When Michael Jordan retired for good after the 2003 season, Kobe Bryant replaced him as the best shooting guard in the league. Jordan had passed the torch to the young protégé who had already won three championships at the time. Now, at 35 heading into what will be his 18th season in the NBA, Kobe is a five-time champion chasing that sixth ring to tie Jordan. He made headlines this offseason by saying he wants to play three more seasons before retiring.
Has Kobe already passed the torch to the game’s next best shooting guard?
The league is full of talent at the position. There are four categories a shooting guard can be defined as: complete, athletic, shooter or scorer. Complete shooting guards can create their own shot as well as for others, run an offense and play defense. The athletic shooting guards are the ones who mainly use their speed, quickness and leaping ability to be effective on both ends of the floor and the rest of their game is considered raw. Shooters are the ones that teams game plan around to not leave open, ever. Lastly, the scorers of the world just have a knack for putting the ball in the basket and can do it using technique, not necessarily athleticism.
Here’s a look at the top five shooting guards heading into the 2013-14 campaign.
1. James Harden– Complete
At 24 years old, Harden has taken over as the league’s best shooting guard after just one season being the go-to guy in Houston. Not only did he justify the Rockets trading for and signing him to a five-year, $80 million contract, he solidified himself as a superstar in the making. Check the highlights of Harden dominating his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder from Feb. 20 when he dropped 46 on them. It is scary to think that his game will only get better.
Last season, he averaged 25.9 points, 5.8 assists, and 4.9 rebounds a game. This year, he will be teaming with the best big man in the game, Dwight Howard. Howard chose to sign with Houston because he envisions Harden and himself as the next Shaq and Kobe duo, which won three straight championships together. Expect Harden to be in the MVP conversation this season.
2. Kobe Bryant– Scorer
Kobe looks to return from an Achilles tear just last April. He’s already deep into rehab, posting workout videos on social media. He’s been jogging on a treadmill and jumping off of diving boards … interesting to say the least. At times last season, Kobe looked like he was 27 years old, averaging more than 40 minutes per game at one point. Bryant had must-see highlights on April 10 against Portland (47 points), March 8 at home against Toronto (41 points) and March 6 against New Orleans (42 points). There was no questioning the fact that he carried the team down the stretch to get them in playoff contention, but the accrued minutes combined with his age had eventually caught up to him.
For the rest of Kobe’s career, you can expect an old-man, shot-faking type of game because he won’t have that explosion any longer that he was able to showcase occasionally at 34 years old prior to the injury. Nevertheless, he is the Black Mamba and he is not called that for nothing. Kobe is determined to prove the doubters wrong once again, the same ones who said he could never win without Shaquille O’Neal. Only this time, he aims to prove he can return successfully from an Achilles injury and silence the critics who say the Los Angeles Lakers will miss the playoffs.
3. Dwyane Wade– Scorer
Wade is only 31, but with the amount of injuries he has had the past few seasons, he is an old 31. The nine-time All-Star played in 69 games last season, 20 more than the previous season. Bogged down by injury, Wade averaged less than 15 points a game in each of the playoff series last year against Milwaukee, Chicago and Indiana. He did, however, begin to remind everybody of how good “Flash” can be when healthy in the NBA Finals, averaging 19.6 points. LeBron James was sensational in the last four games of the Finals, but Wade had a big impact as well on the outcome of those games.
At this point in his career, Wade will work to be more efficient as a scorer and get the ball in spots where he is most effective. He has been working again this offseason with his long-time trainer, Tim Grover, the man who trained Jordan and Kobe as well. If the Miami Heat win the title next season to complete a three-peat, it will be because Wade is playing like the Dwyane Wade the rest of the league knows as one of the top shooting guards of all-time.
4. J.R. Smith– Scorer
Smith has been an elite scorer for most of his career and last year he was awarded Sixth Man of the Year. He’s got Vince Carter-like talent, but the issue with his game has been his style of play where he gets caught up in doing one thing only: Getting shots up. He gets in a zone and forgets the rest of his teammates are on the floor at times. Credit Knicks coach Mike Woodson for reeling in Smith though last year, as he averaged 18.1 points a game on 42 percent shooting from the field, up from 40 percent two seasons ago.
(NBA.com photo)
Smith re-signed with New York in the offseason for a three-year deal worth close to $18 million. It is expected that the Knicks core of Smith, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Iman Shumpert will have them battling for a top three seed in the Eastern conference.
5. Klay Thompson– Shooter
Klay, in his second year, demonstrated how dangerous of a weapon he is from the outside, shooting 40 percent from 3 in the regular season and 42 percent in the playoffs. The Spurs can testify to his shooting ability, where in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semi Finals he hit eight 3-pointers and finished with 34 points in a convincing 100-91 win on the road. Mark Jackson, coach of the Golden State Warriors, declared Thompson and point guard Stephen Curry as the best shooting backcourt of all-time after the performance. Thompson finished the season at 16.6 points per game.
How much better can Thompson get? He’s very valuable to the Warriors organization because of his youth and the fact that he is still on a rookie-scale contract. That enabled the team to trade for All-Star swingman Andre Iguodala in the offseason and now the Warriors have arguably the top perimeter trio in the league. He may not project necessarily as a star, but Thompson should be one of the top shooters in the league throughout his career.
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