Ranking the top 25 guards in the NBA for the 2019-20 season

Klay Thompson is one of the greatest catch-and-shoot players in history — a guard who can post 42 percent from three-point land on demand. Thompson suffered a torn ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals, and the Associated Press (h/t Sports Illustrated ) recently reported that he’ll be sidelined until at least the All-Star Game. Through the fall and winter months, the Golden State Warriors will hold onto the hope that Thompson will be able to play in the postseason. How he’ll fit in with D’Angelo Russell, if Russell remains with the Warriors for the entire year, has yet to be determined. 

Like Klay Thompson, Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo is an All-Star who is working to return from a physical setback. The 27-year-old was  averaging 18.8 PPG, 5.6 REB and 5.2 AST when a torn right quad tendon sidelined him last January. As of late September, there was “no timetable” for his return, per Jasmyn Wimbish of CBS Sports. We likely won’t see him in the Indiana lineup until 2020. 

When the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Eric Bledsoe in November 2017, the club likely hoped it was obtaining a guard who could average over 20 PPG during the playoffs while also making an  All-Defensive Team. Last postseason, the 29-year-old shot  a dismal 23.6 percent from three, and he lost minutes to George Hill. Malcolm Brogdon departed for the Indiana Pacers during the offseason, meaning Milwaukee can’t have Bledsoe passing on open looks because he’s in his head during a cold spell. Regardless of what Bledsoe achieves before April, many will assume he’ll again shrink during his team’s biggest games until he proves otherwise. 

As Robert Flom of Clips Nation  explained, Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams made history last spring when he tied Jamal Crawford with a third career Sixth Man of the Year Award. The 32-year-old  averaged 20 PPG and a career-best 5.4 AST featuring for the playoff side, and he was L.A.’s leading scorer  after the team traded Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers. Lou Will won’t be asked to play such a significant role this coming season after the Clippers acquired Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. We’re confident he would trade winning Sixth Man of the Year a third straight season for a ring. 

Kyle Lowry probably will never again rank this high in point guard lists. That won’t bother the member of the reigning NBA champions one bit. As Vivek Jacob of Yahoo Sports  wrote, the 33-year-old forever silenced critics of his past postseason performances by averaging 16.2 PPG, 7.2 AST, 4.0 REB and 1.7 STL in the Finals, and Lowry equaled Pascal Siakam with a shared team-high 26 points in the closing game of the series. Lowry was Toronto’s heart and soul with a title on the line, and he may never play better on such a big stage. The Raptors must trade Lowry before his  contract expires. Whatever club lands him will acquire a champion guard who is now known as a clutch prime-time performer. 

CJ McCollum isn’t the best guard featuring for the Portland Trail Blazers this fall, and he’s part of a dynamic one-two punch that fails to deliver every spring. The 28-year-old  averaged  25 PPG the past two postseasons, and he’s shot over 40 percent from distance over that period. Something is missing, though, and it's not just his team's depth. Portland is desperate to add a third star to play alongside McCollum and Damian Lillard, and Kevin Love would be an ideal get. As  The Ringer’s Jonathan Tjarks suggested last January, Portland moving on from McCollum shouldn’t be off the table. 

Perhaps the best description for DeMar DeRozan is that the 30-year-old guard makes an OK team good but isn’t special enough to make a good team great. Face it: The Toronto Raptors made the right move including DeRozan in a trade for Kawhi Leonard. DeRozan can still  average  over 21 PPG and over 6.0 AST, but the San Antonio Spurs aren’t winning a title with him on the roster. San Antonio should look to trade him rather than extend his  contract that includes a player option for next season. 

The uptempo New Orleans Pelicans are built to allow guard Jrue Holiday to eat like never before. With Lonzo Ball delivering alley-oop passes to be stuffed by Zion Williamson, and Ball’s fellow Los Angeles Lakers castoff Brandon Ingram playing for a pay raise, Holiday could post yet another career season after  averaging 21.2 PPG, 7.7 AST and 5.0 REB. One of the most underrated perimeter defenders in the game, Holiday finished 17th overall in ESPN’s  real plus-minus. The 29-year-old is one reason the Pelicans are expected to compete following Anthony Davis’ departure. 

