2017 is a landmark year for point guards. Among the top three teams of this season, 5 point guards were selected (first team: Russell Westbrook, James Harden; second team: Stephen Curry, Isaiah Thomas ; Third Team: John Wall), in addition to 8 point guards selected to the All-Star Game (the above five plus Kemba Walker, Kyle Lowry and Kyrie Irving). Do you think I’ve missed anyone? That's right, when it comes to point guards, we haven't even talked about the "God of Ball Control" Chris Paul, a Hall of Fame point guard who seems to be slightly less skilled but is still a stable loser!
Further reading:The Forgotten Fantastic Captain: Chris Paul Still Stands Up
In view of today's fast-paced and high-efficiency basketball game style, sometimes it is difficult to imagine how basketball games are played in other ways. Today, many teams' offense starts with the point guard attacking the basket. Whether paired with a long pick and roll, or opening up the floor to facilitate cutting passes, the presence of the point guard dominates a team's half-court offense.
However, the current "golden era" of the No. 1 position still does not last long enough. You don’t need to go back too long to find that not long ago, the league was still a world ruled by elders, and the golden rule of “one inch taller, one inch stronger” was still in operation; however, in just a few years, the counterattack of the point guard Welcomed violently, and challenged to become the most influential role on the basketball court as one of the shortest players on the court, subverting the tradition of basketball (of course, in terms of statistics, the performance of the center still occupies a very important position ).
In addition to relying on simple intuition and appearance, we also used data to verify this statement: Have point guards begun to dominate the world's highest basketball palace and reach an unprecedented new height?
Phenomenon 1: The victory contribution index is rising steadily
How to clearly point out that the "golden age" of point guards is coming? One possible evaluation criterion is whether the point guard's win share index (WS%) reaches a new league high in the season. The 48-minute win contribution index of the well-known data website Basketball Reference is used as the criterion for overall performance. Based on the WS/48 of the top 10 players in the league that year, they are then classified into long men, wings and point guards, and try to find the point guard. historical trends of importance.
Looking at these three positions from the chart, change in the 30 years since 1985:
To make the curve look smoother, the average number over three years is plotted)
Note: From the name, "wings" and "bigs" include the two positions of the fifth position. However, the point guard only occupies one position, so "theoretically" the point guard The contribution seems to be smaller than the other two positions (and because of this, the recent surge is all the more noteworthy.)
The following observations -
flanking section: The number of excellent wing players has been relatively stable over the past 30 years, but they have never performed particularly outstandingly; and in recent years, the curve has been on a downward trend (the peak in the figure is when Michael Jordan entered the league) .
Long person part: For a long time, basketball has been a sport dominated by tall people; but since the turn of the millennium, tall people’s dominance of the game has steadily declined (but my god, in 1999, tall people dominated the game in one go) Received nine positions among the top ten of WS/48! Including "Admiral" David Robinson, "European Fertilizer" Shaquille O'Neal, "Postman" Karl Malone, "Morning Star" Alonzo Mourning, "Evil Man" Charles Barkley, "Stone Buddha" Tim Duncan, Arvydas Sabonis, "Barrel Boy" Dikembe Mutombo and "Beast" Shawn Kemp); only John Stockton occupies the only spot as a point guard).
point guard part: As you can see on the far right of the picture, the point guard is at his peak position. This is also the point guard since the contributions of Magic Johnson, John Stockton and Kevin Johnson (and Terry Porter in the early 1990s). This is a peak that point guards have once again climbed to; and in 2017, five of the top ten stars in the league's WS/48 were played by point guards! (Can you guess who it is? Paul, Harden, Thomas, Curry, Westbrook)
Phenomenon 2: Top ten stars in each position
The NBA started to change significantly after the first decade of this century, so let’s take a closer look at the changes over the past few years and try asking the question another way:Have the top ten elite players at point guard caught up with the top ten stars at other positions?
