NBA Positional Player Rankings: Shooting Guards

The most definitive ranking of my opinions

As we head into the homestretch of the positional player rankings, we enter the backcourt. If you haven’t checked out the center, power forward, and/or small forward rankings, they’ll be linked right below.

Center Power Forward Small Forward

The shooting guard position has lost the luster it once held. Today, when we talk about the position, we talk of combo and 3-and-D guards, but it wasn’t long ago that shooting guard was the premier position. To be a shooting guard was a status symbol. It was the alpha-position in a league full of them. For nearly three decades, the mystique the position held was unrivaled, and like all things basketball, we have Nike to thank.

In the mid-1980s, Michael Jordan jump-started the 30-year reign of the shooting guard. If Jordan hadn’t been a transcendent talent, this never would have worked, but the synergy between his incredible high-flying play and the Nike shoe line that bore his name pushed him and the league to marketing heights never before seen. To play shooting guard was to be like Mike, and to be like Mike was to be closer to god.

Following Jordan’s retirement in 1998, the NBA and Nike were left scrambling for their next great revenue driver. Spending nearly 15 years building Jordan into an athlete tentpole unseen in American culture had one serious downside: Basketball Jesus had to be like Mike, and Mike was a shooting guard. Fortunately, Kobe Bryant was the perfect product to fill the Jordan void. Drafted in 1996 out of High School, Bryant quickly became a household name as the high-flying, high-scoring sidekick to the dominant Shaq-led Lakers. However, it wouldn’t be until 2003 that Bryant signed on with Nike, but once he did, it solidified shooting guard as the position for another glorious decade.

I don’t know who precisely killed the shooting guard position, but my guess is it was a combination of LeBron James, a boom in coaching creativity, and analytics. By LeBron’s second season, he was clearly a better player than Bryant. The problem was that it was 2004-05, and Nike knew they had a marketing goliath with Bryant. So, for an incredibly stupidly long amount of time, we had to do the whole Kobe Bryant is the best player in the world thing. Fortunately for Nike, Bryant was gift-wrapped an MVP, the Lakers won two titles, and we were still over a decade away from “Me Too,” so the pushback was never going to be fierce. However, the obvious can only be obscured for so long, and by 2011, there was no question.

So much of the shooting guard’s cultural cache was tied up in the idea that the best, most exciting player played it. But with LeBron, the best player was a small forward who could dominate at power forward, was also kind of a point guard, and happened to be hugely entertaining. As LeBron established himself as the new face of the game, the league experienced a radical tactical shift, which helped define the modern game– cut out the middle man.

For years, the point guard brought the ball up the court and then passed it to whoever the team actually wanted to score. This fundamental understanding of how basketball should be played led to the concept of a pure point guard, and coaches leaned into this conventional wisdom hard. It’s one of the reasons the league played at a glacial pace and why they used to call so many plays. Then teams started to realize, wouldn’t it be easier if the guy we wanted to have the ball in the first place, just had the ball in the first place? This didn’t kill the shooting guard position overnight, but it did start to shift players who would have been shooting guards to the point guard position.

However, the final death blow was analytics. Once organizations realized that where you shot was equally as important as who shot, the classic shooting guard was as good as dead. If you weren’t a point guard, you needed to be a floor spacer or a screener, and your job was to take efficient shots. For years, one of the shooting guard’s primary jobs was to take the tough shots. As teams increasingly moved away from contested mid-range jumpers, the need for a player who wasn’t your primary ball handler to take bad shots cratered. The shooting guard position didn’t die as much as the point guard position absorbed it, and then spit it out like Kirby in Super Smash Bros.

What does this long look at recent NBA history have to do with positional player rankings? In my mind, everything. The shooting guard position has largely been stripped down to 3-and-D guards, scorers who aren’t good enough passers to run point, and point guards on teams with a better point guard. There’s a reason we’ve seen so many shooting guards struggle this offseason, either in landing the contracts they want or being traded for the shells of peanuts. That doesn’t mean there aren’t excellent players at the position, but I think it’s basically impossible for the best player in the league to ever really be a shooting guard again.

Above the Break Top-30 Shooting Guards

Honorable Mentions

Grayson Allen: Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns’ strategy to build an entire team out of shooting guards is an interesting decision, and by interesting, I mean hilariously ill-conceived. Grayson Allen is one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA. He’s a career 41.4% 3-point shooter and has averaged 7.3 attempts per 36 minutes. That level of floor spacing is valuable, and in the right context, potentially game-breaking. Unfortunately, Phoenix isn’t the right context, and Allen isn’t particularly good at anything else.

Caris LeVert: Detroit Pistons

The most perfectly distilled version of an almost-player is Caris LeVert. The man has been on the verge of a breakout for ages, and at only 30, there’s still time for him to let us down again. Jokes aside, there’s actually a lot to like about LeVert. He can dribble, create his own shot, is a solid passer, will rack up a few steals and blocks, and has the versatility to play one through three. This all sounds like a great player, the only problem is he’s not actually good at anything, and has never stacked consecutive seasons of solid 3-point shooting. LeVert is a great bench option who you never want to have to start. He can wear a bunch of different hats and keep the lights on, but he’s not going to remodel your kitchen. I think LeVert will help Detroit’s second units, and if he has one of his random good 3-point shooting seasons, he could also help their starters.

Isaiah Joe: Oklahoma City Thunder

Deadeyed Joe sure can shoot the piss out of the ball. He’s a career 40.2% 3-point shooter on 9.6 attempts per 36, who has taken under 20% of his threes from the corner. That level of above-the-break shooting is elite, and his floor spacing is crucial to the Thunder’s offense. Just look at how they go from offensive juggernaut to Washington Wizards without one of Joe or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the court.

