Re-Ranking Top Shooting Guards in the NBA, Post-Free Agency Edition

While a solid percentage of the NBA's historical greats have played shooting guard, the position is rather weak at the moment. 

There's a clear quartet of stars at the top, but the rest of the league is fighting for a spot in the rankings. We're dealt an intriguing mix of cagey veterans, up-and-coming talents and guys who are just treading water.

Where will the former All-Stars like Joe Johnson and Manu Ginobili fall in? How about a young stud like Jimmy Butler?

Does the positional crown belong to Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade or James Harden?

While 2-guard is a weaker spot in the lineup than its backcourt counterpart, there are still plenty of intriguing questions left unanswered. The 2013-14 campaign will help clear up many of them, but let's take a stab at it long before the action begins. 

Honorable Mentions

Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs

The Argentine 2-guard's age is steadily marching toward AARP status, and it's finally taking its toll. After a putrid performance in the NBA Finals, it's clear that Ginobili can't consistently take games over anymore. 

If Gregg Popovich played him more, perhaps he'd have a shot to work his way back into the top 10. 

Kevin Martin, Minnesota Timberwolves

The smaller of the two K-Marts, this shooting guard should thrive in his new role with the 'Wolves. He'll bring size and a new outside dimension to the position. 

They just can't expect too much from Martin, as he spent his one year with the Oklahoma City Thunder proving that he was no longer capable of carrying a heavy offensive burden. And it's not like he's much of a defender either.

O.J. Mayo, Milwaukee Bucks

Mayo started off the season so hot that it was dangerous. Just like mayonnaise can't sit in the sun for too long before it goes bad, so too did the Dallas Maverick decline after he remained hot for too long. 

Still a potent three-point shooter, this young guard should put up plenty of empty stats for a Bucks team that isn't expected to compete for anything but the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA draft. 

10. Tony Allen

Team: Memphis Grizzlies

Age: 31

Per-Game Stats: 8.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.6 blocks, 13.2 PER

SportsCenter may not realize it, but defense is every bit as important as offense. It's half the game, after all. 

While Tony Allen struggles immensely on offense, air-balling open shots and missing layups with alarming frequency, he's arguably the best perimeter defender in the league. No matter how you look at it, he's an elite preventer of points. 

The Memphis Grizzlies, already a suffocating squad even without the shooting guard, allowed 6.6 fewer points per 100 possessions when Allen played, according to Basketball-Reference. The resultant number was 97.2, a mark that would have led the league with 2.6 points to spare. 

82games.com shows that he held opposing 2-guards to an 11.8 PER as well. Whether you analyze his team or individual defense, he's still elite. 

Allen's offense holds him back and prevents him from becoming a true top-tier shooting guard, but his defense keeps him extremely relevant. 

9. Eric Gordon

Team: New Orleans Pelicans

Age: 24

Per-Game Stats: 17.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 0.2 blocks, 15.4 PER

Eric Gordon has been fairly disappointing ever since he left the Los Angeles Clippers for the New Orleans Hornets, but just like the team name, that's changing. 

After playing just 42 games in 2012-13, the 2-guard should be fully healthy, no longer hindered by his decrepit knees. That will allow him to regain his all-around offensive dominance, attacking the rim with reckless abandon and draining perimeter jumpers in bunches. 

The other key is Gordon's mental state. 

He didn't want to be in the bayou before, but that's different now that he's playing with two friends he's had since his AAU days: Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday. Happiness can make a huge impact on success, as we're about to see with this guy. 

And remember, Gordon is still just 24 years old and won't turn 25 until the end of October. 

8. Joe Johnson

Team: Brooklyn Nets

Age: 32

Per-Game Stats: 16.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.7 steals, 0.2 blocks, 14.1 PER

Now we come to another shooting guard who has been declining over the last few years. But unlike Gordon, Joe Johnson isn't suddenly going to break the trend and begin improving at 32 years old. 

That's especially true now that he's playing alongside Deron Williams, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez. 

So, why is Johnson still ranked ahead of Gordon? 

Well, he's starting from a higher level. Joe remains a potent scorer, especially in isolation. Now you can cue Atlanta Hawks fans screaming out "Iso-Joe" as they fondly recall his prime before he signed an albatross of a contract and showed no love for the fanbase. 

According to Synergy Sports (subscription required), Johnson scored 0.89 points per possession in isolation sets during the 2012-13 campaign. That was a mark beaten by only 52 players. 

But even that isn't what puts Johnson ahead of Gordon. It's defense that does the trick. 

