Kyrie Irving is unquestionably one of the greatest point guards of all time. Over the last decade, the best point guards such as Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and others have dominated the position. For example, the Spurs absolutely ate him alive in the playoffs with Tony Parker, who averaged 24.5 points for the series. He was an All-Star every year of his career and led the Lakers to nine NBA Finals appearances. His net defensive rating is fairly close to even, and slightly above average for point guards. To recap, Jason Kidd was the best defensive point guard, Michael Jordan skied above other shooting guards, John Havlicek paced all small forwards - for the time being - and the "Mailman . He just doesnt have the physical tools to play at an elite level. But Gary Payton did as a member of the Seattle Supersonics. Players Stats: 20.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 6.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.2 BPG. Don't get me wrong: Steph is still the league's best shooter. He also used his incredible basketball IQ to steal the ball and defend at a high level. Its got to be annoying, but its also disruptive, and being disruptive is positive on defense. For eight consecutive seasons, Cousy was the leagues top assist producer, and he was also one of the finest scorers in the league. Getting paired with Tom Thibodeau has made it even better. I counted off over 20 plays, specifically watching to see if Chalmers would stop the ball-handler, and he only did once. In the NBA, Isiah Thomas is an amazing leader and is truly the most competitive force on the court that we have seen from a tiny guy. -- Adande, Teams His high rebound rate, while partly indicative of his speed is also a result of positioning, which relates to his IQ. His most notable awards include five NBA championships, three Finals MVPs, three MVPs, nine All-NBA First Team selections, and 12 All-Star appearances. Marcus Smart. Ben Wallace 12. Chalmers is 62 and 190 pounds, which is about average size for a point guard. He may get beaten occasionally, and he might get outmuscled more frequently, but he never gets outhustled. Del Negro just worried about the matchup without ever developing a true defensive system or identity with the Clippers. The Glove is hands down the best defender a the point guard position. From there, hes playing catch up. His net defensive rating of 4.2 is an indication of both a lack of his helping and asking for help. He is tremendous at using that muscle to his advantage, too. These combo point guards can surprise defenses. Bledsoe is a bit of a freak. The only point guard to win Defensive Player of the Year, Payton was a defensive nightmare and he never had a DWS lower than 1.2 during his 17-year career. His 47.4 DWS is 54th overall, good for an average of 2.963 DWS per season, slightly edging Wade. Other stats were determined by using my trusty sidekick, MS Excel, loaded up with standard stats available on most websites. Another major evaluation factor is the assist-to-turnover ratio, which reflects the decision-making skills of the player. 3. Point guards must be able to maintain possession of the ball in crowded spaces and in traffic and be able to advance the ball quickly. Hes led the league in steals per game five times in the last six years. He manages to defend the pick-and-roll reasonably well by doing something I can only call bouncing over picks. One way of offsetting the problems of defensive rating is looking at on/off stats, meaning how many points does the defense give up while a player is on the court versus when he is off the court? For his time with the Phoenix Suns, Johnson is most known for his role alongside Charles Barkley. Its no surprise that the best point guards in the NBA have more than just the ability to pass the basketball. Honors: 6x All-Star, 2x All-NBA Selection, 2011-2012 Rookie of the Year, Players Stats: 22.4 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 5.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.4 BPG. No question hell be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and hes one of the greatest rim-attacking players in NBA history. This is to avoid confusion if you want to go to the original source.). Its like someone took a normal-sized person and stretched out the arms and hands to make him. While no one always guards the best player, some players are much more likely to be guarding the other teams elite players, which makes them appear weaker defensively. His offensive style has been revamped to incorporate a powerful mid-range jumper along with some range as well. For many of these metrics, sample size becomes crucial. 