If Joe could create for himself or really defend, he’d be in the top-30. As important as he has become to the Thunder, he’s maybe their eighth-best player. That’s a testament to the Thunder, but also the reality of a one-trick pony.

Aaron Wiggins: Oklahoma City Thunder

As you’ll see, there are a ton of Thunder on this list. Aaron Wiggins isn’t the shooter that Joe is, but he’s also not a non-entity beyond the arc. For his career, he’s a 38.9% 3-point shooter, but only on 4.8 attempts per 36. What separates Wiggins from Joe is that he’s bigger (6’6) and a more well-rounded player. In a context-neutral situation, I’d rather have Wiggins, who can play small forward and create a bit more for others than a pure shooting specialist. For many teams, Wiggins would be a starter, but for the Thunder, he’s a bench luxury.

Jaylen Wells: Memphis Grizzlies

Wells had quite the rookie season. Drafted in the second round, he started 74 games and was the Grizzlies’ de facto primary on-ball defender. In fact, Wells spent most of the season playing small forward, and it’s his defensive versatility and relative youth that vault him above the rest of the honorable mentions. While his 35.2% 3-point shooting looks solid for a rookie, I’m a bit concerned about how real it is. His college 3-point shooting (41.7%) and rookie three throw shooting (82.2%) suggest he should become a consistent 3-point shooter, but he did take a large portion of his threes from the corner (38%) and suffered a significant second-half drop in 3-point efficiency, going from 39.1% in his first 46 games, to 29.3% over his final 33. All told, I think it’s better to bank on his track record as a shooter and chalk his sudden decline to the Grizzlies’ dysfunction and hitting the rookie wall. I’m not sure how high Wells’ ceiling is, but he looks to be tracking as a starting quality 3-and-D wing or guard.

They Play the Position

30. Andrew Nembhard: Indiana Pacers

Call me Wichita State because I’m throwing shockers. So much of Andrew Nembhard’s reputation is tied up in the Pacers’ pair of shocking playoff runs. Over 40 playoff games, he averaged 13.5 points, 5.0 assists, and 1.0 steals per game on 47.3% 3-point shooting and an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 59.6%. It’s hard to argue with that, but I guess I will because have you seen his regular season numbers? Over those same two seasons, in 133 regular-season games, he averaged 9.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 1.1 steals on 32.4% 3-point shooting and an eFG% of 55.2%. To be fair to Nembhard, he’s a good on-ball defender, but his lack of size limits his versatility. Shooting guards without offensive pop concern me, and I can’t see his efficiency improving in a much higher usage role and without Tyrese Haliburton. My rule with playoff performances is they need to confirm the regular season, not render the regular season moot.

29. Brandin Podziemski: Golden State Warriors

I have a theory called the first-quarter narrative principle. Basically, for 80% of the league (an unscientific amount, but it’s the idea that people really only pay attention to 20% of the league), how they play in the first quarter of the season will establish a narrative that will disproportionally stick throughout the remainder of the year. And it’s this principle that I believe concealed a really promising second season from Brandin Podziemski. Going into this exercise, I thought Podziemski had had a bad season. Then I looked at the numbers, and outside of 3-point shooting and a fraction of an assist, he was better than he had been as a rookie. So, why the hell did I think he was dogwater? Well, Podziemski was famously the alleged sticking point in a Lauri Markkanen trade because, allegedly, the Warriors believed he was a future All-Star. That alone created a level of hype entering the season that was frankly irresponsible, and then Podziemski lived up to it by diarrheaing the bed. Over the first 16 games of the season, he averaged 7.2 points per game on an eFG% of 40.8% and 19.3% 3-point shooting. That’s all it took. Narratively, his season was over. Fortunately, for him and the Warriors, he played 48 more games and was absolutely nails. Over the remaining three-fourths of the season, Podziemski averaged 13.0 points per game on an eFG% of 56.7% and 43% 3-point shooting and secured a starting role for the Warriors as they ran roughshod over the league in the final two months of the season. Podziemski is a fun player. He can shoot, dribble, pass, and is an elite positional rebounder. His defense isn’t spectacular, but he makes the most of his limited physical gifts and can be a cog within an elite defense. I don’t think he’s a future All-Star because he lacks that level of on-ball creation, but he’s a solid shooting guard.

28. Quentin Grimes: Philadelphia 76ers

How good is Quentin Grimes? At one point, he was a promising young 3-and-D guard, then he was injured and dumped, and then dumped again, and then dumped again. In Philadelphia, his most recent landing spot, he got the opportunity of a lifetime as the only guy who could score on a team trying to rack up lottery odds. He made the most of it, averaging 21.9 points per game across 28 games, and then the Sixers basically said, “We do not care and have no intention of paying you.” So, now, Grimes is playing on the qualifying offer as he looks to hit free agency next summer. I’m not going to focus on stats here because, overall, they’re fine. The question with Grimes is, why does no team want him or want to pay him if he’s any good? If NBA teams are repeatedly telling us something, I think we should listen. Grimes is a player worth having, worth playing, but not really worth paying. That sounds like a low-level starter.

Empty Buckets/Defensive Sieve

We’re entering the buckets zone. These are all players you probably know and probably believe to be good. Points per game remain king, and these guys can rack them up. However, points per game do not make a good player. It’s often overlooked, but even the worst teams average well over 100 points per game, and somebody has got to do the scoring. These are guys who can fill it up, but either their efficiency or another fatal flaw renders their points empty.

