best defensive point guards of all time best defensive point guards of all time

Emailed daily. Then, when players pull up and shoot, he doesnt use his length to close and get a hand in the face of the shooter. Refusing to back down because youre afraid of being put on a poster is a good thing, not a bad thing. Its safe to say that Kidd is one of the greatest guards to ever play on the basketball floor. Each fails to realize that they are all right, and that the real answer is in the combination of what they all experienced. 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. He led the NBA in scoring in only his second season, 1967-68, with 27.1 points per game. On the one hand, he doesnt seem cogent enough of his surroundings most of the time to really offer any. 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. No question hell be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and hes one of the greatest rim-attacking players in NBA history. Current NBA point guards known for their defensive prowess include Jrue Holiday, Mike Conley Jr., Marcus Smart, and Chris Paul. What are you crying about lmfao 03 Mar 2023 00:55:09 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. Sometimes hell even rush to defend the wrong guy while his man is draining a wide-open three. Point guards are often valued more for their assist totals than for their scoring. Triple Double was so far ahead of his time in terms of size, speed, strength and stats. The only thing keeping Thomas off this list is his brief career by star standards. The values for the various metrics which comprised the WAM score and scouting scores are also available on each slide. This implies that the point guard serves as an extension of their coach on the court, and he or she is accountable for making the right plays every night. Despite the fact that he was unable to win an NBA championship, his charisma and dribbling prowess will never be forgotten. Holiday knows what to do, but he doesnt always do it. Most players will take a little on-court breather now and then. But only once did he actually truly defend the play. However, he doesnt appear to have the same strength they do. Notably, several modern point guards have used a successful style of post play, a tactic usually practiced by much larger centers and forwards. His score would be much worse if it werent for help defense from Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Chris Andersen frequently coming to his aid. The strength of this is that it shows what the other player does offensively. He has two ways of guarding the isopray for help or flop. ESPN ranked the Top 10 PGs of all time & they have @iamisiahthomas ranked 5th. Hell go flying outside the play, right as his man catches the ball, and then hell not only have to make up that ground, but hell also have to fight through the pick. But mostly he plays smartly with an occasional brain fart. Defensively, Stockton had 3,265 steals the most all time during his 19-year career, helping him get 64.9 DWS. 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. Sometimes he wont give that much effort, and then the next moment hell be trying too hard. Each touches a different part of the elephant, one an ear, another the torso and so on. The Top 100 will begin to roll out next week. It probably tells the accurate story here. -- Adams, An early ballhandling wizard, he was a point guard who was a focal point at a time when the game was dominated by big men. Wilt Chamberlain 14. Because Derrick Rose was the NBAs youngest MVP in 2009, its unfortunate that the guy isnt higher on this list. Its like hes chosen the worst of both worlds. Pun intended. Ultimately, Johnson's unselfishness earned him the title of greatest point guard of all time. Lowry is neither big nor strong, and he does little with what size he has. He doesnt help much, but he doesnt get a lot of help either, so its a bit of a wash. To his credit, he has the best WAM score of any point guard without a great defensive center to back him up. This can cause other players to become disinvolved in the offense. In terms of career statistics and postseason accomplishments, he ranks as the NBAs fourth-best point guard of all time. Players Stats: 24.0 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 6.5 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.3 BPG, Honors: 5x All-Stars, 4x All-NBA Selection, 2012-2013 Rookie of the Year. For each player, I watched between one and two hours of footage of defense, taking account of specific things and grading them in five different areas. And I never saw him go in the wrong direction, not once. 