Best Era of PGs Ever?

[PosImpos]

Are we approaching the greatest era of point guards ever?

With the emergence this year of Rondo as one of the top 5 point guards, Derek Rose breaking onto the scene last year, the surprise of Brandon Jennings and Tyreke Evans in this year's draft class, and the upcoming promise of John Wall, the next decade could be one of if not the greatest era of point guards yet. 

The title of "best PG in the league" might not belong to Chris Paul anymore 3-4 years from now.  It's pretty exciting.  Obviously you never know who might surprise and who might fizzle out, but it certainly seems like there could be a lot of guys all with a legitimate claim to being in the top 2-3 of the greatest PG in the league discussion in just a short time.  I think we will see a team win a championship in the next half decade or so whose best player is clearly their point guard.

Chris Paul
Deron Williams
Derek Rose
Brandon Jennings
Rajon Rondo
Tyreke Evans
John Wall
Ricky Rubio (?)

That's a potential top 8 for PGs in the league just a couple years from now, and all of those names are pretty young with tons of potential for even the older members.  It doesn't seem that far fetched to me that there could be 3-4 point guards all playing at or above the level Chris Paul is currently at (MVP caliber).

[Kiorrik]

Softifying the league makes PG's more useful.

[Roy Hobbs]

It's definitely the era of the most athletic PGs ever, and probably the most offensively-gifted PGs, as well.

For overall play, though, I might look to the late 80s / early 90s.  Back then, you had guys like Stockton, Magic, Isiah as the superstars, and guys like Marc Jackson, Doc, Kevin Johnson, etc., averaging over 10 assists per game.

[Eja117]

I don't really know my history well enough for this. My initial reaction is that it's a lot better than the era of shooting guards in point guard's clothing, but if you take some of the pgs from the last era (Stockton, Kidd, Nash, KJ, Price, maybe Hardaway, perhaps Hurley had he not got hurt, Payton, etc) they'd probably match up pretty well.

I'm not as aware of the generation before that but I'm sure Magic, DJ, Doc, and Isiah would do very well now too.

But what strikes me now is that so many of these guys are so young and so good. John Wall, Derrick Rose, Jennings, Rondo, CP3, D Williams, Flynn, Lawson, Evans

and they're having instant success. It's pretty amazing.

Very tp deserving thread.

And we even forgot J Nelson and T Parker, but I guess maybe they're the last generation.

Even some of the not so good young pgs lately haven't been horrid either

Ridnour
There have been way worse pgs than Bassy

and some of the combo guards really impress me too like Evans and Delonte West

[Eja117]

One thing that strikes me about this generation is if you take a rookie like Stephen Curry, five years ago people are oooing and ahhhing over him.

Now he barely gets noticed.

But my hopes aren't really high that this becomes an ongoing thing.

To me it's more like one of those famous QB classes. It's a gift, but I don't think it's a trend yet. QB and pg are just two positions that are too hard for a young guy to play to have this become a major trend, but it might at least represent a major improvement

[PosImpos]

One thing that strikes me about this generation is if you take a rookie like Stephen Curry, five years ago people are oooing and ahhhing over him.

Now he barely gets noticed.

But my hopes aren't really high that this becomes an ongoing thing.

To me it's more like one of those famous QB classes. It's a gift, but I don't think it's a trend yet. QB and pg are just two positions that are too hard for a young guy to play to have this become a major trend, but it might at least represent a major improvement

Speaking of football, I've heard the recent quasi-trend of playing two point guards in the backcourt likened to the use of the Wildcat offense in football.  I wonder if we might see more of that being used in the future.  Could a team with a backcourt consisting of two really great point guards be dominant?  It's an interesting idea. 

Like the Wildcat in football, I imagine it'll probably just remain a novelty, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more teams using it more often, not just as an occasional matchups thing.

[Fafnir]

You also have to consider that rule changes have allowed a different sort of PG to thrive during this era.

The talent you list is impressive, but only Deron, Chris, and Rajon have proven themselves. All the others need to actually get in and produce in the NBA for more than a short burst.

Rose in particular has slumped.

[Celtics17]

I'll put Magic, Isaih, and Stockton up against the points of any generation! It's kind of hard to cmopare though with todays group because we still havent seen enough of them. I mean, the previous players we got to see for their whole career. Still, Magic is the best pure and simple and Isaih was very good as well as Stokton.