27. Coby White: Chicago Bulls

I think Coby White’s reputation benefits tremendously from being a bright spot in a dark place. The Bulls’ ineptitude in recent seasons has left fans starving for positivity, and White, as a young homegrown player, has provided a glimmer of hope that this franchise could one day be something more than the tenth seed. Over the past two seasons, he has averaged 19.7 points and 4.8 assists per game on an eFG% of 54.1% and a TS% of 58.5%, and he’s coming off a career-best season. So, why is he so low? Well, his scoring efficiency has only been about league-average, and his career best season contains a sudden spike in 2-point efficiency driven by improvements three to 16 feet from the basket. Perhaps, he has suddenly become elite in the floater range, but I’m banking on some regression. And if White isn’t scoring at an above-average efficiency, suddenly he’s not all that interesting. He’s not a high-level playmaker and is a negative defender. I like White a lot, but as a bench scorer, which is probably what this tier should have been called.

26. Malik Monk: Sacramento Kings

I’ll admit, Coby White is coming off a better season than Malik Monk. However, between 2021-22 and 2023-24, Monk averaged 14.2 points and 3.9 assists per game on a TS% of 58.2% largely coming off the bench. Then last season, Monk was still on the Kings, and the Kings are going to Kangz eventually. To juice their flailing offense, Monk slid into the Kings’ starting shooting guard and was largely successful. Then they fired their coach and traded their franchise point guard for Zach LaVine and thrust Monk into more of a lead guard role. Predictably, his shooting efficiency fell because he isn’t a starting claiber point guard, but he’s a great sixth man and a solid starting shooting guard. He can shoot it and has real downhill pop as a driver. His defense is problematic, but so is everyone’s in this tier. I expect Monk’s efficiency to rebound in a role more suited to his talents.

25. Jordan Poole: New Orleans Pelicans

For all intents and purposes, Jordan Poole had the best season of his career. His offensive BPM of 2.0 was a career best, and he was one of seven players with a combination of a 29% usage, 59.1% TS%, and 25.6% assist percentage. I won’t name the other six, but they were Giannis, Jokic, Steph, LeBron, SGA, and Brunson. Holy smokes. Also, Jordan Poole single-handedly beat the Denver Nuggets, scoring 39 points and negating a 56-point performance by Nikola Jokic. The scoring talent can be explosive, but he will also take the worst shot you have ever seen, commit a turnover so dumb you’ll swear you just huffed paint, and be one of the worst defenders in the league. If you’re a bad team with nothing to play for, having a Poole party is great fun. If you actually want to win, you move heaven and earth to send him to the Wizards.

24. Cam Thomas: Brooklyn Nets

I’m a believer that Cam Thomas is exceptional at the things Cam Thomas wants to repeatedly do on a basketball court, namely, dribble the air out of the ball and knock down obnoxiously tough shots. On pure shotmaking ability, Thomas legitimately might be elite. You don’t average 22.9 points per game on a TS% of 56% over a two-season span by accident. Unfortunately, if you live in the mid-range, you have to be stupid efficient or generate a ton of free throws, and Thomas falls beneath those lofty thresholds. While the Nets were apprehensive to throw a long-term extension his way this offseason, Thomas did take the highest percentage of his shots zero to three feet from the basket and beyond the arc in his career. If that’s a trend that can hold, there’s a chance for his mid-range mastery to be a positive separator, as opposed to an efficiency anchor. As a passer, Thomas racks up assists because he has the ball a ton, but he hasn’t shown enough intuitive passing to warrant the heavy usage he has had. However, it’s the defense, where Thomas is awful and looks largely uninterested, that’s the killer. There’s potentially a player here, but it’s rare for a player to rewire their brain, especially when they’re good at what they want to be great at.

23. Collin Sexton: Charlotte Hornets

When the Utah Jazz traded Collin Sexton and a second-round pick for Jusuf Nurkic, my brain almost exploded. Sexton, despite his flaws, is way better than Nurkic, but then I had a realization. The Jazz didn’t dump Sexton because he was useless; they dumped him because he was too useful. For his career, Sexton has averaged 18.8 points per game on a TS% of 57.2%, and during his Jazz tenure, he averaged 17.5 points per game on a TS% of 60.4%. The Jazz simply could not have someone scoring that efficiently and dragging them to 28 wins. Sexton can really fill it up, and on a bad team, that means more wins. Unfortunately, on a good team, his inability to be a high-level passer and passable defender would relegate him to a bench role. Even pseudo-efficient scoring isn’t that valuable if it isn’t packaged with something else.

22. Jalen Green: Phoenix Suns

The chances Jalen Green lives up to being the number two overall pick in a draft that saw Cade Cunningham go first and Evan Mobley third are slimmer than him. Generally speaking, if a player hasn’t really popped by year four, their chances of ever being an All-Star are pretty low. However, Green, while a disappointment due to draft status, has continued to develop and is now a low-end starting caliber shooting guard with plenty of room to grow. Over the past three seasons, he has averaged 20.9 points per game, and he has a shot chart that won’t make you tear your hair out, even if his shot selection is suspect. The problem with Green is his efficiency won’t blow you away; he’s never had a league-average TS%, although he can credibly shoulder a substantial scoring load. Despite all of that, what elevates Green is that he has become a passable defender. In no way am I saying he is a plus-defender, but he’s far closer to average than players beneath him, and that comparative two-way ability gives him a real edge in my mind. If you’re a playoff team, you probably don’t want him starting, but any uptick in efficiency or on defense would get his playoff equity out of the red. Green doesn’t turn 24 until February, and his youth gives me optimism that he’ll carve out a decent four or five-year stretch as a league-average shooting guard.

