NBA Playoffs 2011: Ranking the Top 10 Point Guards in the Playoffs
Point guard is perhaps the most polarizing position in the NBA today.
Ask five experts who their ideal point guard is, and chances are you'll get five different answers.
The overall talent of the current crop is at its highest level in years, with a great mix of savvy veterans (Andre Miller, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups), All-NBA teamers entering their primes (Deron Williams, Chris Paul) and upstart youngsters (Rajon Rondo, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose).
Although several of the league's top floor generals failed to lead their team to the playoffs, the majority of the top-tier point guards remain.
So, without further ado, here are the top 10 point guards that made it to the postseason. (Spoiler alert: the rotting corpse of Mike Bibby didn't make the cut.)
10. Jameer Nelson
1 of 10
I’m not quite sure how to feel about Jameer Nelson. He shoulders the majority of Orlando’s crunch time scoring burden, which is certainly admirable.
However, it hasn’t exactly proven to be a good thing that he is their primary option at the end of close games.
Regardless of whether or not he should be their go-to clutch option, Nelson is a solid point guard capable of single-handedly dominating games with his penetration and streak shooting.
His 13.1 points per game and six assists per game are respectable, and his three point shooting (40 percent) is one of the best among point guards.
Although I don’t think the Magic should be letting him take all the big shots in crunch time, Nelson is certainly better than Mike Bibby, Kirk Heinrich, Jrue Holiday, and the other point guards he beat out for this 10th spot.
9. Derek Fisher
2 of 10
His numbers aren’t impressive (6.8 ppg and 2.7 apg), but Fisher cracks this list based on reputation, veteran savvy and an Horry-esque tendency to bury clutch shots in playoff games.
The aging Fisher is often abused by today’s generation of lightning quick, freakishly athletic point guards. He can get completely dominated for the majority of a game, looking old, slow, and generally helpless.
But when the game is truly on the line, Fisher shines.
He has an undeniable flair for the dramatic, delivering backbreaking threes with regularity.
No matter how poorly he may have played earlier in the game, Fisher will always be on the floor in crucial situations.
He has the complete confidence of coach Phil Jackson, a man who does not trust players unless they’ve repeatedly earned it.
And Fisher certainly has. His five championship rings equals the combined total of the other nine guys on this list.
8. Andre Miller
3 of 10
Miller is similar to Fisher in that they are both reliable veteran point guards who are mainly still effective because they know every trick in the book.
With their faded athleticism, both have had to remain productive while surviving solely on craftiness and guile.
Miller—consistently one of the leagues most underrated floor generals—is averaging 12.7 points and 7.6 assists a game, and is a constant threat to drop 30 on any given night.
It was just last year that he erupted for 52 against Dallas in a regular season game.
Although occasionally a defensive liability, Miller is flanked by plenty of long, athletic defenders in Portland, which helps mask his main weakness.
With his ability to punish smaller guards, get his teammates easy looks and deliver beautiful alley-oop passes, Miller is still one of the leagues top PG’s.
7. Raymond Felton
4 of 10
Felton has had quite an interesting season.
He went from playing All-Star-caliber ball with Amar’e Stoudemire in New York, to being traded to Denver for Carmelo Anthony, to splitting point guard time with Ty Lawson and thriving in the Nuggets’ new up-tempo offense.
Despite switching teams mid-season, the University of North Carolina product has had a breakout season.
With 15.5 points, 8.3 assists, and 1.7 steals per game, Felton dramatically improved both New York and Denver as soon as he arrived.
His game-changing speed and contagious swagger gives his teammates unwavering confidence in his abilities.
He is still unproven on the playoff stage, but Felton is certainly on the secondary level of top NBA point guards.
6. Chauncey Billups
5 of 10
Billups, who got shipped to New York in the Carmelo Anthony trade, has put up pretty similar numbers to Felton.
He’s averaging 16.8 points and 5.4 assists per game, while connecting on 40 percent of his threes. His True Shooting Percentage of 63.4 percent ranks first among point guards.
But the real rationale for putting Billups ahead of Felton is that he is a battle-tested veteran who has led his team to back-to-back Finals appearances, including his 2004 championship with Detroit.
Billups was named Finals MVP that year, putting up 21 points and 5 assists per game in the Pistons’ upset win over the Lakers.
Although Felton has youthful energy and hunger on his side, Billups gets the nod in this ranking because he is a proven commodity when it comes to playoff basketball.
5. Tony Parker
6 of 10
When discussing the game’s top point guards, San Antonio’s sly Frenchman often gets overlooked.
It seems like he has been around forever, so it’s easy to forget that the three-time champion and 2007 Finals MVP is only 28 years old.
Maybe Parker goes unnoticed because we know what we’re going to get from him every year: 17-20 points, 5-7 assists, a ridiculously high field goal percentage, and a couple of stories about him having sex with ex-teammate’s wives. No more, no less.