Two things everybody understands about Chris Paul: He’s only opening the season with the Oklahoma City Thunder because the team failed to locate a buyer for the veteran and his horrendous  contract, and he’s physically no longer a superstar. The 34-year-old is nevertheless one of the NBA’s smartest two-way guards, and every game he plays with OKC is an audition for a future trade. As Brad Botkin of CBS Sports  wrote for a recently published piece, Paul continues to be linked with the Miami Heat. The former “Point God” could have Jimmy Butler as a new teammate by Feb. 1 if he performs well with the Thunder and avoids a noteworthy physical setback.

Trae Young would’ve won Rookie of the Year if not for the historic campaign produced by Luka Doncic. Among  first-year pros , the Atlanta Hawks guard led the league in assists (8.1) and total points (1,549) and finished behind only Doncic in PPG (19.1 for Young, 21.2 for Doncic). Numbers offered by  ESPN and Bleacher Report’s Adam Fromal indicate Young delivered one of the worst defensive seasons in recent Association history. Recently, Mo Dakhil of Bleacher Report suggested Young can improve that part of his game by emulating Stephen Curry in multiple ways. 

Where do you rank a point guard so many expect will fail  in his new environment? On the surface, and in actuality, D'Angelo Russell is an All-Star who  tallied career highs in scoring (21.1 PPG), assists (7.0) and three-point shooting (36.9 percent). According to Drew Shiller of NBC Sports , head coach Steve Kerr plans to have either Russell or Curry “always on the floor generating offense,” with Curry serving as the team’s primary ball-handler when they're together. How much patience will Golden State show if Russell isn’t a knockdown shooter during the fall? 

The Denver Nuggets have a Jamal Murray problem whether those in charge of the team’s front office want to admit it or not. Murray earned an  extension  coming off his best season, during which he scored a career-best 18.2 PPG and shot 43.7 percent from the field and 36.7 percent from three-point land. His defense during the postseason was horrendous — Derrick White  dropped 36 points on Murray and the Nuggets — and the 22-year-old needs to become more of an efficient scorer who hits the 20 PPG mark to justify the money Denver’s dedicated to him. Denver is ready to win now. We can’t say the same about the version of Murray we last witnessed. 

Even those who predicted Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox would compete for Most Improved Player honors his second season in the Association were probably pleasantly surprised by how well the 21-year-old performed. Fox, who finished third in  MIP voting and was already known for his elite speed and his defense, improved his scoring from 11.6 PPG to 17.3 PPG and his three-point shooting from 30.7 percent to 37.1 percent. If he ultimately tops out at converting 35 percent of his attempts from the perimeter, he’ll be an All-Star before he turns 24.

The Phoenix Suns are a dysfunctional franchise that’s failed to win more than 24 games in a season since the club drafted Devin Booker in 2015. That’s not Booker’s fault, but those running the team may need to begin some difficult conversations regarding the 22-year-old as quickly as next summer. For all of his talent and scoring ability, Booker is little more than a guard who  tallies nearly 27 points per night for an awful team and someone who can drop 70 on an opponent but also a player who doesn’t make those around him better. Booker creates plenty of entertaining "SportsCenter" highlights, but one cannot envision him playing a second of playoff basketball in the foreseeable future. 

Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell knows he has to become a better defender, as  Marcel Mutoni of Slam Online wrote. After Mitchell improved  his three-point shooting (34 percent to 36.2 percent) and scoring (20.5 PPG to 23.8 PPG) while serving as Utah’s lone worrisome offensive weapon, the Jazz gifted him Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic during the offseason. Anybody concerned Mitchell didn’t take a figurative leap in 2018-19 should pay close attention to the 23-year-old this coming season. 

We’re always going to cringe whenever Mike Conley takes any contact at either end of the court. Conley’s injury history is well known , and he’ll be 32 years old when the season begins. The Utah Jazz offered Conley a lifeboat away from the Memphis Grizzlies, and the veteran will now be asked to run an offense that includes Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic. Emmanuel Mudiay playing well enough to prevent either Conley or Mitchell from having to be on the floor every second would, ideally, keep Conley as fresh as possible for postseason action.

As it pertains to skills and physical abilities, Jimmy Butler could be one of the best two-way guards in the NBA. That’s why it’s a shame he’s such an insufferable pain that Sun-Sentinel  readers asked what happens when the 30-year-old first bickers with Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra even before the start of the season. Butler became a nuisance with the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Philadelphia 76ers  didn’t beg him to give it another go after less than a full season with the club. There are also concerns his body is beginning to break down. 