21. Bradley Beal: Los Angeles Clippers

Say it with me, “Players are not their contracts.” No player over the past few years has been a bigger prisoner of the “surplus value = ability” epidemic that permeates our armchair-GM world than Bradley Beal. Was he wildly overpaid? Yes. Was it insane for Phoenix to acquire him in the first place? Yes. Was he suddenly bad at basketball? No! During Beal’s two-season stint in the desert, he averaged 17.6 points and 4.3 assists per game on 50.5/40.7/80.8 shooting. Yes, the man who would be a bum shot 50.5% from the field, 40.7% from three, and 80.8% from the stripe. In a league full of dynamite scorers, Beal was one of the most efficient three-level scorers in the world. The problem was that the Suns already had two elite three-level scorers, and really needed Beal to be a defensive asset, a high-volume 3-point floor spacer, and stay on the court. Unfortunately, Beal’s ability to stay healthy is now his biggest flaw. Over his first seven seasons, he averaged 70 games played a season, with consecutive all-82s in 2017-18 and 2018-19, but in the six seasons since, he has averaged 52 games played, with a max of 60. Whether it’s due to age or injury, defensively, Beal has descended well into the negative. Still, Beal’s scoring is a real weapon, and if you can coax 60 games out of him, he’ll make your team better.

20. Anfernee Simons: Boston Celtics

Call me crazy, but I feel like the Trail Blazers were insane to swap Anfernee Simons for Jrue Holiday. It’s not that I think Simons is better than Holiday; it’s that Simons owns a skillset they desperately need. First and foremost, Simons is an elite 3-point shooter. He’s a career 38.1% 3-point shooter on 8.8 attempts per 36, but even that undersells him. Simons is one of the most aggressive pull-up 3-point shooters in the league, shooting around 35% in each of the past three seasons. He’s not Steph Curry, but he’s legitimately in the tier below as a pull-up 3-point shooter, and when he gets hot, he will steal a defense’s soul. Simons’ ability to bend defenses off the dribble, let alone hit threes consistently, is something the Trail Blazers are going to miss. I love Jrue Holiday, but the Trail Blazers’ defense was going to be good without him, and now they might not be able to score enough for a top-five defense to matter. However, the Trail Blazers didn’t randomly trade a 26-year-old star. The reason Simons isn’t an All-Star is that he’s inefficient within the arc, doesn’t generate many free throws, is only an okay passer, and plays defense like he still believes in cooties. While he has more flaws than strengths, Simons’ one strength is the NBA META, and because of that, he’s a damn good player, just one you’d rather have coming off the bench, terrorizing unsuspecting backups.

High-Level Role Player

19. Nickeil Alexander-Walker: Atlanta Hawks

To kick off a tier of players who score less than the tier below them, but provide far more functional value, we have Nickeil Alexander-Walker. NAW, as our nickname-challenged society calls him, is one of the better 3-and-D combo guards in the league. He’s an excellent on-ball defender who is capable of defending one through three. He’s not much of a defensive playmaker, which prevents him from being elite, but I much prefer consistent on-ball work to someone who gambles for steals. On offense, Alexander-Walker has become a solid catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter. His 38.5% 3-point shooting on 6.4 attempts per 36 minutes over the past three seasons is more than enough floor spacing for a defensive asset. While you don’t want to run your offense through him, Alexander-Walker can spell your lead ball handlers for a possession or two and is a fine option to pilot a second unit. This isn’t a sexy skillset, but it has become incredibly valuable in the modern game. The Hawks have become a trendy pick this year, and while that’s mostly because of their trade for Kristaps Porzingis, I think Alexander-Walker will sneakily provide just as big a boost.

18. Donte DiVincenzo: Minnesota Timberwolves

One day, scientists will study the Bucks’ trade of Donte DiVincenzo for the corpse of Serge Ibaka. It’s an all-time niche NBA “what if,” and it very likely could have cost the Bucks another title, but I’ll end my digression and talk about just how good DiVincenzo is. In the three seasons since the trade, Divincenzo has played for three different teams, left two fanbases longing for the days of the Big Ragu, and established himself as one of the better shooting guards in the league. His average of 12.4 points per game on 39.9% 3-point shooting on 7.1 3-point attempts per game is a potent combination of volume and efficiency. Floor spacing at that level can overcome a fair few deficiencies, but luckily, DiVincenzo has relatively few, if any. He’s a solid passer, defender, and rebounder for his positional role. It’s rare to find a potent shooter where the shooting doesn’t have to overcome some fatal flaw.

17. Christian Braun: Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets were skewered for letting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope leave in free agency, but look who’s laughing now. The Nuggets’ big bet was that Christian Braun could not only replace Pope but surpass him, and in 2024-25, Braun did just that. After two seasons coming off the bench, Braun landed the Nuggets’ starting shooting guard role, and promptly averaged 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on an eFG% of 63.4%. As Nikola Jokic would say, “That’ll do, donkey, that’ll do.” Braun was also able to handle being the Nuggets’ primary on-ball defender, and while he wasn’t elite, he’s clearly a plus. Now, there are some warts in his game. Despite shooting 39.7% from three, his lack of 3-point volume (2.8 attempts per game) and his below-average ball-handling abilities are serious blemishes. However, his 3-point efficiency is starting at a high enough level that an increase in volume should be welcomed, not feared, and his ability to run the court and finish in transition is a huge reason why the Nuggets had the best transition eFG% in the NBA. Braun almost certainly benefits from playing next to Jokic, but he’s an ascending talent who can guard multiple positions and is on his way to landing a hefty, well-deserved raise.

