The point guard position is beyond vital in the NBA.
Having the wrong point guard could mean the difference between going to the playoffs, and hitting the wrong kind of lottery.
The point guard leads his team into battle every night. He’s customarily the first person to touch the ball in each offensive possession, and the player the coach trusts most of all to conduct the offense toward a score each time down the court. The point guard can also be so much more than that.
Players like Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, John Stockton and Derek Fisher have shown us that the point guard can also be the team’s heart and soul. These legendary guards showed on a nightly basis that being a great point guard is more than just the stats they accumulate.
It’s the ability to know your team better than they know themselves like Magic and Stockton. It’s hitting the clutch shots all postseason long a la Fisher, even when people consider you to be nothing more than a liability. It’s also being able to do a little bit of everything on the floor for your team, best shown by the Big O.
There have been many timeless point guards in the NBA’s rich history, and there are some among the 30 starters today that will soon join them in their legend.
The others? Not so much.
The tough pill to swallow for most teams is that not everyone gets a legend. The majority of them have to settle for someone undeveloped, underachieving or just plain underwhelming.
Here are the Power Rankings for the NBA’s starting point guards.