Point Guard Rankings 2024

Tiering out the landscape of 55 NBA point guards

It’s about that time of year when every major publication updates their Top 100 players in the NBA. In a sports media landscape curated by hot take culture and engagement bait, NOTHING fires up people more than a Top 100 players list.

The subjectivity and criteria of these lists usually makes it impossible to distinguish the 89th best player from the 97th—especially if they play different positions.

This is why I prefer taking stock of the league by position. And rather than attempting to split hairs between the 19th and 20th best point guards, I split these players off into tiers. Players within the same tier are mostly interchangeable in terms of rank.

I’ve ranked players based on their unique skill sets, and how effectively they star or support in a winning system—for both the regular season and playoffs.

Lastly, the list does not project into the future. Rookie guards are almost always bad — and that’s ok.

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What is a Point Guard?

This is where subjectivity still exists. To me, ‘Point Guard’ duties entail ball handling and some degree of team- or self-creation in the half court. The ability to dribble, pass, and shoot are mandatory skills for legitimate starting Point Guards. This is also one of the two highest volume three-point shooting positions, so Point Guards who can’t shoot must excel in several other areas to supplement their lack of shooting.

Lastly, I’m attempting to label players by their “natural” position. So, while CJ McCollum has technically played Point Guard for multiple seasons with New Orleans, he is still clearly not a natural Point Guard, and will not feature on this list.

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Tier 9: End of Rotation

Ranks 46-55

• Scoot Henderson

• Gabe Vincent

• Jordan McLaughlin

• Reggie Jackson

• Jevon Carter

• Davion Mitchell

• Craig Porter Jr

• Marcus Sasser

• Anthony Black

• Cameron Payne

  

This group consists of strictly regular season backups—likely serviceable receiving low-mid teens in minutes per game. They’re all mostly one-way player with niche skill sets.

The shooters in this tier can’t defend or initiate offense. The main point-of-attack defenders can’t shoot or initiate. And the initiators can’t shoot

While players are not ranked within tiers, I like Jordan McLaughlin and Craig Porter Jr towards the top end of the tier

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Tier 8: Reserves

Ranks 36-45

• Tre Jones

• Russell Westbrook

• Kris Dunn

• Monte Morris

• Payton Pritchard

• Jose Alvarado

• Markelle Fultz

• Spencer Dinwiddie

• Aaron Holiday

• Dennis Smith Jr

This group is a small but meaningful enough upgrade from the group below—still totally fine regular season backups who *could* play spot minutes in a playoff series depending on matchups.

These players are still heavily flawed—mostly due to lack of top-end talent, but untenable shooting really drags players like Russell Westbrook, Tre Jones, Markelle Fultz and Dennis Smith Jr down here for me despite legitimate defensive and passing chops.

I’d have Pritchard, Jones and Dunn towards the top of this list, reasonably checking off three of four boxes: shooting, dribbling, passing, POA defense.

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Tier 7: Quality Backups

Ranks 30-35

• Miles McBride

• TJ McConnell

• Cole Anthony

• Kyle Lowry

• Dennis Schroder

• Keyonte George

This group projects to feature throughout a regular season and basically any playoff series. Your team is in a great place if any of these guys are your 8th man in the rotation.

From here on out, the gap between tiers should become more noticeable as they exponentially increase. Mostly players and tiers will be closer to the tier below than the tier above.

Among this group, I like McBride as a low maintenance, 3-and-D guard you can plug-and-play into almost any lineup.

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Tier 6: Bit Starters

Ranks 25-29

• Mike Conley

• Tyus Jones

• Malcolm Brogdon

• Chris Paul

• Andrew Nembhard

We’re finally into a group of NBA starters, though likely only on non-playoff teams. This is a mostly offensive tier, leaning heavily into pick-and-roll play and shooting. And the least willing shooting here, Andrew Nembhard, is by far the best defensive player within the tier.

Mike Conley’s high-volume shooting off the catch and on the move — 44% on 6.6 attempts / 36 mins — is probably the single most valuable skill in this tier. I’d have him towards the top for that reason.

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Tier 5: Starters

Ranks 19-24

• Anfernee Simons

• Immanuel Quickley

• Cade Cunningham

• Coby White

• D’Angelo Russell

• Terry Rozier

As we climb the Point Guard ranks, we notice tiers become more and more skewed toward offense. This reflects the importance of half court shot creation, which applies to all positions, but especially Point Guards.

All players here are threats to drive, finish or kick off the bounce or the catch. But it all comes back to shooting. You can’t be a legitimate starting Point Guard in 2024 without at least an average jump shot.

I’d have Anfernee Simons towards the top of this tier despite being one of the biggest defensive sink holes in the NBA. His absurd shot creation and pull-up shooting — 39% on 9.2 attempts / 36 mins — make him the highest ceiling player of the group on a night-to-night basis

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Tier 4: Starter-Closers

Ranks 13-18

• Jrue Holiday

• Fred VanVleet

• Dejounte Murray

• James Harden

• Darius Garland

• LaMelo Ball

Sometimes, players get grandfathered into a starting role they don’t always deserve. This is totally fine in the regular season, and sometimes even the playoffs. But the closing five is where you really learn what a team thinks of a player.

Possessing the skill and/or tools to be a consistent closer on a real team is where we start seeing these $35m/year (or higher!) contracts handed out like hot cakes, especially at lead guard.

I’d have Jrue Holiday and Fred VanVleet at the top of this tier. Jrue skews more defensively, and is the last player in this list who does so. And while Fred is undersized, he’s the next best defensive player among these top groups, supplemented by his passing and exceptional outside shooting.

Note: I’m still high on Garland—i’m not willing to plummet him down the tiers after having his jaw wired shut for a month during the season.

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Tier 3: All-Star

Ranks 6-12

• Damian Lillard

• De’Aaron Fox

• Trae Young

• Ja Morant

• Kyrie Irving

• Tyrese Maxey

• Jamal Murray

I considered breaking this up into multiple tiers of All-Star and weak All-NBA, but ultimately thought the line was slightly too fine. Everyone here is an All-Star talent—and none of them are clear cut All-NBA.

If I were to split up the tier, Tyrese Maxey may have a tier to himself between 3 and 4—call it Tier 3.5.

Damian Lillard sits atop this tier for me. I’m hoping a full offseason to train in Milwaukee gets him closer to his Portland self. We’re only a couple seasons removed from the most explosive offensive year of his career.

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Tier 2: All-NBA

Ranks 3-5

• Jalen Brunson

• Stephen Curry

• Tyrese Haliburton

Despite being one of the five greatest age 35+ players in NBA history, minor declines have taken Stephen Curry out of the top tier for me. Health has become a bigger concern, as has his ability to create space off the dribble and score at the rim. He’s still one of the 10 best players in the world, just no longer a true MVP candidate.

Tyrese Haliburton was playing for an All-NBA spot and $40m this season. And he did so on one hamstring—his non-dominant hamstring. Pre-injury, he looked like 6’5 Steve Nash with 2016 Stephen Curry shot-making, and reached as high as third in MVP odds through two months of the season.

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Tier 1: Superstars

Ranks 1-2

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

• Luka Doncic

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic are the two best “Point Guards” in the world today—and will be perennial MVP candidates for years to come. These are the only two players at this position who I believe, with absolute certainty, can be the number 1 option on a Championship team.

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Hopefully this can be a useful resource for you, as it will be for me! From a team building perspective, I find tiering out players by position far more useful than amalgamating everyone into a positionless ‘Top x’ list.