16. Keon Ellis: Sacramento Kings

Is it hyperbole to suggest that Keon Ellis is the best player you know next to nothing about? Probably not, unless you’re a Kings fan, and then you’re nodding with vigorous approval, rubbing your hands together, and shooting purple beams from your eyes. Simply put, Ellis is fucking awesome. He’s an elite on-ball defender who can also rack up steals and blocks. His 3.0% steal percentage was fourth among qualified players, and his 3.2% block percentage ranked 22nd. He was the only player in the league to hit 3% in both metrics, and the general threshold for an elite stockbroker season is 2.5% in both categories. If Ellis didn’t play for the Kings, he would have garnered real All-Defense buzz and probably some Defensive Player of the Year votes. On offense, Ellis has all the signs of an excellent floor spacer. He’s a 42.9% 3-point shooter for his career, but has somehow only averaged 6.0 attempts per 36 minutes. Look, I’m not saying I could coach the Kings, but if I did, the first thing I’d do would be to get Ellis shooting enough threes that his efficiency dropped slightly below 40%. When a player is this good on defense and can shoot the lights out, I simply don’t care how well they dribble or pass. Ellis is one of the best 3-and-D guards in the NBA, and it’s about time people outside of Sacramento know it.

15. Cason Wallace: Oklahoma City Thunder

Wallace’s ranking is part: what he has done, and part: what I think he’s about to do. Defensively, Wallace is an absolute on-ball hound. He’s tenacious and tough, and he’ll make your lead ball-handler pass as soon as they cross half-court. His 3.1% steal percentage was third in the league, and he was featured in some of the Thunder’s most devastating playoff lineups. On offense, he’s a low usage (12.8%) player who has seen a wild swing in 3-point shooting in two NBA seasons. For most young players, a usage this low would be a massive indictment, but for Wallace, I think it’s just circumstantial. The Thunder are a title contender with the MVP at point guard and an All-NBA ball-handling wing. There just aren’t all that many touches to go around. However, I’m banking on Wallace getting a larger offensive role this season. His 3-point shot will be worth monitoring, but he showed real growth as a driver last season, and the Thunder’s developmental track record is excellent. By the end of the season, I think Wallace will have proved that he’s one of the best young two-way guards in the league.

14. Dyson Daniels: Atlanta Hawks

I’ll admit, I don’t think Dyson Daniels is quite as good a defender as the consensus. Granted, he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, which means I can still think highly of his work on that end. The eye-catching part of Daniels’ season was the steals. He averaged 3.01 steals per game and became the first qualified player to hit 3.0 since Alvin Robertson’s 3.04 in 1990-91. Erroneously, some people cited Nate McMillan’s 1993-94 season as the most recent 3.0 steal season, but he actually averaged 2.96 steals per game; it’s just his Basketball Reference page rounded up.

So, now you know so very niche, hyper-specific trivia, but back to Daniels. As you can see, Daniels’ averaging 3.0 steals per game is a modern era outlier. As offense has improved, steals have declined. Before Daniels, no one had even eclipsed 2.5 steals per game since Chris Paul in 2011-12, and as recently as 2022-23, OG Anunoby led the league with an all-time low of 1.91. In fact, since steals became an official statistic in 1973-74, the six lowest league-leading figures had come in the prior eight seasons. So, yeah, Daniels had a historic season as a thief. I think the other aspects of his defense lag behind (how could they not?), but he’s clearly an excellent perimeter defender. Offensively, he experienced a significant boost in scoring, up from 5.8 points to 14.1, but that was largely due to an increase in opportunity. For as great as Daniels is as a defender, his offensive game is sorely lacking. He’s a well-below-average 3-point shooter, and his lack of on-ball scoring has limited the impact of his impressive passing vision. However, everything is heading in the right direction for Daniels. His defense has become a real asset, and his offense is inching out of the abyss. I think we’re another year away from him being a real two-way threat, but I’m predicting he’ll improve enough on offense to be viewed as a long-term building block for the Hawks.

13. Josh Hart: New York Knicks

The best way to describe Josh Hart is that he is uniquely excellent. Listed at 6’4, Hart is the size of most shooting guards, but he plays basketball like a power forward. This combination of cross-positional dialogue makes him incredibly valuable, but also somewhat limiting. Starting with the good, Hart is the best rebounding guard in the league. He averaged 9.6 rebounds per game last season and 8.3 over the past five. To put how insane that is in perspective, Jaren Jackson Jr has averaged 5.9 rebounds per game over that same span. On top of elite rebounding, Hart is also a solid and unselfish passer, a hyper-efficient finisher at the basket, and a versatile defender. Functionally, playing Hart gives you an extra front court player without any of the dribbling, mobility, and passing downsides. Now, the bad. Hart is a wildly inconsistent 3-point shooter, takes far too few, and has seen his efficiency from the corner erode to 32.3% over the past two seasons. This lack of floor spacing from the shooting guard position puts a ton of pressure on the rest of the team to be able to space the floor, and it’s the downside of having a power forward playing the two. His defense, while versatile, also isn’t lockdown. He’s a solid defender, but he isn’t game-changing, which is usually what you’re looking for from a limited floor spacer. However, at the end of the day, the juice is well worth the squeeze. Hart isn’t a fit for every team, but if he is, he’ll be your mom’s favorite player, and she hates how loud the sneakers screech. He plays with a contagious competitive spirit that can galvanize his teammates as well as the crowd. He’s the rare athlete who makes being a try-hard cool. As much as people lean into data, spirit is an underrated and valuable trait. And Hart has spirit, yes, he do, Hart has spirit at the two.

