BEST NBA POINT GUARD
I attempted to take everything into account - points, rebounds, assists, championships, MVPs, All-defensive teams, and even ELO ranking, which is a survey done by visitors to basketball-reference.com to rank every player in NBA History. That being said, other than a clear cut #1 this was incredibly difficult, and arguments can be made to move pretty much everyone else up or down several spots - and these are arguments I will listen to. These are not my final rankings. I can be swayed or bribed.
8 pts - Maurice Cheeks.
Like I said, this was hard, but someone has to be last. Gets a boost from winning the title in 1983, but he ranks last among those drafted in scoring and is second-to-the last in All-Star Games and Top 10 assist seasons. His defense is probably his strong suit, but it can't overcome those shortcomings as well as being one of the worst rebounders in the group and in the bottom half in total assists and bottom 3 in assists per game. If it makes the drafter feel any better, I can't actually think of a better pick that wasn't taken, but he just doesn't measure up. Zero All-NBA Teams was a particular killer.
9 pts - Kevin Johnson.
One of my favorites to watch, but he's hurt by a relatively short career and monster competition from his peers, ranking in the bottom four in career points, rebounds, assists, and steals among those drafted. He also played in just 3 all-star games despite making 5 All-NBA Teams. The reason he's ahead of Cheeks is his per game numbers are far better than Maurice's, and he was in the top 10 in assists seven times compared to just 5 for Cheeks despite a shorter career and KJ's five All-NBA nods.
10 pts - Nate "Tiny" Archibald.
Led the league in assists once and finished in the top 10 eight times which sounds impressive but is better than just four guys who were drafted, and in the end he finished his career with the third fewest assists of anybody drafted (which I realize is at least partially a product of the times, but that's the kind of thing that makes this so difficult). He's also the worst rebounder of the group (what do you expect from a guy named Tiny) and not a particularly noteworthy scorer once he joined the Celtics, and since I'm judging the entire length of the career, he lands here. Six all-star games, those top assist seasons, and his early career scoring ability grab him this spot.
11 pts - Walt "Clyde" Frazier.
12 pts - Gary Payton.
I have a feeling this might be where I hear the most grief given Frazier's iconic status in New York and where he was selected in this draft, but I list him with Payton for a reason. The Glove has Clyde beat in assists, assists per game, rebounds, points, all-star games, all-nba teams, defensive teams, top 10 assist seasons, and times leading the league in assists. Frazier leads in rebs per game, points per game, and he does have 2 championships on his resume which makes me hesitant to put Payton above him. And in Payton's prime he averaged 21 & 8 with 2.5 steals and less than 3 TOs per game. That's better than Frazier's prime middle of his career. Tough call, but I said if I couldn't make a call between two guys I'd go with the more "pure" point guard, and that's GP.
13 pts - Allen Iverson. Toughest guy to rank, and it's not even close. And neither is Iverson's scoring average of 26.7 per game compared to everybody else drafted (with one exception), where he's a full 7ppg higher over his career than anybody else, and he averaged a staggering 28.9ppg from 1999-2008. He's towards the bottom in assists and rebounding, but his 11 all-star games are one of the highest numbers among those drafted and his steals and steals per game numbers are excellent as well. Iverson also has one huge trump card in his MVP year of 2001. Do you realize only 5 point guards (among those drafted) ever won an MVP? And A.I. is one of them. Many like to throw out things like, "thug", "me-first player", and "not a true point guard" and some of that may even be true, but Iverson is truly one of the greats and if anything is underrated in my opinion because of his style, both on and off the court. And he carried that 2001 Sixers team to the Finals averaging 33 pts and 6 assists per game in the playoffs on a team where his second option was either Theo Ratliff or Aaron McKie. Barf. He's a unique player and tough to rank, but with two pretty clear tiers to me right in between the two groups feels right.
14 pts - Steve Nash. It gets really, really hard at this point and I was very tempted to rank Nash higher seeing as he has two MVPs, one of only two guys drafted to have more than one, but everybody else left can at least play some defense, whereas Nash might be the worst defensive player taken and that has to ding him some, particularly when it's so hard to separate the rest of these guys. None of his other numbers really stand out when looking at everybody ranked above him, outside of 3-point shooting and a very impressive six times leading the league in assists, but he's also got the fewest all-star nods of anybody else left. I dunno. Seems right.