6 (1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963), Career stats He almost always went under the pick. Top NBA point guards for 2022-23: Ranking all 30 starters | Sporting News TMGNNS LEBRON Sun, 4:30p DEN CLE 2/23, 4:00p BOS IND 2/23, 4:00p DET ORL 2/23, 4:00p MEM PHI 2/23, 4:30p NOP TOR. Jacks presence on a team is one of those things. He sometimes gets tangled up and left hopelessly out of the play. Instead of passing after bringing up the ball they quickly drive to the basket or step back for an outside shot. Gary Payton was born on July 23, 1968, and is widely regarded as one of the best defensive point guards of all time. If theres a weakness, though, its that when he comes up against the elite offensive point guards, he will get beaten in isolation. Kyle Lowry has exceptional speed and athleticism. He spent his entire NBA career (19842003) as a point guard for the Utah Jazz, and the team made the playoffs in each of his 19 seasons. All-Time #NBArank: Top 10 point guards ever, 'Not going out this way': Nets, down 28, stun C's, Kerr touts 5-0 homestand: Dubs 'turned a corner', KD: Mavs tilt, Kyrie meeting 'just another game', Owner: Snyder, Fields will bring Hawks success, Isaac has surgery on adductor, done for season, Clips' Powell out at least a week to treat shoulder, LeBron to have tendon injury checked in 3 weeks. The debate over whether it should have been a flagrant is mootclearly that got into James head because he was talking about it after the game. Gary Payton. Although Jordan won that battle, theres nothing wrong with being named the third-best defensive player at his position and one of the best shooting guards of all time. But thats why we do the research. Mr. Paul, who was born on May 6, 1985, has long been regarded as one of the game's greatest point guards, a fact reinforced by his selection to the 75th Anniversary Team. In fact, hes a bit of a bull on the court and tries to intimidate his counterpart. You're the worst defensive point guard in the NBA!!! He stands third among the top 10 point guards of all time. Like last time . Smart people recognize their limitations. Despite his little size, he made up for it offensively by being lightning fast and had the whole attacking package. His defensive usage was the highest of any player with at least 1,200 minutes. -- Adande, The best two-way small player in league history, Paul embodies the era in which he plays by running the pick-and-roll as well as anyone has ever run it. He averaged 3.9 win shares per season, totaling 75.1 DWS at the end of his 19-year career - good for 11th all-time. Emailed daily. His score represents the average of trying hard and not trying at all once the ball gets past him. Its interesting that when he plays against elite point guards, or when he plays angrily, he plays much more of a physical game. -- Micah Adams, No one was more dynamic, or magical, with the ball in the open court than Earvin Johnson. Some would argue that just because he went to Harvard, it doesnt mean he has a high basketball IQ, or that book intelligence isnt the same thing. Then, when players pull up and shoot, he doesnt use his length to close and get a hand in the face of the shooter. He doesnt try to make great plays, but he tries not to make mistakes, which is maybe what he should be concentrating on. Photos: Top 10 NBA Point Guards Of All Time. While Gregg Popovich and his brilliant system deserve a lot of the credit, Tony is a Finals MVP and is a multiple NBA champion who deserves to be recognised for his role in the legendary Spurs dynasty. He has no All-Defensive team accolades, because those werent introduced until the 1968-1969 season. He picked up a complicated system almost immediately, and the Bulls were consistently a better defense with Hinrich on the court, in large part because of how well he understood the system. Rose is arguably the most athletic point guard in the league, though Russell Westbrook could present a challenge. Probably the most versatile point guard in NBA history, and perhaps a tad underrated given that the focus on his assists overshadowed how valuable his defense was. When the pick gets set, he just hurls into it and uses the momentum of the bounce to send him in the right direction. Did they get pushed around easily? The most pure and one of the best point guards and playmakers in NBA History is John Stockton. His quick feet give him tremendous lateral movement. Congratulations, Brian Roberts! Here he is. The ripple effect of that was that every single Bull had a worse defensive rating with Boozer than when playing with Gibson. -- Doolittle, Perhaps someday Paul will reach the conference finals and we can focus more on his incredible accomplishments as a scorer, distributor and defender and less on his teams' inability to turn them into deep playoff runs. While he does benefit from help defense, its not as often as you might think. Williams tends to play defense, but he only