12. Alex Caruso: Oklahoma City Thunder

On a per-minute, inch-for-inch basis, Alex Caruso is the best defender in the world. No matter the defensive assignment, he will shut down his target, make their life hell, force surrender, and blow them to pieces. He’s the NBA Terminator. He searches. He destroys. And by the end, he too looks completely beat to shit. That is the unfortunate downside of CarusoBot. He can only play so much before his apocalyptic style of basketball breaks him as well. Fortunately, the Thunder are incredibly deep and can manage his minutes accordingly. On the other side of the ball, Caruso is enough of a 3-point shooter that he’s not a serious negative; he can still handle the ball occasionally, and he’s a heady enough passer. Look, the offense is bad, but who cares? He is one of the few players who can actually make defense entertaining, and for that alone, I salute him.

11. Norman Powell: Miami Heat

At 31, Norman Powell had the type of breakout usually reserved for players born in the 21st century. In his tenth season, he started the most games in his career (60), posted his highest usage rate (26.1%), and it culminated in a career high 21.8 points per game. However, Powell was just chucking the ball up in the pursuit of points; his 61.5% TS% was the ninth-highest among players with a 25% or greater usage. In no uncertain terms, Powell was one of the league’s best high-volume scorers. While it would be easy to say I’m making too much of a career year, I like to think you’re not making enough out of his career. Since 2019-20, Powell has averaged 17.5 points per game on a 23.2% usage and a 61.7% TS%. He’s done it as a starter. He’s done it as a sixth man. But after six consecutive seasons of hyper-efficient volume scoring, I think we just have to admit that this is who Powell is. Now, part of that is reconciling with the fact that he isn’t much of a passer, but I can live with that when he’s so good at passing the ball into the net. On the defensive side of the ball, early in his career, Powell was a positive contributor, but those days appear to be behind him. However, unlike many of these score-only players, he’s not a total lost cause. Powell might not be a lockdown defender, but he’s good enough that he’s not the one you’re worrying about at the end of games, and if you are, congratulations, you’re defense is amazing. I don’t know how many more seasons Powell has left in the tank at this level, but my bet is he has at least one.

Third Star

10. Zach LaVine: Sacramento Kings

There might be no better example of how far the shooting guard position has fallen than Zach LaVine. Just look at his stats over the past seven years, and remember he was basically salary-dumped last season.

Could I interest you in 24.5 hyper-efficient points? If you’re an NBA team, I guess not. Now, the main reason LaVine became front office kryptonite was his $47.5 million salary this season and that pesky $48.9 million player option in 2026-27. However, I feel like LaVine’s reputation is out of line with his ability. He has become an elite 3-point shooter, can create and make within the arc, and has an enviable combination of free throw generation and 3-point volume. Every single team would benefit from having a scorer like LaVine. However, elite scoring is virtually all that LaVine brings to the table. Considering his scoring gravity, he’s at best a neutral passer, and he has never been able to translate his physical gifts into even average defense. There’s also the reality of his on-court impact. For his career, LaVine owns a -3.1 on-off net rating, and over the past seven seasons, it comes in at -1.5. LaVine is a tricky player to gauge. He’s incredibly talented, is exceptional at one of the core skills of basketball, but somehow his deficiencies make him a losing player. I’m on the side that believes a large part of LaVine’s on-off splits being so dire is a product of the teams he has been on, but it’s enough of a blemish that I can’t rank him higher than tenth.

9. Austin Reaves: Los Angeles Lakers

I don’t know if Austin Reaves will ever be a true All-Star, but it would also be insane to rule it out. He has improved across the board every season of his career, and the only area where he has experienced any real slippage is shooting efficiency. However, his decline in efficiency coincides with an increased usage, and Reaves’ eFG% and TS% still remain well above league average. With LeBron James turning 41 and starting the season on the injury report, it wouldn’t surprise me if Reaves improved on the 20.2 points and 5.8 assists per game he averaged last season, and if he does that, he’ll have a shot to make his first All-Star team. Offensively, Reaves is about as complete a guard as there is. He’s efficient all over the court, generates a ton of free throws, is a good passer, and would probably be the starting point guard for half the league. Like many offense-leaning guards, Reaves’ defense is something he has to do to be a professional basketball player. Unfortunately, the Lakers have routinely asked him to take on assignments beyond his capabilities, which only exacerbated his limitations. If Reaves is your worst defender, you’re cooking, but as soon as you need him to really guard, you’re headed for trouble. The total package with Reaves is excellent. He is a point guard with shooting guard size, and he’ll compete enough on defense that it won’t be a disaster.

8. Derrick White: Boston Celtics

It’s not some huge secret that Derrick White is incredible. He’s an exceptional defender and has developed into an excellent offensive player. However, what is a secret is that Derrick White is now the Celtics’ best player. As a noted Jaylen Brown hater, this shouldn’t be a surprise, but I want it in writing and on the record that Derrick White is better than Jaylen Brown. What White lacks in scoring volume, he makes up for in efficiency. Since joining the Celtics, he has averaged 14.2 points on an eFG% of 56.6%, 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks per game, and last season he pushed his scoring to 16.4 points per game. With Jayson Tatum out for most, if not all, of the season, White should see his scoring and passing usage skyrocket. While it’s unlikely he will maintain his pristine efficiency, I’m expecting him to score 20 points per game on league-average efficiency to go along with his excellent defense and 7.5 assists per game. And about that defense. White is one of the better guard defenders in the league, but he’s at his best off the ball, as opposed to on it. There’s a case that he is the best shot-blocking guard in history, as his career 2.8% block percentage is nearly in the top-100 all-time (he hasn’t played enough to qualify) and is higher than Bam Adebayo’s. There are few better two-way guards than White. He can impact a game in any moment, and that’s the reason he has a career on-off net rating of +4.9. Basketball is about winning, and that’s just what White does.

