Ranking The 2008 NBA Guards: A Leader Emerges, Sort Of

You remember kick-ball, don't you?

Two kids would proclaim themselves "captain" and the picking would begin.  A smile would form on the first few picks as they walked over to their new team.  A pump fist would follow as you heard your name picked somewhere near the middle.  And a sigh of relief would come knowing you weren't picked last.

Being picked last stunk.

In the NBA Draft not being picked first is like being picked last in kick-ball.  It seems everyone who isn't the first to shake David Sterns hand develops a grudge against the team that passed on him.

While players use being "passed-over" as motivation to improve, it's left to us as fans to evaluate drafts over time to see if the teams made the right pick or not.  When you take a somewhat early look back at the 2008 NBA draft a surprising leader for "Best Guard Drafted" is emerging.

The top four guards drafted in 2008 are, in order taken, Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook, and Eric Gordon.  All four are great athletes, players, and generally perfect fits for the teams that drafted them.  Ranking them is tough, given that they have just over one season under the belts.  It's our job as fans to pick a winner though, isn't it?

With that in mind let's see if we can pick a leader out of this quality quartet of guards.

This will be done solely based on the numbers.  Nothing subjective like "leadership" will be taken into account.  Anyone can argue the subjective; its tougher to argue the numbers.  Each player will be ranked based on the following:

Points
Assists
Rebounds
Steals
FG%
FT%
3P%
Blocks
Turn Overs
Efficiency
Efficiency over 48 min.

The leader in the category gets a 1, next a 2 and so on.  The player with the lowest average is the "winner".

When I started this exercise I knew it would be a very close race.  I was shocked to see how close it really was.  I had to keep adding new stats to the equation much like peeling another layer of an onion back to finally crown a winner.  That's what led me to the efficiency stat.  NBA.com says that this stat is used by NBA coaches to evaluate a player's game performance.

If it's good enough for the NBA coach, it needed to be used here.  The efficiency formula is ((Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks) - ((Field Goals Att. - Field Goals Made) + (Free Throws Att. - Free Throws Made) + Turnovers)).

Efficiency over 48 min. is like a baseball pitcher's E.R.A which calculates earned runs over nine innings.  Eff/48 shows a players efficiency if they were to play the full 48 min. of a game.

I doubt I have to explain the other categories although I will point out that the turnover leader is the one with the least amount of TO's.  Now, the results based on stats collected from ESPN.com and NBA.com.

Derek Rose
Points -- 2
Assists -- 1
Rebounds -- 3
Steals -- 4
FG% -- 1
FT% -- 4
3P% -- 4
BLK -- 3
TO -- 3
Eff -- 2
Eff/48 -- 3

O.J. Mayo
Points -- 1
Assists -- 3
Rebounds -- 2
Steals -- 2
FG% -- 3
FT% -- 1
3P% -- 2
BLK -- 4
TO -- 2
Eff -- 4
Eff/48 -- 4

Russell Westbrook
Points -- 4
Assists -- 2
Rebounds -- 1
Steals -- 1
FG% -- 4
FT% -- 3
3P% -- 3
BLK -- 2
TO -- 4
Eff --1
Eff/48 -- 1

Eric Gordon
Points -- 3
Assists -- 4
Rebounds -- 4
Steals -- 3
FG% -- 2
FT% -- 2
3P% -- 1
BLK -- 1
TO -- 1
Eff -- 3
Eff/48 -- 2

Based on the above the NBA's top guard taken in the 2008 draft is..

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Eric Gordon

Here are the averages.

Eric Gordon -- 2.36364
Russell Westbrook -- 2.36364
O.J. Mayo -- 2.54545
Derrick Rose -- 2.72727

Now, I am not saying that EG should have been the first pick or even that he is the best guard picked that year.  I am just crunching the numbers.  Don't shoot the messenger.

I know the results are somewhat skewed in that I am giving the same weight (a single point) to blocks as I am to steals.  I doubt any of these players were drafted with an eye to being the next Dikembe Mutombo.  It made sense to weigh each category evenly, however, so I did.

Each team is no doubt happy with their pick, but numbers don't lie.  One season and one month into their respective NBA careers the leader of the 2008 guard pack calls Staples his home.

Maybe you noticed that Eric Gordon and Russell Westbrook finished in a deadlock.  So, why am I proclaiming EG the winner?  Alphabetical order, of course.