The point guard is positioned on the perimeter of the play, so as to have the best view of the action. Point guards are often valued more for their assist totals than for their scoring. FOXSports.com - Best all-time point guards at the Wayback Machine (archived July 12, 2005), accessed 2008-02-09 This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 17:58 . While Rose was fairly criticized for not playing hard defensively prior to Thibodeau, that criticism is no longer accurate. It doesnt seem that it would be that impressive if found it. Teams He has no All-Defensive team accolades, because those werent introduced until the 1968-1969 season. Triple Double and for good reason: hes fourth all-time in triple-doubles with 107. As previously stated, he gets the help from Green and Leonard to guard the top point guards. Don't get me wrong: Steph is still the league's best shooter. Kirk Hinrich wasnt the fastest player in the NBA when he came out of college. The Glove is hands down the best defender a the point guard position. He didnt have an eye-popping number, but he was in the top 25 percent of players there. Though he had a relatively short career he only played 13 seasons his 50.4 DWS is 44th overall. 14.3 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 8.5 APG, .428 3P%, The player Bledsoes defensive numbers would be far worse if he werent getting helped out by Odom all the time. Los Angeles Lakers (1979-91, 1995-96), Honors I like to compare it to the relationship between a foundation and a house. If youre not interested in that, feel free to skip ahead. Lin plays with consistent effort on defense, but hes stuck in fourth gear. He does all those little things that dont show up in box scores. He does add a lot, but its not frenetic, its just frantic. Penny is deserving of a much better ranking just because he is such a gifted one. MVP (1956-57), 13-time All-Star, 12-time All-NBA selection, Hall of Fame, Championships Both figures can be obtained by going to any players team page and then clicking on the appropriate name. Scouting isnt the same as just watching games. Bing, despite having one of his eyes injured, was an attacking force to be reckoned with. Since the first time a professional basketball player dribbled a ball, weve seen some of the greatest point guards in history. As a result, hes 17th all-time with 1944 and had six seasons in the top-20 in steals. Thats because they can spend all their energy quickly, while starters have to pace themselves. 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. -- Pelton, No player his size, 6-foot-3, has ever bent defenses to his will as Curry does. Getting paired with Tom Thibodeau has made it even better. Williams needs to have a bit of a paradigm shift in the direction of team defense. The "Big O" was capable of doing it all. Per NBA.com/STATS, the Clippers were almost 10 points per 100 possessions better defensively while Lamar Odom was on the court instead of DeAndre Jordan, yet Paul was on the court three times as much with Jordan as Odom. He also has such superior court awareness that most picks dont catch him squarely, and he just glides over them. What he offers goes beyond the court. He tends to rely on his speed to compensate for his lack of mass. His low foul rate of 4.5 percent is another indication that hes adept at getting into position quickly. He had the second-best defensive rating in the NBA. By taking the total number of plays and the total number of minutes (regular and postseason combined, because Synergy just throws it all together) we can determine how many times per 36 minutes a player was the initial defender on the play. Another major evaluation factor is the assist-to-turnover ratio, which reflects the decision-making skills of the player. Honors: 7x All-Star, 3x All-NBA Selection, 1966-1967 Rookie of the Year, 1967-1968 Scoring Champion, Hall of Famer. Conley correctly identified the defender who was out of position, showing intelligence, but stupidly ignored that his man had the ball and an accurate jump shot. Pun intended. The Clippers never quite seemed to have a true defensive identity, even if they were improved. They have value when there arent such extremes like the difference between Boozer and Gibson. It is a testament to Jarrett Jack that he makes this list. Does he pick up his man when switched? Hes pouring out effort every minute hes on the court. Even when he has to go under the pick, which is most of the time, hes so fast that hes able to close the distance before the ball-handler has time to do something with it. You can look at why things happen and offset the misleading things. His 48.8 DWS is 48th all-time and the fourth most by a point guard. Why did you choose such a weird number scale? Even though hes been injured a lot, Paul is averaging over two steals a game for his career. Those are the questions I was looking to answer. A point guard specializes in certain skills, like other player positions in basketball. For the purpose of this study, 82games was used because the net defensive rating was also easily available and it made for consistency. He could launch it from 30 feet or more with ease. Coaches are responsible for developing young players, and it would have been fun to watch him grow under Doc Rivers. Sometimes, measurables dont tell the whole story. Finally, both are improving on the defensive side of the ball. Players Stats: 17.7 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 8.2 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.1 BPG, Honors: 5x All-Star, 5x All-NBA Selection. He has decent size for a point guard, at 63 but he doesnt have much of a vertical: 28.5.. ESPN ranked the Top 10 PGs of all time & they have @iamisiahthomas ranked 5th. He does those things; he just doesnt do them very hard. Probably no point guard in the league does a better job of recovering defensively than Rose does. Players Stats: 18.