7. Desmond Bane: Orlando Magic

It is fitting that the only Bane in NBA history also possesses some truly remarkable traps. In a league that became obsessed with length and wingspan, he is a forceful reminder that strength is a wildly important defensive attribute, and that a lightning-quick release is just as unblockable as a high one. Everything starts with the shot for Bane. He’s a career 41% 3-point shooter on 7.7 attempts per 36 minutes, and has averaged 20.2 points per game on an eFG% of 56.3% over the past four seasons. On catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts, Bane has never dipped below 40% for a season, and his lowest efficiency season on pull-up threes came in 2023-24 when he hit 34.6% on 5.2 attempts. And he isn’t just a shooter; due to injuries and suspensions to Ja Morant, Bane actually has a ton of experience running an offense. Simply put, he is an elite floor spacer who also happens to have real on-ball juice. While most teams are lucky to have a single shooting guard who can provide elite floor spacing or efficient high-volume scoring, Bane brings both. His ability to oscillate between two different player archetypes makes him a perfect secondary option. On defense, Bane isn’t your run-of-the-mill shooting guard. He’s not an on-ball hound or event creator, but his combination of strength and agility allows him to hold his own in difficult matchups and guard up the positional spectrum. He falls into the category of a solid defender who can be part of a great defense, but won’t be the reason your defense is great. In all honesty, Bane’s new home in Orlando might be the perfect spot for him. He’ll be paired in the backcourt with an on-ball menace in Jalen Suggs, and he’ll get to space for, play off of, and set up Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Player synergy elevates talent, and the Magic might have found the Bane of their existence.

Second Star

6. Tyler Herro: Miami Heat

The Heat’s cluster fuck of a season, which included the Jimmy Butler saga, an unsettled starting lineup, and historic late-game struggles, obscured a real breakout from Tyler Herro. Herro managed to pull off the incredible feat of shouldering an increased offensive load while improving his scoring efficiency, increasing his 3-point attempt rate and free throw attempt rate, and hardly seeing his turnover rate budge. What’s most impressive is that Herro’s improved efficiency wasn’t driven by a spike in 3-point shooting efficiency, something that is far more fluky; it was largely a product of better shot selection. In 2024-25, Herro proved to be a legitimate on-ball three-level scorer and produced the best playmaking season of his career. His offensive box plus/minus of 3.8 was tied for 19th with Cade Cunningham and Donovan Mitchell. With the gains that Herro made, I’m comfortable saying he’s a top-25 offensive player in the league and a top-five offensive scoring guard. Defensively, Herro is a serious minus. It’s the unfortunate reality of being a marginally athletic guard. I don’t really see any way for him to become average, but he has improved enough offensively that hiding him on defense is now very much worth it. Herro will start the season on the injury report and may not be back until early December. If he can pick up where he left off, the Heat could once again be dangerously looming.

5. Devin Booker: Phoenix Suns

Devin Booker’s standing as a true superstar has never made much sense to me. He put up great numbers on bad teams, then Chris Paul turned the Suns into a contender, then they added Kevin Durant, kept getting worse, traded Durant, and now he’s alone in Phoenix, and no one thinks they’ll even make the playoffs. Call me crazy, but if Booker was a true S-Tier superstar, don’t you think we would have a bit more confidence in him to drag a team to a place they have no business going? While I view Booker as more of a sidekick than a star, that doesn’t mean he isn’t an exceptional player. Since 2018-19, he has averaged 26.5 points and 6.0 assists per game on a TS% of 59.5%. His combination of volume, efficiency, and playmaking is borderline elite, and there’s a real case he’s the best offensive shooting guard in the league. However, the best offensive shooting guard in the league really ought to be a point guard. What’s frustrating about Booker for me is that it feels like he could still go up another level offensively. He doesn’t take enough threes, he takes far too many mid-range jumpers, and his passing is almost at a point guard level. Unfortunately, I think what is preventing Booker from getting to the next level is that he is actually playing to his strengths. While Booker is a solid 3-point shooter, his pull-up 3-point game has been wildly inconsistent throughout his career, but his pull-up 2-point game is almost always elite. As much as I want him to turn pull-up twos into threes, the reality is that for his career, the twos are much more likely to be the more efficient shot. The downstream effect of eschewing pull-up threes for twos is fewer deep driving lanes and tighter passing windows. With Phoenix’s roster gutted, there’s an opportunity for Booker to refine his offensive approach and graduate from shooting guard to point guard. I’m not super optimistic he’ll change his style when what he does is still so effective, but it’s definitely something to monitor. Oh, yeah, he’s not a mark on defense.

4. Kyrie Irving: Dallas Mavericks

The only reason Kyrie Irving is a shooting guard is that he has spent a large portion of his career playing next to LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and, briefly, James Harden. Seriously, when he hasn’t been next to one of the best playmakers and offensive threats in NBA history, he has been his team’s lead ball handler, and a damn good one at that. I’m probably overrating what Irving will be this season coming off an ACL tear, but I’ll change my opinion once I see Cookbook Jones (A nickname my friends and I gave him during his stint with the Cavaliers) in the kitchen again. Irving, now 33, entered the league at 19 and was already an offensive force. For his career, he has an OBPM of 4.7, and last season it came in at 3.9. He’s an elite three-level scorer and creator, and he has slowly whittled down his volume of mid-range attempts. Irving hasn’t had to be a high-volume passer since his days in Boston, but he’s an excellent secondary creator and has proven to be a solid lead playmaker. There are a lot of similarities between Irving and Booker’s offensive games, but the separator is that Irving deploys his talents in a more efficient manner. As with most two-guards, Irving’s defense comes and goes, but when he’s locked in, he can be a heady off-ball poacher. While I would love it if Irving brought it defensively every possession, he shows enough when the game hangs in the balance for me to view him as a mostly neutral defender. We’ve almost certainly already seen the best of Kyrie Irving, but I think he has enough tread to produce two more All-NBA adjacent seasons. And if he comes back looking like he just did, the Mavericks will be a dangerous team, even if they’d be more dangerous with Luka Doncic.

