25.7 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 9.5 APG, .485 FG%, The player The values for the various metrics which comprised the WAM score and scouting scores are also available on each slide. He finished the game with the most career postseason points and the highest average in a playoff series. Theres a running debate over the relative importance of stats versus watching. Stats tell you what happened, but you cant know why it happened unless you watch. The best way to track how effective a player is on the defensive end is by looking at their cumulative defensive win shares. He fights through picks, going over them when he can and under them when he cant. We compiled a list of the top 15 point guards of all time using wholly subjective metrics from the list of active players and a few other legends. In the past, this was particularly true, as several point guards such as Lenny Wilkens served their teams as player coaches. Despite his little size, he made up for it offensively by being lightning fast and had the whole attacking package. Chris Paul is widely considered to be one of the best point guards of the 2010s. Rushmore of greatest postseason performances in league history. Lowry is neither big nor strong, and he does little with what size he has. Players have a difficult time getting past him. Dennis Johnson. On Wednesday, we will have the top 10 shooting guards of all time, followed by small forwards, power forwards and centers. Curry has won three NBA championships and cemented his status as the finest shooter in NBA history since becoming a superstar and two-time MVP. On the other, he so rarely allows his opponent to get past him that he doesnt need to rely on it either. That earned him the nickname Mr. Greatest NBA point guards of all-time: Where Russell - Sportsnaut They were combined and adjusted to cover a range roughly between 18 and 22. Lee Rose has described a point guard as a coach on the floor, who can handle and distribute the ball to teammates. The reason teams run so much pick-and-roll is that it works. Stockton embodied a true point guard - an extension of the coach that ran the team's offense seamlessly. 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. Dennis Rodman 4. David Robinson 6. He sometimes gets tangled up and left hopelessly out of the play. On the other hand, no matter how solid the foundation is, you cant move into it. Wilt Chamberlain 14. After ball-handling, the most important areas of the game for a point guard are passing and scoring. He gambles too much, and that often gets him caught out of the play. 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. It is the same with his mental engagement in the game. Because of his combination of length, speed and jumping ability, Rose has become an excellent team defender against the jump shot. Over 90 percent of the time, the ball-handler gets by him. Jeremy Lin is not one of the faster point guards in the NBA, and hes not particularly quick either. As a result, he rarely gets tangled up with the pick-setter. In fact, no drafted guard has ever measured a worse sprint, vertical and agility test. He plays way too far off the ball, supposedly so he wont get beaten, but since he perpetually gets beaten like a drum anyway, why not play closer up so he can at least do a better job of defending the jump shot? You cant build a house first, and then pour the foundation underneath it. Johnson is widely recognized as one of the all-time great point guards, particularly for his defense. Its more than that. You dont get the sense in watching him that theres a point of pride in it. The Case For: Upper-tier defender (9x All Defensive Team, including 4 First Team selections). Triple Double and for good reason: hes fourth all-time in triple-doubles with 107. He also defends well against post-up plays, yielding just .54 points per play, although thats on an admittedly small 17-play sample size. He manages to defend the pick-and-roll reasonably well by doing something I can only call bouncing over picks. At 61 and 171 pounds, Rondo is pretty small by NBA standards, but he plays much tougher than his size. He has the speed to get there, but not the length to disrupt the shot once he does. Even players like Derek Fisher will hang him up and then hit him with the step-back. He affected the paradigm for overseas guards trying to break into the NBA. This is a necessity because of the point guard's many leadership obligations. Magic Johnson won the National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award three times in his career. If he tends to be the helped, he gets a worse score. Players Stats: 19.2 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 9.3 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.3 BPG, Honors: 1989-1990 Finals MVP, 12x All-Star, 5x All-NBA Selection, Hall of Famer. His defensive usage was the highest of any player with at least 1,200 minutes. When they do, he gets tangled up pretty badly; it happens so rarely, though, youd think he had eyes in the back of his head. Bob Cousy Bettman/Getty Images. To create All-Time #NBArank, we put together a ballot with the 