Nick Wright's Best Guards of All Time

[Who]

Isaiah seems high.

No Stockton or Nash.

Or Cousy, he won an MVP, 6 titles.  Are Isiah Thomas and Wade really ahead of him?

This type of list is pretty subjective.

Zeke and Wade won NBA titles as the best player on a title winning side. Cousy did not.

That is usually the separator.

I tend to see Cousy in the 5-10 range in All-Time PG rankings. Usually more towards 10 than 5.

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Plus, those guys from the 50s / 60s get lower and lower as each decade moves by. Fewer and fewer people have seen them, read about them, or even know about them.

The main names like B Russell and Wilt continue. But Elgin Baylor is largely gone from discussion. Hondo is never mentioned. Hal Greer, Sam Jones, Thurmond. Never mentioned. Guys from the 50s like Dolph Schayes are made fun of from being on All-Time lists.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Why does anyone put any stock in what Nick Wright says?

[Celtics4ever]

I tend to see Cousy in the 5-10 range in All-Time PG rankings. Usually more towards 10 than 5.

Cousy was a great Celtic and all time great.  I often see the world in green tinted homer fan glasses, but my tint is not as strong as yours, it would seem.

I do not think Cousy would make in the league today.  He is not athletic enough.

Wright's list is more skewed towards today's players.

Now whether he belongs on a all time list is a different questions.

John Stockton's omission is glaring.

[Vermont Green]

Zeke and Wade won NBA titles as the best player on a title winning side. Cousy did not.

Cousy was league MVP, how was he not the best player?

I was pointing out Cousy as I felt he should be in the conversation.  I get that this list and the discussion in general tends to be more towards who would be best in the modern game where the perception is that all the players are in general better athletes than the players back in Cousy's era.  I feel Cousy is right there with Nash or Stockton for sure, and even should be in the discussion with Thomas and Wade.

Overall, my tiers would be:

Jordan
Magic

West
Oscar
Curry
Kobe

They you get into all the rest, Thomas, Wade, Nash, Stockton, and yes Cousy, and maybe some others I am not thinking of.  There are a lot of players that could be considered for this tier.

I don't know where to put SGA at this point.  His current trajectory would have him in the second tier before he is done, if not already.  Two MVPs already, likely multiple titles.  I am not sure that he gets to the Jordan/Magic territory, but he might.

[Moranis]

Zeke and Wade won NBA titles as the best player on a title winning side. Cousy did not.

Cousy was league MVP, how was he not the best player?

I was pointing out Cousy as I felt he should be in the conversation.  I get that this list and the discussion in general tends to be more towards who would be best in the modern game where the perception is that all the players are in general better athletes than the players back in Cousy's era.  I feel Cousy is right there with Nash or Stockton for sure, and even should be in the discussion with Thomas and Wade.

Overall, my tiers would be:

Jordan
Magic

West
Oscar
Curry
Kobe

They you get into all the rest, Thomas, Wade, Nash, Stockton, and yes Cousy, and maybe some others I am not thinking of.  There are a lot of players that could be considered for this tier.

I don't know where to put SGA at this point.  His current trajectory would have him in the second tier before he is done, if not already.  Two MVPs already, likely multiple titles.  I am not sure that he gets to the Jordan/Magic territory, but he might.

Bill was the best player on every team he was on.  The Celtics did not win a title until Bill was on the team so no Cousy was not the best player on a title team.  Bill's rookie year he only played 48 games and he still finished 7th in MVP voting.  Cousy did win the MVP, but Bill was simply better, he just didn'tplay enough.  That is why the Celtics went from 6 games over .500 and 1 playoff series loss combined in the 2 seasons before Bill directly to NBA champions with Bill.  Given how far into Cousy's career that was, I don't think he wins a single title without Bill. 

Cousy and Nash have basically the same careers. Nash just never had Bill Russell to get him over the hump.