Bradley Beal deserves better than signing a contract extension with a Washington Wizards side that is more focused on developing players and (hopefully) getting rid of John Wall than on winning. The 26-year-old with a sweet shooting stroke  notched a career-best 25.6 PPG and led the Association in minutes while playing in every single game last season. Dan Feldman of Yahoo Sports recently explained how Washington trading Beal would benefit the organization’s rebuild. It’s not too late to pull the trigger on that move, Wizards. 

The days of Kemba Walker averaging  over 25 points and nearly six helpers a night playing for a Charlotte Hornets side nobody outside of that region cared about are gone, as he’s now under the bright lights of the Boston Celtics and the expectations that come with playing for that franchise. Gordon Hayward probably will never again be the player he was in the summer of 2017. The likes of Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown are still developing into what they’ll become as pros. Walker isn’t just Boston’s best player. He’s being asked to be everything Kyrie Irving wasn’t during Irving’s tumultuous tenure with the organization. 

Remember when Kyrie Irving hit that three-pointer over Stephen Curry to win the Cleveland Cavaliers a title in 2016? Since that championship parade in downtown Cleveland, Irving has forced a trade out of Northeast Ohio,  trashed Cleveland  on his way out the door to the Boston Celtics and then became a pariah inside the Boston locker room, per  ESPN analyst Jalen Rose.  Irving, who grew up in New Jersey, now plays in the Big Apple for the Brooklyn Nets, and he’ll get to hang with Kevin Durant as the two-time Finals MVP recovers from the ruptured Achilles that will probably cost him the entire 2019-20 campaign. If things don’t go to Irving’s liking in his third NBA home, he’ll have to look in the mirror for answers. 

Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons is a dynamic playmaker who was probably an All-Defensive snub last spring and who is going to compete for MVP votes at some point within the next three to four seasons. As Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, the 23-year-old’s jump shot, or lack of its existence, remains the biggest question hovering over his career and Philadelphia’s pursuit of a title. From Pompey: “Last season, Simmons shot 70.1 percent at the rim and 38.5 percent from three feet and beyond. He missed his six three-point attempts. He is 0-for-17 on three-pointers for his career.” Opponents aren’t just comfortable letting Simmons fire from beyond the paint. They downright dared him to shoot last season. He can be phenomenal without developing that aspect of his game. Whether Philly can win if he doesn’t is the great unknown. 

By now the basketball community knows what Russell Westbrook is and isn’t. The one-time league MVP averaged a triple-double for a third consecutive season, and Westbrook still can take over a game at the snap of a finger when hot. Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight, basketball journalist Josh Eberley and Matt Moore of the Action Network , among others, all touched upon Westbrook’s shooting woes last season, and those issues aren’t disappearing overnight. The Houston Rockets are banking on the notion that Russ playing with James Harden, Eric Gordon and  potential breakout star Danuel House Jr. will erase some of Westbrook’s more regrettable shot selections. 

Damian Lillard certainly isn’t what’s wrong with the Portland Trail Blazers — he tops his side’s scoring and assists categories, and he can hit clutch walkoffs when asked — but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s part of a championship solution. The Trail Blazers are no better on Oct 15, 2019, than they were a year prior, and Portland rewarding the 29-year-old with a deserved extension  could lead to the club trading C.J. McCollum. Only three listed point guards made more  three-point attempts than Lillard (237) last season. How much better can the volume scorer become before celebrating his 30th birthday next summer? 

Unless you accidentally stumbled upon this piece, you’re probably aware Houston Rockets guard James Harden has an MVP Award in his trophy case and is coming off the best individual scoring season since one produced by Michael Jordan over 30 years ago. What separates Harden from the man atop the list? Rings. At 30 years old, Harden’s future opportunities to be the best player in the league during a June series can be counted on one hand. If the Houston Rockets pairing him with Russell Westbrook doesn’t work, he may never win a title with the club. 

A three-time champion and two-time NBA MVP averaged  36.5 PPG and shot over 42 percent from three-point range in a playoff sweep and then averaged over 30.5 points a night in the Finals while his teammate and the two-time reigning Finals MVP missed the majority of that series. Perhaps we should pump the brakes before assuming Stephen Curry can’t lead the Golden State Warriors back to the Finals without Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson.  Curry will turn 32 years old before the 2020 postseason begins. Steve Kerr must manage his star’s minutes while also determining if the tandem of Curry and D’Angelo Russell, along with the rest of the lineup, can beat the best of the West. Anybody counting Curry and Kerr out before a ball has been bounced is either trying to wish something into existence or is merely being silly.