150 greatest players ever. Eventually, you need to form an opinion about why not just know what. Pass-first points of the past have given way to dynamic creators who can score as well as set up teammates. If you just look at his measurables, Chris Paul is not impressive. Stats dont tell the whole story and our eyes often only confirm what we already know. If theres a weakness, though, its that when he comes up against the elite offensive point guards, he will get beaten in isolation. He also has such superior court awareness that most picks dont catch him squarely, and he just glides over them. The next three slides will tell how this particular sausage was made. -- Tom Haberstroh, NBA writer, No guard in NBA history pulled down more rebounds than Kidd, who finished with more career rebounds than Willis Reed and Alonzo Mourning, among others. Penny Hardaway was well recognized for his relationship with Shaquille ONeal when he was only a kid. Kirk Hinrich wasnt the fastest player in the NBA when he came out of college. He also only has a 65 wingspan, which is short of the other bigger point guards, but what he has, he uses well. But one in 20 is egregiously bad.). Adapting your system to every opponent and knowing their nuances is understandable. Isaiah Thomas 5. Of course having book smarts doesnt preclude you from knowing what youre doing on the court either. It is startling to see the regularity with which opponents blow past Deron Williams. Hes not going to get beaten back, and he doesnt give up in transition. 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. Here he is. Even his athletic scores dont indicate greatness. What he gives up at the point of attack, he makes up for with his team defense. All pre-draft measurements were obtained from the database hosted on Draft Express. He has decent size for a point guard, at 63 but he doesnt have much of a vertical: 28.5.. It doesnt seem that it would be that impressive if found it. Some will just hang around waiting for the play to end, but Jack keeps track of his man and also helps if its needed. The 3 Best NBA Defenders At Every Position For The 2022-23 Season The other metrics help alleviate the extremes because they also indicate what a players personal defense does. Archibald was the first player in league history to lead the league in both points scored and assists, making him a one-man offense. His 48.8 DWS is 48th all-time and the fourth most by a point guard. But hes just not very strong. As a result, hes been a member of the All-Defensive First Team four times and a member of the All-Defensive Second Team five times. He didnt have an eye-popping number, but he was in the top 25 percent of players there. You need to build something on it. He still struggles against the spot-up, though, because of issues that will be addressed later. WAM is purely objective. Probably no point guard in the league does a better job of recovering defensively than Rose does. Hes one of the slower point guards in the league now, but in spite of that, hes almost ubiquitous at times. What is the difference between WAM and WAMS? His contributions won him a spot on the NBA All-Time 50th Anniversary Team. -- J.A. He is easily one of the physically weaker players in the league, even for his position. The classic definition of a point guard, orchestrating offense and shooting when necessary. 20 greatest point guards ever: The HoopsHype list | HoopsHype Watching Parker play defense for a while, particularly zooming in on the pick-and-roll plays, his impressive court awareness stands out. 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. It will be interesting to see how well he does with Larry Sanders behind him in Milwaukee. He needs more of the former and less of the latter. A 12-time All-Defensive Team selection, a nine-time 1st team All-Defense and three-time 2nd team All-Defense, Bryant's 50.6 DWS ranks him 43rd overall. The Clippers were 10 points better with Lamar Odom on the court than DeAndre Jordan according to NBA.com/STATS. Exploiting the fact that the opposing point guard is often an undersized player with limited strength, several modern point guards have developed games close to the basket that include being able to utilize the drop step, spin move, and fade away jump shot. In essence, hes athletic enough to do a respectable job of what hes asked to do. Our booby prize winner is pictured above. Because they each feel a different thing, an argument arises as to who is right. Chris Paul fell into the same kind of trap last season. However his brilliant and consistent team defense team keeps passing lanes secure and helps prevent a lot of plays from developing the way they normally would. While Rose was fairly criticized for not playing hard defensively prior to Thibodeau, that criticism is no longer accurate. Therefore, its a Theoretically Asked Questions, or TAQ. Closing out on jumpers is an issue, especially when coming off screens, where he yields a 46.7 shooting percentage from the three-point line. He does those things; he just doesnt do them very hard. If a player tends to be the helper, he gets a better score. Perhaps if hes in shoes and standing on a milk crate filled with milk, thats true. Gary Payton 12. There are some serious contenders in Steve Nash and Walter Frazier, so hell have to settle for fourth place in the race. These were calculated using the raw stats available on any site carrying basic stats. He doesnt use the shortest angles when running under picks, but he takes path of least resistance instead. 