Okay you guys, let me reiterate myself. You can’t win if your best player is a POINT GUARD. Not shooting guard, a POINT GUARD. I just wanted to qualify this before any of you Kobe Stans whine about “oh Kobe the Great led the Lakers to two championships all by himself in 09 and 2010”. Take a peek at the list of NBA champions in the last 30 seasons. The only teams with their point guard being their best player were 1989 and 1990 Detroit Pistons, 2015 Golden State Warriors, and those 80’s Los Angeles Lakers teams. Isiah Thomas was the best player on those Pistons teams. Adding more to that, those teams were led by the backcourt duo of Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. Don’t get me started on what I think of backcourt duos, I’m leaving that for later in this piece.
Back to my point, in the modern era (by modern era, I mean after 1980 because that’s apparently when you all probably started to give a damn about the NBA) those Pistons teams were the only ones to pull it off. We’ve seen so many other teams such as Allen Iverson Sixers, Jason Kidd’s Nets, Chris Paul’s Hornets and Clippers, and so many more go far but not pull it off. Right now, we saw Russell Westbrick get bounced in the first round 2 straight years, even with some help this season (if you still consider Carmelo Anthony as help).
It’s pretty obvious as to why this is the case. These point guards – even most shooting guards – are limited in their versatility and size.
Most point guards – due to their size – do not have the versatility on defense to guard many positions. As a result, they will rarely be impact defenders, even if they are good on defense – and in the worst case scenario, they are likely to be a teams’ biggest liability defensively, as a point guard that is bad defensively can allow the opposing team’s perimeter players to easily drive by and score in the paint, or drive and kick it out to open shooters after the help defense has to collapse.
Another notable point – point guards – especially “true point guards” also aren’t always the best ceiling raisers on offense. Dominating the ball and controlling the offense is good for raising the floor of a team, but it can still reduce the pace of play, and prevent a team from tiring out a defense or force them to change what they are doing. Finding a mismatch in the defense only works so long as the other team does not adjust. Additionally, many point guards, due to their size, can’t dominant in the paint or post – they have to drive there with elite ball-handling, while taking contact that can leave them banged up. They are not always amazing enough shooters to make up for this as well, putting a cap on their effectiveness.
Look at the all-time assists leader stats.
Look at how many of the point guards on this list not only did not win rings – but the few that did, most of them were not their team’s best players when they won. Stockton, Nash, Paul, Jackson, etc. did not win. Kidd, Rondo, Payton, Cousy, Parker, Lowry, etc. all win being their team’s 2nd or 3rd best players – or even role players for their team’s championship runs. Magic Johnson is the only point guard on this list who lead a team to a championship as the premier player.
It a wings’ league, fellas. Small forwards that are worth a damn can score, be decent passers, floor space, rebound, defend on the perimeter, and more. Don’t give me this Russell Westbrook triple double nonsense. His teammates let him get boards half the time and his defense is okay. He doesn’t move around off ball on offense or even defend off ball. Most importantly, the guys tires himself out by the end of the season. He burns out. Just like most of these guards do. Or they just get hurt.
Check out this video that shows Westbrook statpadding. (Props to maker of the video for putting it together, D 21).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYKolm75h8Y
Now I’m going to tie single led point guards with backcourt duos. It’s the same results. Derozan and Lowry can’t get it done. McCollum and Lillard aren’t enough. Those two went off. Lillard average 27, 4, and 6. But he got the clamps from Jrue Holiday and none of their bigs or wings helped out. John Wall and Beal just have those 3 and D guys like Porter and Oubre. Not going to cut it. Wall missed 41 games this season and he was gassed at the end of the Celtics-Wizards series back in 2017.
Now some of you have been waiting to say “shut up fool, how about the Splash Brothers?” Now, if you reread the first paragraph, you’ll see I included the Golden State Warriors. Steph Curry and his shooting guard teammate Klay Thompson led their team to a Finals victory. Steph Curry’s shooting range, shooting efficiency, ability to set off-ball screens, move around, his pace of play, and ball movement allows him to have such a srong offensive impact that it allows Golden State to not only build momentum and big leads – it also allows them to put out lineups with defensive players to protect Curry’s defense, since any shortcomings they have on offense can be made up for by Curry. They were able to get by with average bigs as well. Curry still had to improve defensively though – because we still saw how in the 2016 Finals, Curry’s defense got exploited.
After the team blew a 3-1 lead to Lebron James and the Cavaliers, they knew that if they wanted to guarantee a long lasting dynasty while preserving Curry’s prime, they needed a dominant small forward. Harrison Barnes went 5-32 (5 FOR 32!!! LOL) for 15% and a combined 15 points in the last 3 games of the series. That’s why they got Kevin Durant.
In regards to those Pistons, they also stuck out because Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman helped give those Pistons the bad boys’ physical mentality. Furthermore, Adrian Dantley average around 20 points during his tenure at Detroit while Aguirre averaged 15 points. The scoring production from their two small forwards allowed for Detroit to be a complete team led by IT instead of just being too overly reliant on their small point guard.
Many other point guards have the issue of being too ball dominant such as Chris Paul, James Harden, and especially John Wall and Russell Westbrook. Everyone is playing this new age triple double iso ball. For those of you not familiar with that term I’ll explain right now. It’s basically a ball dominant player that has his teammate’s floor space so he can dribble penetrate. When the defense collapses on him, he dishes it out to the big for an easy score since the man covering him helped to double team the ball handler.
In other cases, the ball handler would drive in and if perimeter defenders move closer to him, he’ll kick it back out to his teammates standing at the three point line. Because this usually happens late in the shot clock, they only have time to jack up a 3 without the opportunity to make a few more passes or move with the ball to get in rhythm. This allows these ball handlers to rack up assist numbers so you clowns can say “Oh hey this point guard is so cool, he got a triple double”. It doesn’t really make the average players better around him. Even if those guys are decent, their overall ball usage is decreased since the ball dominant hogs the ball.
Those Laker teams in the 80’s had Magic Johnson. Remember he was 6’9. Most of these other midgets are 6’4 or shorter. No wonder their bodies break down. Let’s not forget as great as Magic is, you could debate whether he or Kareem Abdul-Jabar were the best player on the team (we’re saving that for next time). SMALL FORWARD James Worthy (recognize the trend?) was also averaging 20 points a game during his best seasons in Los Angeles at that time.
Allen Iverson balled out and carried the Sixers to an NBA Finals but it wasn’t going to be enough to stop the Lakers. He needed to shoot at a higher percentage, or at least get more help from other positions. Stockton was great for the Jazz and went to two Finals but he also had Malone. Once again we can argue which one was the best player. The bottom line is that if you have a star point guard, just know that unless you add a dominant small forward or big man (but probably both), you’re have no shot at winning an NBA Finals. Those guys break down and get hurt.