As shown by Basketball-Reference, the Nets allowed 0.8 fewer points per 100 possessions when Joe played, but Gordon's Hornets allowed an additional 0.5. 

7. J.R. Smith

Team: New York Knicks

Age: 27

Per-Game Stats: 18.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 steals, 0.3 blocks, 17.6 PER

Coming off the bench isn't always a bad thing. 

J.R. Smith may technically have been a second-unit player for the New York Knicks, but that's a laughable label to give him. He was a deserving winner of Sixth Man of the Year, and only a handful of shooting guards are better than him. 

Technically a handful plus one.

Although Smith is sometimes prone to shooting his team out of a game, he put all the tantalizing pieces together under the tutelage of Mike Woodson. He started playing more defense, rebounded better than ever and minimized his turnovers almost completely. 

In the past, Smith was a frustrating player, an athletic marvel who just couldn't get his head screwed on straight.

That wasn't the case in 2012-13, nor should it be going forward if he can successfully return from his knee injury. 

6. Monta Ellis

Team: Dallas Mavericks

Age: 27

Per-Game Stats: 19.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 2.1 steals, 0.4 blocks, 16.2 PER

If Monta Ellis pulled a J.R. Smith and started to put all the pieces together, the sky would be the limit. But that hasn't happened yet, and Monta has given no indications that it will in the future. 

He's an immensely talented 2-guard, capable of carrying a team offensively on any given night, but his biggest weakness is that he doesn't think he has weaknesses. Ellis is not a good shooter. Not by any stretch of the imagination. 

But he doesn't realize that. 

How else can you explain taking four three-point attempts per game despite hitting only 28.7 percent of them? What about from 16 to 23 feet, where he drilled 36.8 percent of his 353 tries? 

If Ellis were more self aware, he'd be truly dominant. But he doesn't play to his strengths, which largely involve distributing the ball and attacking the rim, where he truly thrives as a creative finisher. 

Actually trying on defense would help as well, as Ellis is far too fixated on stealing the ball. He gambles incessantly, and the results are often negative. 

The Milwaukee Bucks allowed an additional two points per 100 possessions when the 27-year-old was on the court. Those 105.9 points would have ranked the team in the bottom half of the league, even with a dominant interior defender like Larry Sanders patrolling the paint. 

Ellis has to change his gunner mentality or else the Dallas Mavericks are going to struggle.

5. Jimmy Butler

Team: Chicago Bulls

Age: 23

Per-Game Stats: 8.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.4 blocks, 15.2 PER

You may be surprised to find Jimmy Butler at such a lofty spot, especially given those relatively lackluster per-game numbers. But they're as misleading as can be. 

Take a look at this breakdown of his numbers before the All-Star break, after the mid-season game and during the postseason: 

	Points	Rebounds	Assists	Steals	Blocks	FG%	3P%	FT%
Pre All-Star Break	7.3	3.5	0.9	0.7	0.3	48.2	25.0	86.2
Post All-Star Break	10.9	4.8	2.2	1.4	0.6	44.9	47.5	74.4
Postseason	13.3	5.2	2.7	1.3	0.5	43.5	40.5	81.1

Is there any doubt that he was getting better as the season went on? 

The biggest improvement came offensively. He wasn't just getting more of an opportunity, but rather showing off skills we didn't even know existed beforehand. 

Butler's three-point shooting was incredible during the second half of the season, and that carried over into the Chicago Bulls' postseason experience. He also developed a step-back fadeaway jumper against the Miami Heat that can only be described as Kobe Bryant-esque. 

This offensive improvement is here to stay, and it's coupled with some of the best defense in the league. According to Synergy Sports (subscription required), Butler allowed 0.76 points per possession, the 29th-best mark in the league. 

That's an insane number for a young man who spent the majority of his time guarding small forwards in 2012-13. 

4. Andre Iguodala

Team: Golden State Warriors

Age: 29

Per-Game Stats: 13.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.7 steals, 0.7 blocks, 15.2 PER

Andre Iguodala is a similarly great defender, one of the league's true standouts when guarding isolation plays, but what separates him from Jimmy Butler is his offensive versatility. 

That's what Iggy has built his game around, and it's exactly what he'll take with him when he makes the transition from the Denver Nuggets to the Golden State Warriors. 

Iguodala is very much a point guard trapped in a larger man's body. He's always looking to create for his teammates, whether they're running the floor in transition or operating in a half-court set. In fact, his only true weakness on offense is his lack of a consistent shooting stroke from either the perimeter or the free-throw line. 