seems to do the minimum. And I never saw him go in the wrong direction, not once. For that reason, subjective analysis was also included. The true driving force of his partnership with Karl Malone. That all-around game made Kidd one of the league's top point guards for nearly 20 years. READ ALSO: James Harden's age: stats, contract, family, dating, net worth in 2022 and more. Players have a difficult time getting past him. -- Adande, Possessed incredible court vision and creativity, all while orchestrating the frenetic game pace of his era. Dennis Johnson. It is really hard to say anything about Lowrys help defense. West became synonymous with brilliant basketball during his 14-year playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Just telling your players to play harder and close out on threes isnt a real system. I actually looked for him to do it and couldnt find it. Having said that, he does play team defense, too, and he is part of the team. During the 1960-1961 season, the then-32-year-old Cousy racked up 6.3 DWS, the most in his career. While blocks and steals can be misleading when taken to exclusively represent defense, they are an aspect of it, so they shouldnt be discounted entirely. In fact, its probably the most important thing. Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Players like Rose, Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving consistently cross him over and get past him. It tracks the production of a players counterpart while he is on the court. J.A. It is the same with his mental engagement in the game. He has a high basketball IQ, and he has that veteran savvy thing going for him, too. Sometimes his teammates bailed him out; sometimes the shot just didnt go in. Point guard from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America 3 Jason Kidd Point guard from California, United States of America 4 Walt Frazier Point guard from Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America 5 Dennis Johnson 6 Fat Lever Point guard and Shooting guard from Pine Bluff, Arkansas load more The other thing thats surprising about Rondo with his size is how well he fights over picks. An indication of this is the fact that hes had only nine dunks in his career, the last of which was over seven years ago. With the increased emphasis on the deep three, point guards account for a large portion of the league's top scorers. In case you missed it, Jason Kidd was tops on the list with 75.1 DWS, good for 11th all-time. Then again, the limited number of plays may be, in part, due to the fact that hes so hard to post up. Parker is a seasoned point guard who plays the game like a pro. In his 20 seasons, Bryant. Why not a normal scale of one to 10? He works well within a system where there are no real defensive weaknesses. The greater problem is how easily he gets disrupted on pick-and-roll defense. Oscar is the first triple-double king and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time, no matter what position he is playing. However, he tends to play soft at times against the pick-and-roll, tending to rely on his quickness when he could muscle through a pick quicker. No one was a better passer than him. Phoenix Suns (1996-98, 2004-12), Dallas Mavericks (1998-2004), Los Angeles Lakers (2012-15), Honors How hard do they fight through them? As a result, he rarely gets tangled up with the pick-setter. He tends to be beaten off the dribble more often than he should be, considering his physical advantages, but he also uses his physical ability to recover when he is beaten. It is akin to the blind men and the elephant in the Indian fable adapted to a poem by John Godfrey Saxe. The problem is that sometimes players are so inept, they skew the stats of other players. None of them qualified based on the 1,200 minutes, so their stats from 2012 were used instead. MVP (2014-15), two-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection, Career stats As a result, hes been a member of the All-Defensive 1st Team four times and a member of the All-Defensive 2nd Team five times. When he was off the ball, it was spectacular. 18.7 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 9.9 APG, 2.3 SPG, The player Thats just simply not true, and any amount of watching him play will verify that. Its because Griffin and Jordan were on the bench next to him. His wingspan isnt much better at just 64. Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose are the two most physically gifted point guards of their generation, and, as a result, are constantly going to be compared to one another. Two-time MVP (2004-05, 2005-06), eight-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, Career stats Lin is 63 and 200 pounds, which is decent size for a point guard, in the neighborhood of Derrick Rose, Deron Williams and Russell Westbrook. Neither of those is really a criticism of Parker, but its a reality. -- Adams, Thomas was as tough as they come, could score with the best of them (such a sweet stroke) and, make no mistake, was the baddest of the Bad Boys. His Synergy scores are worse than expected, but that appears to be from players just shooting over him more than getting past him. You can find him juggling the ball every Sunday on the field, with FIFA on his PlayStation as the night drill. If he didnt retire at 34, its interesting to see where Cousy could have landed all-time as he averaged 3.8 DWS per season. Its hard to notice his effort, though, because of the consistency with which he gets destroyed. Speed is important; a speedy point guard is better able to create separation and space off the dribble, giving themselves room to work. This proves problematic, especially in isolation, where Williams usually just backs up. Penny is deserving of a much better ranking just because he is such a gifted one. He tends to do the right thing, but then hell do something kind of stupid that makes you wonder what hes thinkingeven if what hes thinking is right. You can almost rate Chalmers improving basketball intelligence by how many times per game he gets yelled at by his superstar teammates. Since its neither, he gets an even score. ALL-TIME #NBARANK, 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11-15 | 16-20 | 21-25, The player I suspect that some of this might be by design, as Holiday bore a leading part of the burden on both ends of the court for his team, so its understandable to a point, but not to the extent I saw. On the one hand, he doesnt seem cogent enough of his surroundings most of the time to really offer any. Overall, hes ninth in steals with 2,207, and Drexlers 49.9 DWS is good for 45th all-time. "The Logo" Jerry West was an NBA Champion, a 14 time All-Star, ten time All-NBA First team selection, four time All-Defensive team selection, NBA scoring champion and an NBA assist leader. Johnson is widely recognized as one of the all-time great point guards, particularly for his defense. Coming over as a 25-year-old rookie, Ginobili only had two seasons where he had fewer than one steal per game and he averaged 1.3 steals for his career. The NBA's best European guard, Tony Parker, monopolised opposing backcourt players with speed and agility, a tight crossover, and a gorgeous tear-drop floater in the lane. -- J.A. Jeremy Lin is not one of the faster point guards in the NBA, and hes not particularly quick either. Thats helped him amass 47.3 DWS, 56th overall. Sometimes that happens, but not all that often. Perhaps if hes in shoes and standing on a milk crate filled with milk, thats true. Considering his challenges with speed, he did reasonably well with the pick-and-roll, again because of his size and strength to fight through picks. 19.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 11.2 APG, .520 FG%, The player Our booby prize winner is pictured above. Steph's ball-handling abilities make him a lethal ball-handler, as he can shake a defender at any time. Although Stockton accumulated numerous All-NBA nods, he only made the All-Defensive 2nd Team five times. Scouting isnt the same as just watching games. Some players with tremendous athleticism just dont apply it on both ends of the court. On the other hand, hes not tremendously athletic. Its difficult to have a perfect rating system thats entirely objective, and even more difficult to have a realistic one that is purely subjective. He lifted the Lakers, and transition basketball, to ethereal levels. -- Pelton, If he had played with The Mailman or a defense as stout as the Pistons, he might have made a couple of Finals by now. Hes only 63, which is relatively good size for a point guard, but he just seems bigger. To say he gets pushed around would be generous. While hes able to keep himself from getting pushed around when point guards, or even shooting guards, try and post up on him, hes not able to dig through picks the way the other three are. In other words, giving up 15 points to Russell Westbrook is much more impressive than giving up 14 to Derek Fisher, but the raw stats dont tell you who was guarding whom. Sometimes, thats just not enough, especially if hes left to guard in isolation, where hes horrid, giving up .92 points per play. 2. Still, hes one of the best point guards of all time, and his stats show that hes a deserved All-Star. When Gibson played with the starters, the Bulls gave up 10 fewer points per 100 possessions. At the very least, he could stab those quick hands of his at some more balls and disrupt the dribble from behind. Since the first time a professional basketball player dribbled a ball, weve seen some of the greatest point guards in history.
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