Build a High-Level Team Around

3. Donovan Mitchell: Cleveland Cavaliers

Part of me felt like Mitchell, while still ranked third, should be in the second star tier. Then I remembered, two different franchises built elite teams with the best offense in the league around him. That being said, I’m very uneasy about this ranking because Mitchell, despite an All-NBA first team selection, is coming off an odd season. The reason he made first team All-NBA is solely due to the Cavaliers’ storming to 64 wins and the league’s best offense, because Mitchell’s statistics actually took a step back. The narrative was that he sacrificed for the greater good, but there is no statistical evidence to support that claim. Yes, Mitchell’s points and assists per game declined from 26.6 and 6.1 to 24.0 and 5.0, but that was almost exclusively driven by his minutes per game going from 35.3 to 31.4 and his eFG% declining from 54.5% to 53.1%. In fact, on a per 36-minute basis, Mitchell attempted more field goal attempts in 2024-25 than he did in 2023-24. The truth is, Mitchell basically did Mitchell things, just not quite as well, but the rest of the roster more than made up for his slight statistical decline. While this could be a harbinger or a single-season blip, Mitchell’s finishing zero to three feet from the basket cratered to a career low of 60.7% and he also only took 15.6% of his field goal attempts in that range. The good news is that Mitchell remains an excellent volume 3-point shooter, and he had a similar single-season drop in rim finishing earlier in his career that he quickly reversed. (2020-21)

I might be giving too much credit to Mitchell for playing with peak Rudy Gobert and Michael Conley in Utah, and then having three other All-Star caliber players in Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Darius Garland in Cleveland, but in each case, he was the undisputed guy. I don’t think he’s a true superstar, but he’s in the next grouping of players, which means he’s a top-15 player.

2. Jalen Williams: Oklahoma City Thunder

I don’t consider Jalen Williams a shooting guard either, but rules are rules. In his third NBA season, Williams made the All-NBA third team, the All-Defensive second team, helped the Thunder win a title, which required him to get regular injections in his right wrist throughout the playoffs, and was rewarded with a maximum rookie scale contract extension. Not a bad 10 or so months, I’d say. Williams did take a step back from an efficiency standpoint this past season, but that’s the trade-off for an increased offensive usage. At the end of the day, every team would take 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game from an All-Defensive team player. While shooting guard tends to lean towards offense, it’s defense that separates Williams. He’s a versatile on-ball defender who can defend lead ball handlers and even played center for the Thunder during a positional injury crisis. On top of that, he racks up steals and blocks like few others, and was one of 12 players to have a steal and block percentage of 2.0 or greater. I’m projecting a bit here, but I think Williams will only continue to get better on offense, and combined with his already elite defense, you’re looking at an All-NBA mainstay. Even though I think he’ll max out as a player who is ideally your second-best offensive or defensive player, that combination makes him someone you can build an elite team around. Two-way players win in the playoffs, and there are few better than Williams.

1. Anthony Edwards: Minnesota Timberwolves

There is a palpable hunger for Anthony Edwards to become the best player in the league, and it goes back to that needlessly long opening. For many, whether it’s conscious or subconscious, Edwards is the next Jordan, the next Kobe. He has it all: the charisma to sell shoes, arrogance that borders on toxic masculinity, and jaw-dropping athleticism. He’s the heir to their shooting guard marketing throne. As much as I get why people want him to be the next great player, he still has a long way to go, but for now, he’ll have to settle for the best shooting guard in the NBA. Edwards’ steady ascent has been impressive to watch. His scoring has incrementally increased every season, culminating last season in career bests for points per game (27.6) and eFG% (54.7%). Interestingly, Edwards’ style of play is nothing like Kobe or Jordan’s. He’s a relatively ineffective mid-range scorer, he’s not particularly good at getting to the rim and finishing, and he doesn’t even generate a ton of free throws. No, Edwards is a great offensive player because he absolutely bombs from beyond the arc. Last season, he shot 39.5% from three, and his 811 3-point attempts and 320 3-pointers led the league. His combination of volume and efficiency from beyond the arc drove all of his efficiency gains this past season, and I’m interested to see where he goes next. It’s conceivable that Edwards could try to break new ground in 3-point volume, or perhaps his handle, footwork, and in-arc finishing will have developed enough to take advantage of his 3-point gravity. The biggest blemish with Edwards’ offense is still his passing. He’s not absolutely hopeless, but he has maxed out at 5.1 assists per game and has never even approached a 2:1 assist ratio. Unsurprisingly, Edwards, who is still only 24, is miles from the best offensive players in the league, but his foundation of shooting and athleticism gives him an outside shot to challenge for the distinction. However, what really makes Edwards the best shooting guard is that he is also a good defender. As far as on-ball defense goes, few shooting guards can do it better. When he’s locked in, it feels like he will just take the ball away. Now, he is not always locked in on the ball, and his off-the-ball awareness leaves a lot to be desired. Similar to his offense, the foundation for Edwards to become an elite defender is there, but he still needs to iron out a lot of the details.

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That concludes my shooting guard rankings. If you’ve made it this far, I’d love a comment on omissions and any rankings you did or did not like. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for the next installment.

For any inquiries about work, discussion, and the like, you can email me at nevin.l.brown@gmail.com.