by rule. Some teams deliberately bring a very good player off the bench instead, to keep two strong scoring options separated across the full 48 minutes rather than stacked in the same lineup at the same time.
No. Modern NBA lineups increasingly start two guards, multiple forwards with no true center, or otherwise ignore the traditional PG/SG/SF/PF/C shape entirely. See Positionless Basketball.
Yes, constantly. Injuries, trades, slumps, and matchup planning all lead teams to shuffle their starting five, sometimes for a single game and sometimes for the rest of the season.