In the past five years the point guard position has been changed drastically. In the NBA the point guard is normally an extension of the Head Coach who leads his teammates and places them in the best position so that they can succeed.
Watching the NBA in this day and age it can be painful at times to see point guard play. I know every point guard can’t be Magic Johnson, John Stockton, or Isiah Thomas, but it I feel that the younger players have lost the idea of how to play the point guard position. Derrick Rose who was the NBA MVP in the 2011 season is a great talent, but his point guard abilities are not the best. Rose is notorious for shooting low percentages for example in his most recent game against the New York Knicks Rose shot 8-26. I know the Bulls are not the most talented team, but come on now.
Everybody talks about the new found hybrid point guard with guys such as Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and John Wall. The hybrid point guard is blessed with abnormal athleticism for a point guard, but they seem to lack the gusto and basketball IQ of a true point guard.
With all due respect to Derrick Rose, but I hate when people say that Derrick Rose is the best point guard in the NBA. I know the NBA is a “what have you done for me lately kind of league”, but how could somebody say that when Chris Paul and Deron Williams are still playing at a high level. Rose, Westbrook, and Wall should really try to implement better point guard play into their repertoire. With Paul and Williams they pick and chose when to score while they are still involving their teammates. With the young bucks its like “imma get mines first and then I may let you get the ball”. It is funny to see how Carlos Boozer plays like Horace Grant with D. Rose and when he was playing with D. Will Boozer was one of the top power forwards in the game. Rose is a great player, but I don’t feel like he is a great point guard. The same also goes for Russell Westbrook.
This season it was great to see Kyrie Irving and Ricky Rubio breed new life into the point guard position. By both players being pass first players it is great to see them achieve success while playing the point guard position in traditional fashion. I hope this can be a trend to come, but with the fascination of the “hybrid” point guard I doubt that it will.
I wrote a comment about this the other day. Tyreke Evans is a prime example of this. He is a scorer. He ended up being moved out of the point. My Knicks and Shumpert. Drafted as a point, plays the 2 and sometimes 3. The true points are a dying breed.
I complain about this all the time, just off of Russell Westbrick’s game alone. Funny enough, I was just about to type that “he should not be AVERAGING 0.5 FG attempts less than Kevin Durant;” which is something I noticed roughly a month ago. But since I fact-check before posting, I’ve discovered he’s actually taken MORE shots than KD on the season! He also should not be 5th in the league in scoring. He’s a good player and all, but shoots waaaay too many outside shots. I truly hope he, as well as the others mentioned like, Rose & Wall one day realize 18 & 12 for a PG is just as good as 25 & 5.
Just noticed this, do you see an underlying theme here though? What do Rose, Evans, & Wall have in common?
I truly agree with this post, that’s why to me CP3 is the best point guard in the league. PG’s should make their teammates better. Ala Nash, D-Will, CP3, Rubio, and Conley.
I wish the pg position went back to the old way but these guys are getting more and more athletic every day and the glory goes to the scorer so even though they run the 1 they’ll probably continue to shoot first.
I honestly think this conversation is being a little bit blown out of proportion. The game has changed and evolved over the years. Cats who play the 1 now are more athletic and that leads to a sense of selfishness by the public when they do take over games. Look closer tho at D Rose’s stats compared to say Isaiah and they shoot a similar % for their career (D Rose 46% to Isaiah’s 45%). I think it just comes down to preference, but to say the position is being ruined is a stretch to me.
Another point that I think is missing is that these PG’s from back in the day played with other GREAT HOF type players. Magic had Kareem, Worthy, Isiah had Dumars Adrian Dantley, Stockon and Malone, KJ and Barkley. Who is great that D Rose is playing with right now? So of course he picks up the scoring load at times cuz he’s capable and willing to. Westbrook is just a gun, I mean it is what it is with that guy, but he averages almost 7 assists a game too for his career.
Rose gets a bad rap, he currently avgs 23 and 8, on a decent team,@al Westbrook has no excuse to only avg 5 asst he has equal and greater players, wall also has a skep team and avg 17 and 8. With only 13 shots a gm and that’s on the bum as@ wizards team . The position is changing the talent pool is different back in the teams were stacked so you have to get hof’s players involved like @don said.
But for Rose and Wall to avg what they avg in asst is pretty good on the teams they rock with, Evans is an huge example of shoot 1st lol @Willie
I don’t think the position is dying just a lot of better athletes and worst teams
I’m a point guard who was trained on the fundamentals. Of course players evolve, get more athletic, blazey blazey but what I love and what most love about sports is seeing the power of team work. I personally would rather see a point guard who’s getting his team involved and making plays happen then an athletic point guard who is essentially playing both the role of a shooting guard and a point guard. On the other hand a point guard has to do what he has to do and see the bigger picture. So if his team is lacking in a certain area he may have to play that much better to compensate for what his team is lacking. In what I’ve seen from Westbrook and Rose in the limited amount of games that I have viewed is that they both appear to be the scoring type of PG’s. We will know more about their skills if they get stronger shooting guards around them. Good discussion.