The new member of the Dubs ushers in a new tier of 2-guards, one occupied by only four players in the Association. 

And yes, he is a shooting guard by trade. 

Although Iguodala will spend a lot of time at small forward for Golden State so that he doesn't block Klay Thompson's development—Klay was the first player left out of the honorable mentions, by the way—he did play far more shooting guard than small forward in 2012-13.

According to 82games.com, Iggy lined up at the 2 for 59 percent of Denver's available minutes, and he used only nine percent of the available time at small forward.  

3. Dwyane Wade

Team: Miami Heat

Age: 31

2012-13 Per-Game Stats: 21.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.9 steals, 0.8 blocks, 24.0 PER

Dwyane Wade is still an elite shooting guard, but doubt has creeped into the equation little by little. 

The Miami Heat superstar is 31 years old now, and his body seems far older than that. It's a result of his ultra-aggressive playing style, one that leaves him constantly attacking the basket and always picking himself up off the floor. 

Knee trouble held Wade back during the postseason, and we only saw vintage Flash show up a few times throughout the proceedings. Is that a sign of things to come? 

The Heat certainly hope not, and a full offseason of rest should do wonders. 

Wade's style of play is changing, though. He's no longer an All-World defender, simply because he doesn't have the energy to expend that often on both ends of the court. He also doesn't take over games as frequently, picking and choosing his spots while LeBron James controls the action. 

However, he's paired those negatives with increasing efficiency. Wade shot a career-high 52.1 percent from the field while averaging less than three turnovers for only the second time in his career. 

Wade might not be an MVP-caliber 2-guard any longer, but he's still a bona fide All-Star. 

2. James Harden

Team: Houston Rockets

Age: 23

2012-13 Per-Game Stats: 25.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.5 blocks, 23.0 PER

After James Harden's first game with the Houston Rockets, we knew we were looking at something special. And I'm not just talking about his beard. 

Harden recorded an insane 37 points and 12 assists in the season-opener, doing so on 14-of-25 shooting as he sparked a victory over the Detroit Pistons. It's one of only six times in NBA history that a player has topped 30 points and 10 dimes to begin a campaign. 

Was Harden done? Of course not!

I remember the next game quite well, seeing as I'm an Atlanta Hawks fan who watched in awe as the 2-guard torched every defensive set thrown at him. He finished the contest with 45 points on only 19 shots.

Let's turn to NBA history again. 

Only nine times has a player ever gotten to 45 points or more while taking 20 shots or fewer. That was the first time Harden did so, but he did it again later in the season, embarrassing the Oklahoma City Thunder with 46 points on 19 attempts. 

No one else is on the list twice, and that should tell you all you need to know about Harden's offensive prowess. 

1. Kobe Bryant

Team: Los Angeles Lakers

Age: 34

2012-13 Per-Game Stats: 27.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.3 blocks, 23.0 PER

The difference between James Harden and Kobe Bryant comes on the defensive end of the court. 

Here's where you may be thinking something along the lines of, "What? I heard all year that Kobe was awful at defense now!"

And yes, you probably did hear that. It was a prevailing thought during the Mamba's last go-around, but it was also an ultimately misleading one. 

It's true that Kobe's defense has declined rather dramatically from the days that he deservedly spent earning All-Defense selections early in his career. He's lazy getting back in transition, and he often watches the ball instead of actually rotating to help out. 

Kobe's off-ball defense is terrible. There's no denying that. 

However, he's still great in man-to-man situations when his man has control of the rock. According to 82games.com, he held opposing 2-guards to a 12.8 PER, and the Synergy numbers are similarly favorable. 

In fact, let's compare those to Harden's numbers while remembering that the bearded shooting guard is a similarly poor off-ball defender, something that isn't accounted for here. 

	Overall		Isolation		Pick-and-Roll Ball-Handler		Post-Up		Spot-Up
	PPP	Rank	PPP	Rank	PPP	Rank	PPP	Rank	PPP	Rank
Harden	0.92	322	0.72	73	0.8	129	0.78	93	1.07	296
Bryant	0.84	149	0.71	68	0.75	83	0.96	230	0.97	180

With the exception of post-up situations, Harden allows more points per possession (PPP) than Kobe across the board. He just can't match his defensive output, and until he does, he won't overtake the Mamba as the best shooting guard in basketball. 

He's getting close, but barring an unexpectedly long recovery from the Achilles injury, Kobe still reigns supreme.