Power Ranking the New Starting Point Guards in the NBA Heading into 2012-13

It has been a wild offseason for a lot of NBA teams, but the position with the biggest overhaul across the board has been point guard.

Every which way you looked this summer, a starting point guard was changing teams via trades, free agency and the draft. Some big names grabbed all the headlines, but a lot of other talented floor generals swapped jerseys.

Excluding point guard situations in Chicago and Golden State, both of which were hampered by injury, there are 11 point guards who will be starting for new teams.

While some will have larger impacts than others, this phenomenon is worth chronicling. These are the new distributors who will be in unfamiliar areas this coming season.

11. Austin Rivers, New Orleans Hornets

This is a shaky prediction because there is no definitive starter currently. New Orleans drafted Austin Rivers with the No. 10 overall pick in June, but he may not yet be NBA-ready. With the departure of Jarrett Jack, who started 39 games for the Hornets last season, that leaves Greivis Vasquez. 

Vasquez started 26 games last season and was more than serviceable in that time. As a starter, he was posting 12 points and seven assists per game. However, New Orleans will want to reach Rivers' immense potential as soon as possible, and that could lead to him earning starts early on his rookie year.

He is still far too raw and unproven to earn a higher mark on this list, so he finds himself as the worst new starting point guard in the NBA next season. 

10. Mo Williams, Utah Jazz

Mo Williams was sent from the Clippers to Utah in the big Lamar Odom trade earlier this summer. After Devin Harris was also dealt to acquire Marvin Williams, it has become apparent that Mo will be the team's new starting point guard.

Up until last season in Los Angeles, Williams had been a pretty consistent starter for both Milwaukee and Cleveland. With the Clippers, he obviously backed up Chris Paul. After exercising his $8.5 million player option, he will have little competition for the gig in Utah.

While Williams will bring a lot of scoring to the Jazz backcourt, his abilities as a passing guard are limited. He has never amassed more than six assists per game in a season and was averaging just three last season. This could present issues as Utah's frontcourt needs good distribution and ball movement to be involved. 

Still, Williams can give the team everything Harris did the past two seasons. The biggest question is whether Williams can handle a starting workload again, after playing as a reserve last season.

9. Ramon Sessions, Charlotte Bobcats

The Lakers found the answer at point guard last season by acquiring Ramon Sessions. However, they were still a few months from finding the true answer (foreshadowing). Sessions bolted in this summer for Charlotte, who will be without starting point guard D.J. Augustin. 

Augustin was solid in a starting role each of the past two seasons for the Bobcats, but he signed as a free agent in Indiana. Charlotte will be Sessions' fifth stop in just six NBA seasons, which doesn't speak a whole lot to his longevity.

Still, he appears to be good for 12 points and six or seven assists a night. Since not much is expected from his team, this can hold down the fort until Kemba Walker proves he is ready to take over on a more consistent basis. 

8. Jeremy Lin, Houston Rockets

Deserved or not, Jeremy Lin is one of the most talked-about players switching teams this summer. The restricted free agent was signed away from New York for big money in Houston. After dumping both of their point guards earlier in the offseason, the Rockets will utilize Lin as a starter.

Lin has just 25 starts under his belt at the NBA level but became a phenomenon last season with the Knicks. He showed a great deal of talent and, more importantly, poise. Lin was able to control basketball games like not many can. Prior to his injury, he was the regular starter for a good New York team. 

He won't be walking in to an established team. Instead, he will be joining a very young and fresh unit, on which he can really make his mark. If he can recover fully from the injury and improve in a couple of minor areas, he will become a solid starting point guard. However, right now he can be placed no higher than this.

7. D.J. Augustin, Indiana Pacers

This will be another spot of much debate considering the starter's job may be up in the air. However, D.J. Augustin's experience with the role is unmatched on the Pacers' roster.

Many think that with Darren Collison traded away, backup George Hill will slide into the starting point guard role. However, the Pacers also signed the former Bobcat, Augustin. While Hill did start nine games for Indiana last season, Augustin has started 128 games over the past two seasons. 

Augustin is a very talented young player who has toiled away on the subpar Bobcats for the first four years of his career. Fortunately, this season we will get to see 2008's ninth overall pick playing for a legitimate contender. He was starting to come into his own two seasons ago, before faltering on last year's atrocity of a team in Charlotte. 

Hill is more of a scoring guard, while Augustin best resembles the production Collison provided. If he can improve while playing alongside talented teammates in the Pacers' starting five, then he may wind up being one of the best offseason pickups this year.

6. Raymond Felton, New York Knicks

Despite all the disgust with New York letting Jeremy Lin walk, Raymond Felton is a good point guard. He is just coming off a rough season out in Portland where the entire team underperformed.

In 54 starts with New York just one year ago, Felton was averaging 17 points and nine assists per game. Those aren't just good numbers; they are great. Felton was once considered one of the top young point guards in the NBA, but after a series of unfortunate trades and playing for poor teams, he has become an afterthought. 