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. Fairly straightforward, this takes into account height, length and strength. He led the NBA in scoring in only his second season, 1967-68, with 27.1 points per game. LeBron James, the best player in the NBA, is also the league's best point guard. Some players get caught out of place, but they know theyre out of place. They average the number of points a player gives up when he is the initial defender, and this is represented by defensive points per play. Can they play bigger than they really are? Dikembe Mutombo 7. Let me remind everyone, young and old, I played against @iamisiahthomas when he was hurt & hobbling on one leg and @iamisiahthomas still scored 25 points in one quarter in the NBA Finals! One of the great conundrums in rating defense is that teammates factor into it. Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Over the last decade, the best point guards such as Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, and others have dominated the position. Its frustrating watching Holiday play because when he gets out of position, it doesnt appear that its because hes caught out of position in the sense that he doesnt know where to be. Why did you choose such a weird number scale? Then again, the limited number of plays may be, in part, due to the fact that hes so hard to post up. Who's the best offensive point guard of all time? More explosive and athletic point guards focus on scoring as opposed to play-making, forgoing assists and ball-movement, and often defense, for higher scoring numbers. Gary Payton. Robertson's offensive ability transformed the point guard stereotype from a passer and floor general to a scorer and offensive weapon. A point guard should know when and how to instigate a fast break and when and how to initiate the more deliberate sets. Top 5 Defensive Point Guards in NBA History - Basketball Articles In recent years, the sport's shift from a fundamental style of play to a more athletic, scoring-oriented game resulted in the proliferation of so-called combo guards at the point guard position. To create All-Time #NBArank, we put together a ballot with the 150 greatest players ever. Notable point guards of the WNBA include five-time champion Sue Bird, her Olympic teammate Diana Taurasi (the only two basketball players of either gender to earn five Olympic gold medals for basketball[1]) and Courtney Vandersloot. This score is to help alleviate that. On top of that, when Parkers man slips past him, he has one of the best defenders in the history of the universe, Tim Duncan, to help him out. Los Angeles Lakers late legend Kobe Bryant is often considered the greatest Laker ever and with good reason: Bryant is first in many of the Lakers statistical categories. Ergo, a negative number is a positive thing, and a positive number is a negative thing. It is akin to the blind men and the elephant in the Indian fable adapted to a poem by John Godfrey Saxe. Jerry West, one of the greatest point guards in NBA history, combines a lethal jump shot, tenacious defence, obsessive perfectionism, unwavering confidence, and an unwavering will to win. 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 He had unusual strength for his size, quick feet, elite hands, and timing to help him hold down opponents one-on-one and rack up steals. Even though Payton only played a little part in 2006, the Heats success would not have been possible without his defensive presence and leadership. Bledsoe repeatedly got beatenmuch more frequently than Paulyet Odom consistently had his back, blocking or altering shots. Sometimes, all that the on/off stats tell you is the difference between two players that play the same position. His offensive style has been revamped to incorporate a powerful mid-range jumper along with some range as well. -- Pelton, Today's children will ask, "Who was the Steph Curry before Steph Curry?" And I never saw him go in the wrong direction, not once. NBA History: Ranking the Greatest Guards Ever - Bleacher Report They say that defense is mostly about effort. Whats remarkable is how quickly he gets to the shooter and gets a hand in his face, even if its all the way to the corner three and the shooter is setting when Rose takes off. I counted off over 20 plays, specifically watching to see if Chalmers would stop the ball-handler, and he only did once. His on-court coaching and leadership is probably the biggest reason the Clippers had the eighth most-efficient defense in the NBA last year. There is no doubt about it: Steph Curry is the second-best in the top 10 point guards of all time. If you are a basketball freak, you might be interested in knowing about NBA and other Best Basketball Leagues in the World. After years