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 9.5 APG, 2.2 SPG, 0.1 BPG, Honors: 10x All-Stars, 8x All-NBA Selection, 2005-2006 Rookie of the Year, 9x All-Defensive Team Selection. 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. All the other tools and effort can be rendered useless by a little stupidity. He gets a higher score here than he technically deserves because he tries so hard. Even point guards who are not given this much freedom, however, are still extensions of their coach on the floor and must display good leadership skills. "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. His net defensive rating of minus-7.7, combined with his lack of a defensively-solid backup big, is a strong indication of his value as a help defender. That makes him eligible for inclusion on this list of best point guards. 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. 18.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 6.1 APG, .490 FG%, The player 25. Point guards are expected to be vocal floor leaders. What is the difference between WAM and WAMS? Hell overshoot passing lanes, gambling for the steal. 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. If theres a weakness, though, its that when he comes up against the elite offensive point guards, he will get beaten in isolation. Paul was able to keep you at bay on one side of the court while dominating the other with his scoring and passing abilities. Because Derrick Rose was the NBAs youngest MVP in 2009, its unfortunate that the guy isnt higher on this list. Each of these has its own value, and those specifics will be discussed more on the next slide. Jrue Holiday. Chasing down balls, hell reach from behind and disrupt the dribble. 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. His helter-skelter wizziness has him flying around the court, and sometimes its good. However, who are the all-time top point guards? 'Whatever seed we are, we're ready': Is there room for Cleveland among the East elite? In fact, no drafted guard has ever measured a worse sprint, vertical and agility test. Ergo, a negative number is a positive thing, and a positive number is a negative thing. Dennis Johnson. Dr. A's weekly risers and fallers: Jeremy Sochan, Christian Wood make the list, NBA Power Rankings: Kevin Durant's return could rock the West, What NBA Finals runs from LeBron, Giannis can teach Jayson Tatum, They said it! The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. Great size made him impossible for most. -- Adande, Nash is the only player in history to go 50-40-90 while averaging 10 assists per game. There are times where he makes a bone-headed gamble and loses, trying to get the extra steal, but thats about the only flaw there is with him mentally. Rob Peterson is an NBA editor for ESPN.com. Thats good for 14th all-time in NBA history and he also had 10 seasons in the top 20 for steals per game. Its amazing he doesnt get punched sometimes. -- Pelton, So precise with his passes and timely with his shots. He is going to get beaten, without question. He just doesnt have the length to effectively guard against them. Tony Parker is one of the fastest players in the league if youre going by pure speed. Cincinnati Royals (1960-70), Milwaukee Bucks (1970-74), Honors He uses quickness to capably guard the perimeter, but thats in large part because hes not always defending the elite point guards. Hinrich has a bit more going for him in terms of size. When hes not getting wrapped up, he plays the pick-and-roll well. He has the speed to get there, but not the length to disrupt the shot once he does. Players Stats: 15.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.3 BPG, Honors: 5x All-Star, 5x All-NBA Selection, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 5x All-Defensive Selection, Hall of Famer. 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. At 63, with a wingspan of almost 68, he has decent size. Rondo likes to do this chest bump thing where he meets the opponent past the half-court line and just bumps his chest into him repeatedly. Players Stats: 18.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 6.1 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.2 BPG, Honors: 7x All-Stars, 6x All-NBA Selection, 7x All-Defensive Team Selection, Hall of Famer. He applies every bit of failing athleticism he has all the time. Its possible for Nash to be the whole offense and to shoot 50-40-90 from the field on a continuous basis. Wayne Gretzky on the court, Nash could hurt opponents by getting rid of the ball quickly or by holding on to it for so long that the defense finally made a mistake. Nate Archibald 14. The only thing keeping Thomas off this list is his brief career by star standards. He was a master at leading the fastbreak, which led to Celtics titles. You cant say that Westbrook doesnt try on defense, but you can say he doesnt show consistent effort on defense. He could play any spot on the court as well. Went from dominating games strictly with his passing to making the fifth-most 3-pointers in NBA history. Exceptions were made for Derrick Rose, Danny Granger, Andrew Bynum and Kevin Love because they have all been All-Star players, and all are still, at least by age, in their prime. The strength of this is that it shows what the other player does offensively. He joined the NBA in 1960 and quickly established himself, averaging 30.5 points per game and winning Rookie of the Year.