best defensive point guards of all time

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. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google. Perhaps the best word to describe his defense is lollygaggy.. I like to compare it to the relationship between a foundation and a house. If hes on the court, hes moving at full speed. Humility can often be a sign of intelligence at work, and it is with Hinrich. 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. It seems to be down to less than once a game. If Westbrook could channel his energy in a consistent way, he would be an elite defender, but for now, hes just a solid defender whos kind of spazzy. 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. In the last entry, we focused on the five best defensive NBA point guards of all time, but now, we turn to the five best defensive shooting guards in NBA history. Thats largely true. Always free! Kyrie Irving is unquestionably one of the greatest point guards of all time. Paul, who was born on May 6, 1985, has long been regarded as one of the game's greatest point guards, a fact reinforced by his selection to the 75th Anniversary Team. Apart from that, he seems to do what hes supposed to be doing when hes away from the ball. Second, having a five-point range on a 22-point scale prevents any one statistic from overly dominating the others. Walt Frazier 10. Nash was never known as a strong defender, but he was capable of bothering opposing point guards to some extent. Defensive Rating (DRtg) is the average number of points per 100 possessions a players team surrenders while he is on the court. For eight consecutive seasons, Cousy was the leagues top assist producer, and he was also one of the finest scorers in the league. Honors: 1978-1979 Finals MVP, 5x All-Star, 9x All-Defense Selection, 2x All-NBA Team Selection, Hall of Famer. Seemingly overhauling your system for every opponent is not. But mostly he plays smartly with an occasional brain fart. Can they play bigger than they really are? Brandon Knight has exceptional speed and quickness. He also shows poor awareness at times, getting surprised by picks as if the setter had just popped up from out of the floor like a Whac-A-Mole. 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. At the very least, he could stab those quick hands of his at some more balls and disrupt the dribble from behind. What color was his tie? Boston Celtics (1950-1963), Cincinnati Royals (1969-70), Honors If you want to get involved in the discussion or just follow along, #NBArank is the Twitter hashtag to use. If you want the perfect picture of what Hinrich brings to the defensive end of the court, think of him tackling the runaway freight train, otherwise known as LeBron James, in the game which stopped the Miami Heats streak. You cant build a house first, and then pour the foundation underneath it. Hes one of the slower point guards in the league now, but in spite of that, hes almost ubiquitous at times. Hed also be more willing to provide it. In the history of the combine, only nine players have recorded better sprint and agility scores, and of those, only three had a better vertical than his 37.5 inches. Aside from the centre, having the best point guard is critical to improving your game because every play starts with him. Hopefully he can break it. Jason Kidd was the definition of a jack-of-all-trades point guard: he could pass, score and grab rebounds. The perimeter player gets rewarded statistically for what the center did, even though he actually played shoddy defense. Finals MVP, 12-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA selection, Hall of Fame, Career stats This could be something that Monty Williams, a coach with outstanding player development skills, can work on in New Orleans now that Holiday is with the Pelicans. Perhaps next year the Raptors will see better times, and well see less of that kind of behavior, but its a harmful habit to have picked up. One way of offsetting the problems of defensive rating is looking at on/off stats, meaning how many points does the defense give up while a player is on the court versus when he is off the court? A lot has been made of how an explosive offense is the way to captivate fans. 21.6 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 6.9 APG, .441 3P%, We counted down the greatest players in NBA history. His most notable awards include five NBA championships, three Finals MVPs, three MVPs, nine All-NBA First Team selections, and 12 All-Star appearances. Fairly straightforward, this takes into account height, length and strength. That said, here are the five best defensive NBA point guards of all time, based on their DWS. The greatest point guard in NBA history. Not everything about a players value can be seen even through advanced stats, or even while hes on the court. That Paul was able to keep the Clippers on track through much of the season with the ever-changing defensive schemes the team had is pretty miraculous. Conley is inconsistent in how he applies effort on the court. These combo point guards can surprise defenses. He arguably makes more plays on his feet, both offensively and defensively, than anyone else. Brandon Knight has work intelligence. -- Pelton, Perhaps the most incredible part of the Big O's triple-double season is that he finished third in MVP voting (behind winner Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged 50.4 PPG). Eventually, that learning has to become instinct, though. Only two other players besides Moncrief have won the NBAs defensive player of the year award twice. His net defensive rating of 4.2 is an indication of both a lack of his helping and asking for help. If he tends to be the helped, he gets a worse score. They say that defense is mostly about effort. His low foul rate of 4.5 percent is another indication that hes adept at getting into position quickly. He applies his energy smartly. Bob Cousey 8. If youre not interested in that, feel free to skip ahead. Among the greatest point guards of all time, Tiny is among the finest ever. Even though he was 38 years old when he won his first NBA championship with the Mavericks, he had two trips to the NBA Finals with the Nets. He was an unstoppable offensive force who could score from anywhere on the court and in any way he wanted. West became synonymous with brilliant basketball during his 14-year playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers. The .72 points per play he gives up in isolation is elite-level defense. He was second among point guards in defensive rebounds per 36 minutes. The NBA is a point guard's paradise these days, so let's start All-Time #NBArank with our pantheon points. Watching him rotate was watching perfection. When he tries, Lowry can be a solid defensive player, but that whole when he tries qualifier is pretty significant. I considered both their actual measurables and how well they used them. While it does keep the opponent in front of him, it defeats the purpose if the opponent is still getting to the basket. Mike Conley is exceptionally quick, virtually teleporting himself from one part of the court to another at times. Hes only 63, which is relatively good size for a point guard, but he just seems bigger. Rose had it all, including speed, explosiveness, and the ability to score when it mattered most. That all-around game made Kidd one of the league's top point guards for nearly 20 years. This is a necessity because of the point guard's many leadership obligations. 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. Magic Johnson won the National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award three times in his career. All the other tools and effort can be rendered useless by a little stupidity. Some players with tremendous athleticism just dont apply it on both ends of the court. As a result of his hurling himself around the court with utter abandon, he was generally a positive when it came to help defense. Though he had a relatively short career he only played 13 seasons his 50.4 DWS is 44th overall. 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. 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. For Rose, his biggest issues on both sides of the ball have to do with fundamentals and understanding. As a point guard, Tim Hardaway was one of the most popular and respected players in the NBA during his time with the Miami Heat. Adapting your system to every opponent and knowing their nuances is understandable. He does a capable job of knowing when to help and when to stay. -- Peterson, He's one of only a few players in history who has been deemed too good for the sport's own good. Then again, the limited number of plays may be, in part, due to the fact that hes so hard to post up. -- Haberstroh, Honors Two NBA titles and a Finals MVP award make him one of the all-time great point guards because of his ability to score from mid-range and his propensity to attack and finish at the rim. In systems like the Grizzlies play, the point guard is the first line of defense. A point guard often controls the offense and they also control who gets the ball and who doesn't, as this type of controlling style of play is necessary to control the tempo of a game. In his first season, he specialized in defense and could stop almost every point guard in the league on a regular basis. 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. He has no All-Defensive team accolades, because those werent introduced until the 1968-1969 season. The next three slides will tell how this particular sausage was made. He gambles too much, and that often gets him caught out of the play.