The problem is he doesnt use that height or strength as well as youd like to see. I gave Paul the highest possible score here to offset the total ineptness of the coaching staff, and the frontcourt help he got last season, but he would have a high score regardless. In the last entry, we focused on the five best defensive NBA point guards of all time. There is no doubt about it: Steph Curry is the second-best in the top 10 point guards of all time. Players Stats: 12.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 8.7 APG, 1.9 SPG, 0.3 BPG, Honors: 10x All-Star, 6x All-NBA Selection, 1994-1995 Rookie of the Year, 9x All-Defensive Team Selection, Hall of Famer. Once he had the ball on the fastbreak, The Flash was gone. J.A. One of the great conundrums in rating defense is that teammates factor into it. Scouting isnt the same as just watching games. In fact, its probably the most important thing. He has two ways of guarding the isopray for help or flop. 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. 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. Nash's sideways speed and power will be non-existent at some age, allowing for constant dribble. He arguably powers through picks better than any point guard in the league. He was an All-Star every year of his career and led the Lakers to nine NBA Finals appearances. He seemed to keep ahead of the play, moving to the next rotation a fraction of a second before the play even developed in that direction. This is to avoid confusion if you want to go to the original source.). Passing skills, ball handling, and court vision are crucial. 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. Knight doesnt always recognize the help situations, but when he does, he is usually effective. He has the most assists and steals of any player in NBA history and is a master of the pick & roll. 3. He was second among point guards in defensive rebounds per 36 minutes. Hes not as horrible as some people would make it sound. The five-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection has averaged more than 24 points per game since being drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2012. Jeremy Lin is not one of the faster point guards in the NBA, and hes not particularly quick either. His offensive style has been revamped to incorporate a powerful mid-range jumper along with some range as well. See the criteria for scouting on the next slide. Here are the answers to some questions readers are likely to have. His net defensive rating of 4.2 is an indication of both a lack of his helping and asking for help. Players Stats: 16.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.2 BPG, Honors: 9x All-Stars, 9x All-NBA Selection, 1990-1991 Rookie of the Year, 9x All-Defensive Team Selection, 1995-1996 Defensive Player of the Year, Hall of Famer. Is he an effective flopper? James Harden's age: stats, contract, family, dating, net worth in 2022 and more. The official cause of death of Flashdance singer Irene Cara has been determined. Kyle Lowry has exceptional speed and athleticism. You can look at why things happen and offset the misleading things. Williams needs to have a bit of a paradigm shift in the direction of team defense. One of basketballs most dynamic and versatile point guards in the modern era. Not Paul. 7-time All-Star, 6-time All-NBA selection, 7-time All-D selection, Hall of Fame, Career stats Frequently, teams would set the screen, and the point guard would just step behind the three-point line while Holiday was still underneath it (often all the way into the center of the lane) and drain wide-open treys. Over 90 percent of the time, the ball-handler gets by him. Trail Blazers playoff failures have been a major blemish on both his game and his career so far. The weakness is that it also includes some of what the other player does defensively, (e.g.. blocks, steals, and defensive rebounds). Many remember Ginobili for his offense, but he was also a capable defender. Hes the closest thing in the world to Kevin Garnetts Mini-Me. Despite the fact that hes just 35, he has a limited amount of time left. When the pick gets set, he just hurls into it and uses the momentum of the bounce to send him in the right direction. It seems so much of Conley is either there or not there; you get it or you dont get it. Watts Van Lier Frazier Price Ward Bing White Buckner Walker Kidd Hollins Williams Cleamons Bibby Porter Buse Snow McMillan Tinsley Armstrong Knight Carter 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 97.4 97.6 98.1 99.6 99.9 100.4 100.9 101.1 101.5 101 . He manages to defend the pick-and-roll reasonably well by doing something I can only call bouncing over picks. Players Stats: 14.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.6 BPG, Honors: 1978-1979 Finals MVP, 5x All-Star, 9x All-Defense Selection, 2x All-NBA Team Selection, Hall of Famer. 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 . He was born on March 23, 1973. If the team gives up more points while hes on the court, thats bad. Here he is. Rob Peterson is an NBA editor for ESPN.com. 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. That being said, Joakim Noah was frequently required to bail him out of trouble. 