Many people like to discredit Parker’s achievements because he plays with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, but I find this a little ridiculous.
You could make a strong argument that he has often been the Spurs’ most important player.
When Parker is aggressive in penetrating into the lane and sparking fast breaks, San Antonio’s offense is nearly unstoppable.
Although I would love to have him higher on this list, the quality of the upper-echelon point guards is just too great.
Parker will have to settle for fifth.
4. Rajon Rondo
7 of 10
There was a brief stretch at the beginning of this season in which Rondo looked hell-bent on snatching the title of NBA’s best point guard.
He was shattering John Stockton’s assist records left and right, dropping 15-20 assists a night with relative ease.
Since then, Rondo has come back down to earth.
His production tailed off slightly as the season progressed, then took a nose-dive after Boston traded center Kendrick Perkins, Rondo’s best friend on the team.
Rondo was noticeably shaken in the following weeks after the Perkins trade, moping around and not playing with anywhere near the same level of swagger that he carried into the season.
He has since pulled himself out of the funk (slightly) and finished the year with 10.6 points and 11.2 assists per game.
His 1.8 steals per game is good for second in the league.
So why isn’t the championship-tested assist machine at the top of this list?
He still has an unreliable jump shot, making him somewhat one-dimensional. And his free throw shooting is still god-awful (56.8 percent), which severely limits his aggressiveness in the last few minutes of a game.
You could make a very convincing argument that Rondo is the best point guard in the league for the first 44 minutes of a game. But in the last four?
Absolutely not.
3. Russell Westbrook
8 of 10
Westbrook is an original prototype at the point guard position.
He is absurdly athletic and wired to relentlessly attack, attack, attack.
He plays the game with a pleasing chip on his shoulder, as if his opponent beat him up and took his lunch money before the game.
I wrote earlier about Westbrook’s chaotic nature, and the effectiveness of this style of play.
He has averaged career highs in points (21.9), assists (8.2), and rebounds (4.6) while constantly staying in fifth-gear.
Westbrook is a popular pick to be the breakout performer in this year’s playoffs.
He has the physical abilities and killer instinct to dominate series on his own, particularly as opposing teams focus primarily on teammate Kevin Durant.
Westbrook’s only weaknesses right now are his shaky jump shot and lack of playoff chops. It still isn’t clear whether or not he is ready to make crucial decisions at the end of a tight playoff game.
We will learn a lot about Westbrook in Oklahoma City’s first round series against Denver.
If he strings together an impressive playoff run, as many expect him to, he may climb up a spot or two on this list.
2. Chris Paul
9 of 10
You don’t know how hard it is for me to relegate CP3 to No. 2 on this list.
He is the best pure point guard in the world, a model of efficiency who doesn’t have a single hole in his game.
Paul has every possible tool that you could ever want from a point guard: speed, vision, unselfishness, leadership, reliable jump shot and the ability to control the tempo of every game.
Paul averaged 15.9 points and 9.8 assists per game, while leading the league in steals (2.3). His Player Efficiency Rating of 23.7 is first among point guards.
And perhaps most impressively, he was able to drag his team to the playoffs despite playing with six guys who wouldn’t be able to dominate your local rec league.
So why isn’t Paul No. 1 on this list?
One reason is his recent knee problems, which have zapped his former world-class speed and forced him to wear a brace the size of Nate Robinson.
New Orleans literally cannot run the same plays for him that they used to because of his reduced mobility.
But the primary reason Paul has been bumped to second-fiddle among point guards is simple: he’s not Derrick Rose.
1. Derrick Rose
10 of 10
I could gush for hours about Derrick Rose, about his humility, his obsessive work ethic, his dramatic improvements from season to season, his leadership, his unrelenting hunger for greatness, his ability to make the playoffs year after year no matter what supporting cast he has.
But my favorite quality about Rose is his vengeful nature on the court.
ESPN’s J.A. Adande wrote a terrific piece about how Rose consistently annihilates teams that beat him the previous time they played.
His scoring average raises from 25 to 28 points and his team's average margin of victory is 9.8.
Rose also seeks out and destroys his high profile point guard peers. In February, Rose abused Deron Williams and Chris Paul in back-to-back games on the road.
He made clutch shot after clutch shot, while blanketing his counterpart down the stretch.
He held Williams to just 11 points on 38 percent shooting and picked his pocket on a crucial possession in the final minute.
The next night, he shadowed Paul for 36 minutes, limiting him to 15 points on 30 percent shooting and only six assists.
In both games he left jaws agape with his usual array of spin dribbles, pin-point passes, and how-the-hell-did-he-do-that layups.
If anyone still doubted Rose’s point guard pedigree, he effectively shut them up on those consecutive February nights.
Although he has yet to win a playoff series, Rose is primed to carry Chicago deep into this year’s tournament.
With his remarkable physical gifts, relentless drive, and vengeful tendencies, who am I to doubt him?