With Lin out of the picture, Felton will just have to beat out Jason Kidd for the starting role and find a way to coexist with their current unit. It will never be seamless for the Knicks, not with Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire as their feature players. However, if Felton can fill in Lin's holes, this team can win a lot of games with him running the point.

5. Darren Collison, Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks will be fully relieved to not have to start Jason Kidd another season. They were forced to witness the decomposition of one of the game's greats before their eyes. Kidd had no business starting 48 NBA games last season. 

Dallas made a big move by trading for Pacers' starter Darren Collison. He started virtually every game for Indiana the past two seasons. At just 25 years old, his best years are ahead of him, unlike Kidd, who was averaging just 6.2 points and 5.5 assists per game last season. 

Though the well-roundedness of Indiana's lineup dropped Collison's stats, he was able to control the tempo for them, which was supremely crucial to their success. A first-round pick in 2009, Collison will need to take another step forward in his development into a top-tier point guard.

While the Pacers were a good team, there was little star power. In Dallas, Collison will have a go-to player in Dirk Nowitzki. He alone should boost some of the point guard's numbers. 

Collison will also have a partner in this whole ordeal. Joining him in the backcourt will be fellow fresh face O.J. Mayo. The two will be looking to make their mark early and often with the new season.

4. Damian Lillard, Portland Trailblazers

Raymond Felton was not held in high regard in Portland last season. After the veteran posted just 11.4 points and 6.5 assists per game, he was on his way out this summer. Felton was not what the fans expected, and his departure has opened the door for a rookie starter in Damian Lillard. 

Lillard was taken sixth overall in June by the Trail Blazers and was noted as the best point guard in the draft. Not a lot is known about him coming out of Weber State, but he has shown an ability to score the basketball in flurries. He lit up the Las Vegas Summer League, scoring 26.5 points per game and adding 21 assists over the four games. 

That is essentially what Lillard was able to do in college, but this competition increased dramatically. It will increase once more when the regular season starts, but his track record as a four-year college player and the Summer League tease lead you to believe he will be just fine at the next level.

Lilliard is an immediate upgrade over the Felton of last season. His up-tempo style will fit smoother with the Trail Blazers' young core. 

3. Goran Dragic, Phoenix Suns

Goran Dragic has the biggest shoes to fill on this list. He signed a free-agent deal with the Phoenix Suns, and with Steve Nash's exodus to Los Angeles, he will figure to start.

Dragic started 28 games last season for Houston, as he was stuck behind Kyle Lowry most of the year. Now with a new four-year contract,  he will be fending off rookie Kendall Marshall for the starting role. In those 28 games with the Rockets, Dragic posted an impressive 18.5 points and eight assists per game.

The Suns could be sneaky this season as they have retooled entirely on the fly. Dragic's numbers will have the potential to peak around 18 and eight, but there will be challenges out west.

If Dragic is as good as advertised, I am surprised it took him this long to earn a starting gig. Still, I am a believer since he previously tutored behind Nash and should blend nicely with the new-look Suns' game plan.

2. Steve Nash, Los Angeles Lakers

At this point it must be accepted that Steve Nash is a point guard machine. At 39 years old, he has shown little sign of slowing down. He calmly averaged another double-double with 12.5 points and 10.7 assists per game last season. He partnered those numbers with 53-percent shooting from the field.

When Ramon Sessions did not work out for the Lakers, they set their sights on Nash. They were able to acquire him long before the Dwight Howard blockbuster. Nash will slide right into the role most recently inhabited by Sessions and Derek Fisher.

Not many point guards in the NBA are going to give you a double-double every night. Nash is as unique a player as you'll find in the league. Now that he's finally back on a contender, it will be exciting to see what he brings to the Lakers' stacked starting unit. 

Nash's age obviously leads to the concern of injury. Can he hold up playing in a stacked point guard league after 16 NBA seasons? That lingering worry pushes him out of the top spot.

1. Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors

The Raptors have made some deft moves that instantly catapult them into contention in the East. The biggest move of them all was trading for point guard Kyle Lowry.

Lowry is just realizing his potential and wanted out of Houston's rebuilding project. He is on the verge of stardom and just needed a place to fully blossom. Toronto will give him that opportunity. The team needed offensive production last season, but without Andrea Bargnani present, they could not score. Lowry gives them a second above-average scoring option. 

Last season's 14.3 points and 6.6 assists were just the tip of the iceberg that is Lowry's potential. His all-around game is something that no other point guard on the list possesses. He grabbed 4.5 rebounds per game last season as well.

He will be replacing long-time starter Jose Calderon at the point. Calderon is a steady distributor but in the end is probably better suited for bench duty. Lowry's talent blows him out of the water, and the experience is on the way. 

The bottom line is that there isn't really anything Lowry can't do. That alone makes him the best new starting point guard in the NBA.