B/R NBA 200: Ranking the Top Guards Heading into 2016-17
What does Stephen Curry have in store for 2016-17 as he attempts the encore to his sterling 2015-16 NBA campaign? Is it regression after reaching previously untouched three-point heights, providing an endless supply of records and eventually winning MVP honors unanimously for the first time in league history? Or, can he reach a heretofore unimaginable next level?
Of course, there are no guarantees he even remains atop the heap of elite guards. Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Damian Lillard and others are all primed to mount impressive challenges to Curry's apparent throne. And that's saying nothing of the other young backcourt talents just waiting to break out.
We aren't projecting how well everyone will perform during the upcoming season, but where they are as 2016-17 gets underway. Thus, we use the end of last season as our starting point. Not every player starts out on level footing, either; The NBA 200 metric identifies those who performed best during the 2015-16 regular campaign*. Potential doesn't matter, and neither does reputation or playoff performance (too variable)—it's all about what happened this past regular season only.
In this edition, we're looking at point guards (PG), combo guards (CG) and shooting guards (SG). All positions are graded using the same criteria (rim protection was added into the equation for bigger positions), but the categories are weighted differently to reflect changing roles, with max scores in parentheses:
- Scoring (20 for point guards, 23 for combo guards and 25 for shooting guards)
- Non-Scoring Offense: Facilitating (20 for point guards, 15 for combo guards and 10 for shooting guards) and Off-Ball Offense (5 for point guards, 7 for combo guards and 10 for shooting guards)
- Defense: On-Ball (20) and Off-Ball (20)
- Rebounding (5)
- Durability (10)
For a full explanation of how these scores were determined, go here. And do note these aren't your father's classifications: Players' spots were determined by how much time they spent at each position throughout the season, largely based on data from Basketball-Reference.com, and we're expanding the traditional five to include four combo positions.
In the case of ties, the order is subjectively determined by ranking the more coveted player in the higher spot. That was done by a voting committee comprised of myself, three B/R National NBA Featured Columnists (Grant Hughes, Zach Buckley and Dan Favale) and B/R Associate NBA Editor (Joel Cordes).
There are 71 guards considered, so you can click "Next" to start the whole list or skip ahead to Guards 50-41 if you want.
Wings will be ranked on Tuesday, September 13, with Bigs coming Wednesday, September 14 and our total 200 ranking on Thursday, September 15.
Note: All statistics come from Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise indicated. Injury information comes from Pro Sports Transactions. In order to qualify for the rankings, players must have suited up in at least 30 games and logged no fewer than 500 minutes. This intro was adapted from last year's edition.
A few players you might expect to see in this installment will be showing up elsewhere. They include Kobe Bryant (small forward), DeMar DeRozan (swingman), Evan Fournier (swingman), Klay Thompson (swingman) and others.
*Thus, a "retired-in-the-offseason" player like Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant will still show up here as well. Even though they're (sadly) not playing again, they're a valuable placeholder that helps show where 2016-17's bunch stacks up in comparison at the start of the season.
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