NBA Free Agents 2011: 15 Gifted Offensive-Minded Guards Available

The NBA lockout has lasted about as long as most of us have expected, and it's going to last at least another day, but who knows what happens on Saturday when the NBA Players Association and the owners have yet another meeting?

I want to hope that the players talk about decertification of the union is just that—talk. I want to believe that the owners will finally pull themselves together and concede a few percentage points in basketball related income (BRI) to get things done.

I want to hope, but I don't know how possible it is that it all works out in the rosy way that I want it to.

For now, to keep my hopes up I want to look at something that will pretty much start as soon as each sides sign the new contract: free agency.

This is nowhere near the class of free agents we had in 2010, and it won't live up to the class of 2012, but there are some gems to be had.

The area I want to look at specifically for the moment is free agent guards that can give a much-needed offensive boost for teams lacking production from the smaller guys on court.

Admittedly, there aren't many great guards available, but if some teams are willing to gamble then we could have an interesting contract or two getting signed.

So, which guards can spark an offense the best—and which ones are mere specialists?  Just click away and I'll let you know.

15. Jason Kapono

This is probably the dumbest thing anyone could decide to be stubborn about, but I refuse to believe that Jason Kapono is done.

He led the league in three-point percentage in '07 and '08 with an astounding 51.4 percent and 48.3 percent, respectively, but then went into a free-fall, dropping all the way to 13 percent in 24 games last season.

I think he'll have a bounce-back year. He won't shoot anywhere near 50 percent like he did at his peak, but I just don't see how someone can lose his shot so quickly.

14. Daequan Cook

Daequan Cook is an interesting case to me.

He is a three-point specialist, and those types of players traditionally get buried on the bench during the first few years of their career—mostly because they can't contribute on defense and have to work to get consistent on offense.

After Cook went from Miami to Oklahoma City, he started playing in more games, but was still buried on their bench.

Still, in 43 games last season Cook shot 42 percent from downtown—good enough for 11th in the league in just his fourth season as a pro.

I think he's finally figuring it all out.

13. Mike Bibby

Don't laugh. No seriously...quit it.

There's a reason Miami signed Mike Bibby's corpse after Washington waived him last season: he can still shoot threes.

Some team out there needs a backup point guard who can sink a few threes off the bench, and the fact is, Bibby shot 44 percent from downtown last year—fifth in the league.

12. Vince Carter

Okay, I know I'm not going to be able to keep you guys from laughing on this one, so I'll just wait.

(Humming quietly to myself.)

Have you regained your composure? Good.

Vince Carter is obviously a shell of a shell of a corpse of his former self at this point, which I think just makes him an outer layer of dead skin, but that layer of dead skin may still have some offense left to contribute.

Phoenix will opt to not pick up his option (unless they are run by brain-dead monkeys), giving some team out there a chance to give him a few million bucks to see if he can contribute anything—and maybe he will.

11. Mario Chalmers

His numbers don't show a great offensive game, but his athleticism and the way he plays the game tells me he is improving.

Last year alone, he went from being one of the best bad players in the league to one of the worst good players in the league; which is improvement, right?

Mario Chalmers makes fewer bone-headed plays on each end of the floor and I feel like he really improved over the past season.

10. JJ Barea

JJ Barea is an example of what every team needs coming off their bench, but he is not a point guard I think can thrive as a starter.

He is an excellent player to change the pace with and keep the defense on their toes whenever he comes off the bench.

He's a decent shooter and can put some in from beyond the arc, but where he really makes his mark is when he unexpectedly penetrates and scores in the paint.

9. Aaron Brooks

The Phoenix Suns traded for Aaron Brooks at the trade deadline in February, giving up a first-round pick in the process, so you would have to imagine that they are going to re-sign him no matter what.

However, a team may drive up the price for his services.

Brooks is turning into quite a good point guard with the ability to run an offense.

8. Marco Belinelli

If Marco Belinelli is anything, he is a big guy with the ability to shoot the long ball, but he is also evolving into something more.

Belinelli is getting better at penetrating and controlling himself on offense as a whole, which could make him a very valuable player in the near future.

7. Nick Young

Nick Young is currently a volume shooter who needs to learn some discipline before he becomes a good player, but he might not be that far off.

Young averaged over 17 points a game last season, and he did it on 44 percent shooting, which is an improvement over the 42 percent that he shot the year before.

6. Tracy McGrady

Tracy McGrady sill has something left in the tank, this I am sure of.

He put up a decent season for the Pistons last season, scoring eight points a game over the course of 72 games.

McGrady shot 44 percent last season, which is the best he's shot since 2003 (when he shot 45 percent).

I think he's becoming a more selective and efficient scorer to demonstrate that he's still valuable to a good team coming off the bench.

5. Rodney Stuckey

Rodney Stuckey is a restricted free agent, so a team is going to have to throw some money at him to get him away from Detroit, which seems improbable at this point, but it is the NBA, where stupidity happens.

Whether Stuckey stays in Detroit or ends up elsewhere, that team needs to refuse to let him shoot the three ball, because from downtown he is absolutely horrendous.

However, get him the ball somewhere for a mid-range jumper and he is quite good. Take away all his long range bombs from last year and he shot nearly 46 percent from inside the arc. Not too shabby.

4. Marcus Thornton

Stepping into the role that was left void when Tyreke Evans got injured last year for the Kings, Marcus Thornton became the primary black hole for Sacramento, scoring just over 21 points a game in 27 games.

A team looking for a stretch who is willing to give him 12 to 15 shots a game could come away quite happy with Thornton's production—or the young player could regress, but I think he's going to be a pleasant surprise.

3. Arron Afflalo

My initial thought about Arron Afflalo when I hear his name is that he is best used as a three-point shooter on offense to go along with his good defense.

However, when you watch him play you can see that he is clearly developing beyond that, and his stats back it up.

It may be a fishy stat, but when you look at offensive rating, which is a complex metric that determines how many points a player contributes for every 100 possessions he's involved in, Arron Afflalo is astounding.

His rating was just below 123 last season, and while that is a number that usually fluctuates a bit from year to year normally, it's nothing to scoff at, especially since he is the highest rank guard in the league for that particular stat; even ahead of Chris Paul.

2. Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson was just short of terrible for the Magic last season, when compared to what he did for the Suns in the previous, dropping from 19 to 14 points a game and from 47 to 43 percent shooting.

However, I'm willing to chalk that up to learning the offense midway through the season.

It's far too early to look at Richardson and call him washed up. He's on the downslope of his career, that's for sure, but he's still got a good amount of gas left in that tank.

1. Jamal Crawford

Jamal Crawford may have fallen off a bit last season, but the fact is, he is the only guard in this free-agent class that could be relied upon as a consistent every-day offensive player.

The 2010 Sixth Man of the Year averaged just over 14 points a game coming off the bench for the Hawks last season, but a change of venue should rejuvenate him.

Crawford has been pigeonholed into the role as the sixth man for the Hawks, and if he goes to a team where he is suddenly the second or third option in the starting lineup, he could end up putting up better numbers on the floor.

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