of being sidelined by ailments, the grandeur that should have been his was snatched from him. Similarly, while each of the advanced and/or traditional metrics has value, each also misses something. Phoenix Suns (1996-98, 2004-12), Dallas Mavericks (1998-2004), Los Angeles Lakers (2012-15), Honors It also helps him to have the second-most defensive plays per 36 minutes of any of the point guards on this list. Some point guards are still given a great deal of leeway in the offense. Parker is a seasoned point guard who plays the game like a pro. The biggest reason appears to be a fundamental one. He doesnt cheat in either direction, though. Holiday has ample size for a point guard, standing a shade over 64 in shoes, and weighing in at 205 pounds. There's no way Stockton & Curry are better than Isiah. His foot speed is as good as anyone's in the league, and you cant measure that. The perimeter player gets rewarded statistically for what the center did, even though he actually played shoddy defense. Boston Celtics (1950-1963), Cincinnati Royals (1969-70), Honors Lennys passing and leadership on the floor were solid, but he also had a few great scoring years on the court. Opponents dont have much success getting around him. He yields a whopping 41.5 three-point percentage on the spot-up, which is just not good. Top 50 Point Guards of All-Time: Magic, The Big O and Curry top the List Williams needs to do a better job of forcing opponents out of the middle and into the strong side of his defense, but he tends to fall straight back instead, letting them into the lane, which allows for easy scores. Those are the questions I was looking to answer. He also plays through to the end of the play when his man doesnt have the ball, which is not something you see all point guards do. He always picks up on the switch. Best Point Guard Defensive Rating 2022 | StatMuse Luka Doncic had the lowest defensive rating by a point guard in 2021-22, with a 106.5 rating. Michael Cooper was a great defensive guard, evident when he won the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award in 1987, and James Worthy is a top-ten Small Forward of all-time and was one of the . When it comes to intangibles, Chris Paul is the elite point guard in the league. Scottie Pippen 5. This proves problematic, especially in isolation, where Williams usually just backs up. The facts need to come first. Chauncey Billups, or Mr. The problem is that sometimes players are so inept, they skew the stats of other players. He has the most assists and steals of any player in NBA history and is a master of the pick & roll. For each of the following metrics, click on the subhead to be taken to the source website for more details. For all the hammering Im doing on Chalmers, it remains true that the Heat are better with him on the court than off of it, but its questionable if thats because hes on it. This can cause other players to become disinvolved in the offense. As previously stated, he gets the help from Green and Leonard to guard the top point guards. 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. When defending the isolation play, he gives up a nauseating .94 points per play, a strong indication of that. Stockton is one of the greatest assist players in NBA history, if not the greatest. He routinely gets blistered in isolation (.93 points per play), fails to close out well on shooters and lags when coming off of screens. Hes able to stay in front of all but the quickest point guards in the league. (As an aside, in the slides, you will only see the original metric value, not the weighted number to determine the WAM. Oscar Robertson was one of the NBA's greatest players in history. Del Negro just worried about the matchup without ever developing a true defensive system or identity with the Clippers. That Paul was able to keep the Clippers on track through much of the season with the ever-changing defensive schemes the team had is pretty miraculous. Thomas was ultra-quick with the ball and, at any moment, could pull up for a deadly jump shot. Refusing to back down because youre afraid of being put on a poster is a good thing, not a bad thing. If the team gives up more points while hes on the court, thats bad. -- Adams, Honors When he tries, Lowry can be a solid defensive player, but that whole when he tries qualifier is pretty significant. Honors: 7x All-Star, 3x All-NBA Selection, 1966-1967 Rookie of the Year, 1967-1968 Scoring Champion, Hall of Famer. First, a range of 18 to 22 makes it easier to arrive at the eventual score of 100the baseline everything was weighted to. Current NBA point guards known for their defensive prowess include Jrue Holiday, Mike Conley Jr., Marcus Smart, and Chris Paul. NBA top 15 point guard rankings for 2021-22: Stephen Curry sits at No Hes able to use that size advantage by being physical, playing close and aggressive, often forcing shooters into shots they arent comfortable taking. Hes not just ordinary quick, either; hes pesky-quick, with fast hands that dart in and take the ball out of the ball-handler's dribble with alarming frequency.
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