15 pts - Jason Kidd. There are plenty of reasons to bump Kidd even higher - he's #2 in assists, #1 in rebounds, #2 in steals, #1 in three-pointers made, 10 all-star games, 9 all-defensive teams (tied with Payton for most by any PG drafted), and an incredible 16 times in the top 10 in assists (second most). The reason he's here though is he's played an incredible 18 seasons, which makes him a bit of a compiler. He's actually not even in the top 5 for assists/game, is second worst in scoring, those ten all-star games are tied for the fewest of anybody left as are his 6 all-nba teams, and he was a pretty offensive liability most of his career because he couldn't shoot - I didn't look this up against everybody because my spreadsheet was already done without it and I didn't want to do it again, but I'm betting his 40% career FG% is the worst of the group, and probably by a considerable margin.
16 pts - Isiah Thomas. When I first volunteered to judge my initial reaction was Isiah would probably be in the running for #2 overall. Breaking down the numbers, however, he's really not that close. His best rankings are 4th in assists per game and 4th in points per game - both impressive no doubt, but we're now talking the best of the best. He does have 12 all-star games which is tied for second, but his 5 all-nba teams are half or worse of everyone else remaining, and his top 10 assist seasons and years leading the league in assists are the fewest as well. He has a couple of championships and a Finals MVP (one of only two players drafted to have one), but I can't see putting him any higher.
17 pts - John Stockton. It feels a bit weird putting the all-time assist leader fourth when we're talking point guards, but Stockton's huge blemish on his record is no championships. I'm not one who immediately goes to the "rings" card when arguing players because it takes more than one dude to win a title, but when you look at who he is up against here it's impossible to ignore. Pulling from the Kidd argument, Stockton's 19 seasons also make him a bit of a compiler, although if there was an award for longevity he'd probably win seeing as how he played all 82 games in 16 of those 19 years. He's still #2 in assists per game, a point in his favor, but is bottom three in both points and assists per game. It's hard to ignore his amazing 17 years in the top 10 in assists and nine times leading the league, but of the top four he appeared in the fewest all-star games and is the only one to not win a title and to not win an MVP award.
18 pts - Bob Cousy. Kind of a tough guy to rank, especially if you look to closely at numbers, because his 7.5 assists per game in his career are middle of the road, but it's more of an era type thing rather than any deficiency in Cousy's game because he was in the top 10 in assists 13 times and led the league 8 times, second only to Stockton. He also made 13 all-star games, the most of all players drafted, and 12 all-nba teams - again tops amongst those drafted. An incredible career, to be sure, but numbers 1 and 2 on my list are light years ahead of everyone else, in my opinion.
19 pts - Oscar Robertson. On pure statistics alone you could make a very convincing argument for Oscar as the #1. He's top 5 in assists, assists per game, rebounds, rebounds per game, points, and points per game. He made 12 all-star games (2nd), 11 all-nba teams (2nd), was top 10 in assists thirteen times (3rd), and led the league in assists six times (3rd). And of course, he also has the distinction of being the only player to ever average a triple-double in a season, which is a truly incredible feat. Even more amazing? There have been five seasons in NBA history where a player averaged 9+ assists and 9+ rebounds and Oscar has four of them. The only possible knocks on him are he only won one MVP award and didn't win a title until he went to Milwaukee and it was clearly Kareem's team. Still, those are just nit-picks and he's definitely one of the best players in NBA history. He'd be the #1 if this next guy wasn't so amazing (and my favorite player of all-time).
20 pts - Magic Johnson. You know what you probably don't remember? Magic averaged 19.5 points per game in his career, third best in this group. Surprised me a bit. I did know that his 11.2 assists per game is the best in NBA history. In addition the only dudes drafted to beat him in steals per game are noted thieves Stockton, Iverson, and Cheeks. I know Magic never went through the end of the career spiral or whatever, but can you imagine what his final numbers would look like if he had those 4 or so more years? In the 13 years he did play he made 12 all-star teams (only missing when he was injured most of his second year), made 10 all-nba teams, was in the top 10 in assists in 11 seasons, and won 5 titles, 3 MVPs, and 3 Finals MVPs. Just an amazing career, and screw Jordan he's still the best player in NBA history to me. FUN FACT: I was a freshman in high school when Magic made "the announcement" and was devastated to the point of tears (he was my hero). I was such a Magic guy I had five different Magic Johnson T-shirts. The week following the announcement I wore a different one each day, and since I was in advanced class upperclassmen who paid attention to sports noticed my shirts each day and started paying more attention to me. I ended up getting invited to parties, made friends, and later that winter lost my virginity to a junior cheerleader.
NOTE: I made up the virginity part, but the story is way better that way.
Although most of the items from your "present" from a couple of years ago have expired sadly. :(
Stupid Frosti