Here are the player efficiency values of the top ten stars at five different positions: (PER, league average is 15)
With Russell Westbrook, this season's annual MVP, leading the league with 30.7, the point guard position has not only caught up with other positions, but has even moved away from the long-standing hegemon, the center, by a certain distance. From the phenomenon 1 just discussed, we can also find that since 2010, the rapid movement of point guards also echoes this phenomenon. This position is now occupied by many physical and technical monsters who are at their peak. It is no longer seven years ago, when even Andre Miller, who was declining at the age of 33, could squeeze into the top ten!
| 2017 Ranking | Point guard (league-wide ranking) | efficiency value | 2010 Ranking | Point guard (league-wide ranking) | efficiency value |
| 1 | Russell Westbrook (1) | 30.70 | 1 | Chris Paul (7) | 23.74 |
| 2 | James Harden (5) | 27.43 | 2 | Steve Nash (16) | 21.67 |
| 3 | Isaac Thomas (7) | 26.59 | 3 | Deron Williams (23) | 20.62 |
| 4 | Chris Paul (9) | 26.25 | 4 | Chauncey Billups (26) | 20.25 |
| 5 | Stephen Curry (15) | 24.74 | 5 | Rajon Rondo (34) | 19.18 |
| 6 | Damian Lillard (16) | 24.15 | 6 | Gilbert Arenas (39) | 18.76 |
| 7 | John Wall (21) | 23.28 | 7 | Derrick Rose (41) | 18.69 |
| 8 | Mike Conley (22) | 23.26 | 8 | Rodrigue Beaubois (42) | 18.59 |
| 9 | Kyrie Irving (23) | 23.09 | 9 | Andre Miller (50) | 18.18 |
| 10 | Kyle Lowry (24) | 22.92 | 10 | Russell Westbrook (57) | 17.90 |
Phenomenon 3: The usage rate of point guards
If today's basketball is played with a "point guard"-oriented style, it can be expected that the point guard will participate in the offense more often. In terms of usage rate, starting from 2010, the average usage rate of the top ten point guards in annual efficiency value (PER) has indeed gradually increased, and this year it even exceeded the 30% mark! (Westbrook and Beard should have a lot of credit...)
| 2017 Ranking | Point guard (league-wide ranking) | USG% | 2010 Ranking | Point guard (league-wide ranking) | USG% |
| 1 | Russell Westbrook (1) | 42.5 | 1 | Gilbert Arenas (3) | 33.2 |
| 2 | James Harden (2) | 35.1 | 2 | Derrick Rose (9) | 26.3 |
| 3 | Isaiah Thomas (4) | 32.8 | 3 | Russell Westbrook (11) | 25.9 |
| 4 | John Wall (6) | 31.7 | 3 | Rodney Stuckey (11) | 25.9 |
| 5 | Damian Lillard (8) | 30.7 | 5 | Brandon Jennings (15) | 25.6 |
| 6 | Kyrie Irving (10) | 29.9 | 6 | Tony Parker (18) | 25.3 |
| 7 | Stephen Curry (13) | 29.5 | 7 | Devin Harris (20) | 25.2 |
| 8 | Kemba Walker (15) | 28.3 | 7 | Sebastian Telfair (20) | 25.2 |
| 9 | Eric Bledsoe (16) | 28.2 | 9 | Aaron Brooks (24) | 24.8 |
| 10 | Dennis Schroder (18) | 27.9 | 9 | Deron Williams (24) | 24.8 |
(The point guard whose usage rate ranked 10th last season was actually higher than the point guard who ranked 2nd 7 years ago...)
Although the above data can be used as evidence, it still cannot definitely prove that point guards in the league are in a golden age; and basketball itself is a sport that continues to evolve, so whether point guards will still dominate the league in the next few seasons is still unclear. variables; however, it seems that this trend shows no signs of stopping so far. Data analysis has opened a new era of basketball called "space & pace". Many teams rely on an organizer to score and score. Although it may not always be initiated by the No. 1 position, it cannot be denied that what we are witnessing now may be the most fiercely competitive era of "controllers' death battles" in history. .
The first two picks in the 2017 draft were both PGs (Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball), not to mention the other three point guards who were picked in the top ten (De'Aaron Fox, Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith Jr.).
Rise takes time and waiting, and the heyday of point guards has now officially taken over the NBA. (16 Wins a Ring)