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. Bledsoe runs through his rotations, but he rounds them off or overruns them. He was also an outstanding playmaker and a solid scorer with a strong mid-range game. -- Doolittle, Over the past season and a half, Curry has played point guard as well as anyone else in NBA history. Magic Johnson. Mentally subtract them from the rankings if you feel they shouldn'tbe included. Defensive Points per Play Synergy tracks every play of every game of the season and, when possible (as it is not always possible), they assign an. The classic definition of a point guard, orchestrating offense and shooting when necessary. That said, here are the NBAs five best defensive shooting guards of all-time, based on their DWS. If you just look at his measurables, Chris Paul is not impressive. After ball-handling, the most important areas of the game for a point guard are passing and scoring. Nash was never known as a strong defender, but he was capable of bothering opposing point guards to some extent. He lacks the strength to effectively go over screens consistently, so he has to go under them. Gary Payton 9. He gets a higher score here than he technically deserves because he tries so hard. His high rebound rate, while partly indicative of his speed is also a result of positioning, which relates to his IQ. Stockton embodied a true point guard - an extension of the coach that ran the teams offense seamlessly. Hes able to stay in front of all but the quickest point guards in the league. MVP (1956-57), 13-time All-Star, 12-time All-NBA selection, Hall of Fame, Championships But it seems like Paul is nutmeggingand breaking opposing defenders ankles every game. He does an air-tight job of keeping players out of the perimeter. Rondos lack of a need for help defense allows Garnett to help more elsewhere. All the other tools and effort can be rendered useless by a little stupidity. Thats a strong indication that Rose was not relying on help defense because that same help was there for C.J. Hes controlled in how he plays hard. Either way he chases the ball until he catches it. That said, here are the five best defensive NBA point guards of all time, based on their DWS. Our booby prize winner is pictured above. In addition, Cousy, dubbed "The Houdini of the Hardwood," led the NBA in assists for 8 straight seasons, creating a whole new blend of ball-handling and passing skills for the league. If Williams had more pride in his defense, he would actually ask for, and depend on, help more than he does. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. His Synergy scores are worse than expected, but that appears to be from players just shooting over him more than getting past him. The average score by point guards was 16.1. 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. Although Wade had an accomplished resume, if he had played one more season, he wouldve easily overtaken the next player on the list. The second-highest regulation scoring output of the 3-point era was the culmination . Having said that, he does play team defense, too, and he is part of the team. 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. You need to build something on it. Players Stats: 16.5 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.2 BPG. He was a 13-time NBA All-Star during the early half of the Celtics dynasty, winning six NBA championships during his 13-year tenure with the team. 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. It seems to be down to less than once a game. A point guard needs always to have in mind the times on the shot clock and the game clock, the score, the numbers of remaining timeouts for both teams, etc. Defense is one of the more oft-overlooked aspects of basketball because it isnt as pretty as what happens on the offensive end. And do they try and recover when they get beaten? He finished the game with the most career postseason points and the highest average in a playoff series. 5-on-5: Will Curry pass Magic as best PG ever? Therefore, with a few exceptions, players were only considered if they played at least 1,200 minutes last season (which comes out to around 30 percent of possible minutes). If youre a fan of the TV show Suits, you might agree that Harvey Specter dresses well. Hopefully he can break it. Payton is one of two point guards to have ever won the Defensive Player of the Year, and his stats show it. It was just his second season when he led the league in scoring with an average of 27.1 points per game, despite some serious injury setbacks. Congratulations, Brian Roberts! Nate Archibald 14. These combo point guards can surprise defenses. Williams tends to play defense, but he only seems to do the minimum. He has decent size for a point guard, at 63 but he doesnt have much of a vertical: 28.5.. 24. If theres a weakness, though, its that when he comes up against the elite offensive point guards, he will get beaten in isolation. 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. By NBA standards, he jumps like an elephant and runs like a turtle (and not one of those fast turtles youve heard tell of eithera slow turtle). Watson, Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson. -- Kevin Pelton, Teams Whether this is a result of his reputation being undeserved or him not putting forth the effort isnt hard to determine. Bledsoe spent the majority of his time with Odom, while Chris Paul spent the majority of his time with Jordan, which confuses the on/off ratings. Lillard would likely be at the top of this list if measured as an offensive package as a whole. For Rose, his biggest issues on both sides of the ball have to do with fundamentals and understanding. The effect was that the Bulls' starters all looked inferior to their backups.