Do point guards really matter in the NBA?

[ChrisKreager]

Since Isiah won his 2nd straight title in 1990, other than Tony Parker and Jason Kidd, every other title has been won by teams with better forwards or big men.

[Hit_Em]

Having Kobe,LeBron,Jordan, Hakeem, Shaq, or Duncan.Is all that matter in the past 22 out of 25 years.These 6 Guys have dominated this league in my lifetime

[bdreason]

PG's don't win championships. If your PG is your best player... you better have some great players around him.

[nathanjizzle]

dumb questions like these expose ignorance. point guard discrimination people.

[el_locoteee]

Since Isiah won his 2nd straight title in 1990, other than Tony Parker and Jason Kidd, every other title has been won by teams with better forwards or big men.

Tony Parker who's not a true pg got Tim hall of fame Duncan as the main guy and Kidd was a role player in a team that feature Hall of fame Dirk.

So, no team have won since Isiah with a PG as your main guy.

[GimmeThat]

One of the better ways to counter length
Or in Magic's case, strength

[J Shuttlesworth]

dumb questions like these expose ignorance. point guard discrimination people.
#NOTALLPOINTGUARDS

[MMM]

PG's are valuable but depending on the PG to be your best player or scorer is not ideal. Pg's dont consistently impact the game defensively and depending on them to score over length is not a recipe for long term success.

[Fire Colangelo]

Point guards are to serve one purpose, and that's to facilitate the ball and run plays. Get the ball to your best player in his favourite spot kind of thing.

If your point guard is your scoring option you better pray he's efficient as hell. Chris Paul is efficient as you're gonna get at the point guard position, and he's not as efficient of a scorer as Kobe/Lebron/Durant etc. Yeah he can get hot for a couple of games but a long athletic defender like Leonard is going to bother him much more than KD, or LeBron (in b4 Diaw, Terry and Barea).

[keep-itreal]

If Derrick Rose was never injured he would have a good chance of winning a title.

[24-Inch_Chrome]

If Derrick Rose was never injured he would have a good chance of winning a title.

:whatever:

In what world? So long as LeBron is in the East, Rose isn't getting anywhere.

[SugarHill]

#NOTALLPOINTGUARDS
:oldlol:

[MJistheGOAT]

Yes, but having them as the go to scorer AND ball handler/floor general is not a good idea.

In our days, it

[3ball]

Since Isiah won his 2nd straight title in 1990, other than Tony Parker and Jason Kidd, every other title has been won by teams with better forwards or big men.


The stats prove live-dribbling (point-guard-style ball-domination) is the LOWEST % play:


Points-Per-Possession (PPP) Achieved Via Various Type of Plays (per NBA.com):

Pick n Roll Ballhandler: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/ball-handler/?dir=1&sort=PPP <----- the lowest PPP

Spot-Ups: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/spot-up/?dir=1&sort=PPP

Offensive Cut: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/cut/?dir=1&sort=PPP

Off-Screen: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/off-screen/?dir=1&sort=PPP


When a player uses a live, existing dribble (like a point-guard), their team is easiest to defend.. This is partly because plays using a live dribble take more time than other plays..

But most importantly, a dribbler is always easily visible to the defense - a defense can see who is dribbling the ball, so they can focus/anticipate his actions.. Otoh, when a player off-ball is about to score, the defense has no idea who that will be because that players doesn't have the ball yet.

What happens with massive ball-dominators like CP3 is that the defense is actually stopping his team by LETTING him get off and just containing everyone else.. A defense gets in a rhythm when defending consistent ball-domination, which entails containing everyone else, while the ball-handler dribbles around like a chicken with his head cut off... If you watch Isiah and Tony Parker - they actually didn't dominate the ball NEARLY as much as CP3, Nash, etc.. Believe it or not - Isiah and Parker play off-ball a ton, and often simply weren't involved in plays AT ALL..

[keep-itreal]

:whatever:

In what world? So long as LeBron is in the East, Rose isn't getting anywhere.

Pre-injury Derrick Rose on this 2014-2015 Bulls team is a contender.

All those years in the playoffs it was that useless undersized Carlos Boozer that was the reason they were never able to get over the hump.

[24-Inch_Chrome]

Pre-injury Derrick Rose on this 2014-2015 Bulls team is a contender.

All those years in the playoffs it was that useless undersized Carlos Boozer that was the reason they were never able to get over the hump.

Rose isn't getting past LeBron either way. :confusedshrug:

[3ball]

The stats prove live-dribbling (point-guard-style ball-domination) is the LOWEST % play:


Points-Per-Possession (PPP) Achieved Via Various Type of Plays (per NBA.com):

Pick n Roll Ballhandler: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/ball-handler/?dir=1&sort=PPP <----- the lowest PPP

Spot-Ups: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/spot-up/?dir=1&sort=PPP

Offensive Cut: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/cut/?dir=1&sort=PPP

Off-Screen: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/off-screen/?dir=1&sort=PPP

Post-Ups: http://stats.nba.com/playtype/#!/post-up/?dir=1&sort=PPP


When a player uses a live, existing dribble (like a point-guard), their team is easiest to defend.. This is partly because plays using a live dribble take more time than other plays..

But most importantly, a dribbler is always easily visible to the defense - a defense can see who is dribbling the ball, so they can focus/anticipate his actions.. Otoh, when a player off-ball is about to score, the defense has no idea who that will be because that players doesn't have the ball yet.

What happens with massive ball-dominators like CP3 is that the defense is actually stopping his team by LETTING him get off and just containing everyone else.. A defense gets in a rhythm when defending consistent ball-domination, which entails containing everyone else, while the ball-handler dribbles around like a chicken with his head cut off... If you watch Isiah and Tony Parker - they actually didn't dominate the ball NEARLY as much as CP3, Nash, etc.. Believe it or not - Isiah and Parker play off-ball a ton, and often simply weren't involved in plays AT ALL..


The NBA's player-tracking data shown above proves that live-dribbling (point guard-style) is the lowest percentage play - it's lower than spot-ups, off-screen plays, offensive cut plays, and also post-ups (I added post-up stats to the above post - so live-dribbling has lower PPP than all plays).