76ers vs. He also used his incredible basketball IQ to steal the ball and defend at a high level. Ranking 50 Greatest Point Guards in NBA History Photo Gallery | NBA.com Teams G League WNBA BAL NBA 2K NBA Store NBA League Pass Tickets Schedule Team News Gameday Youth Basketball Shop. Overall, he is more of a gives-help defender than a needs-help defender. Is that because Chalmers is a better team defender or is it because Cole isnt on the court with James as much? Six blind men all go to see an elephant which they'venever encountered before. David Robinson 6. Not only is Damian Lillard one of the most exciting players in the game today, he makes a strong case as one of the best point guards in NBA history. Photos: Top 10 NBA Point Guards Of All Time. Its hard to notice his effort, though, because of the consistency with which he gets destroyed. Thats where we naturally focus our attention, so when it comes to things like help defense, we only notice if were looking for it, or if its extreme. All rights reserved. I like to compare it to the relationship between a foundation and a house. But he never does. He could be better than he is, but its hard to blame only him. Players Stats: 18.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 7.4 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.1 BPG, Honors: 6x All-Star, 5x All-NBA Selection, 1972-1973 Scoring Champion, Hall of Famer. He doesnt cheat in either direction, though. Of course, sometimes his opponent scored, too. When he gets set for a defensive play, he does a respectable job. Think: Dennis Rodman. Chris Paul is widely considered to be one of the best point guards of the 2010s. Kawhi Leonard 11. One conundrum has always been how to account for who is guarding the best player on the other team. Most of those come for one of two reasons: Either he bites on the fake and is too slow to recover, or the shooter shoots over him and he doesnt have the ups to challenge it. Those are the questions I was looking to answer. Thats rarely going to be because of a mental error, though. When he was at his peak, Rose was one of the greatest point guards of all time, and he merits a spot in the top 15. Despite his little size, he made up for it offensively by being lightning fast and had the whole attacking package. A point guard will often use their ability to score in order to augment their effectiveness as a decision-maker and playmaker. Nate Archibald 14. He thinks hes the biggest man on the court. When you look at his on/off numbers, you expect that hed be a solid help defender, but you dont see much evidence of that. Whenever anyone imagines a point guard, chances are theyre thinking of Utah Jazz legend John Stockton. Getting paired with Tom Thibodeau has made it even better. Thats 20th all-time, with Kidd being the only other guard above him. Speed is important; a speedy point guard is better able to create separation and space off the dribble, giving themselves room to work. As a result, opponents shot 42.9 percent from deep against him in the pick-and-roll. Then our ESPN expert panel voted on thousands of head-to-head matchups, with voting based on both peak performance and career value. On Detroits 2004 NBA championship squad, he led the likes of Rip Hamilton, Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace to victory over the LA Lakers superteam. Whether you like him or not (and I personally dont), you have to respect that he plays the game as hard as it can be played. His helter-skelter wizziness has him flying around the court, and sometimes its good. He surpassed the achievements of every other guard in NBA history, except Russell Westbrooks achievements. Rondos lack of a need for help defense allows Garnett to help more elsewhere. He is going to get beaten, without question. While he was doing that, Billups, who actually had the ball the whole time, just stepped back behind the three-point line and drained the three. There was always that kid in high school or college who tried so hard to get decent grades. On the other hand, no matter how solid the foundation is, you cant move into it. -- Haberstroh, Teams -- Pelton. For example, in the clutch, with the Rockets engaged in a playoff run, the team locked up in a tight battle with the San Antonio Spurs and the score close with less than five minutes remaining, Lin consistently showed the same 90 percent effort he always shows. He also only has a 65 wingspan, which is short of the other bigger point guards, but what he has, he uses well. As the primary decision-maker for a team, a point guard's passing ability determines how well a point guard is able to put their decision into play. He bulls through picks well and is not afraid to go over them. If he had just a little more strength and could get through the screens just a tad bit quicker, then that ground could be eaten up ever so fractionally sooner, and he would be able to have that smidgen of success needed to effectively challenge those three-point shots. Despite the fact that he was unable to win an NBA championship, his charisma and dribbling prowess will never be forgotten. -- Peterson, He's one of only a few players in history who has been deemed too good for the sport's own good. He falls into his rotations smoothly. After ball-handling, the most important areas of the game for a point guard are passing and scoring. Westbrooks Synergy numbers on the pick-and-roll (.75) and isolation (.7) suggest hes better than he actually is. It looked like teams designed plays counting on him being lazy. Copyright 2023 YB Media, LLC. If you just look at his measurables, Chris Paul is not impressive.