In any form of business, or career that one encounters, there’s one critical element for prosperity. There’s one factor that plays into how successful your organization can become, how long you can perpetuate the great results, and how resistant your team is to outside distractions.
It’s leadership, and it isn’t simply limited to the hardwood.
Leadership is the foremost characteristic for any entity to have in the corporate world, medical field, technological industry, and even in the writing environment. Without the conduction from a highly-respected and trained individual, you aren’t receiving the best assistance to improve your art.
An entry-level accountant without guidance from a team manager is prone to failure. A medical trainee without the supervision of a professional doctor isn’t performing surgery on me. A college writer lacking revisions from a judicious editor isn’t finding his way to Grantland.
In the same sense, a basketball roster deprived of hardcore, point guard leadership isn’t dressing for the NBA Finals.
Point guard isn’t just the deepest position in basketball. Well, for one, you could argue it’s the deepest position in sports. NFL quarterbacks go roughly 20-deep, before rubbish starts spoiling your paper. NBA point guards, however, are now pushing the boundaries of 24-26 deep of gratifying talent. D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay are the only rookie starters, and yet they’re expected to make significant impacts for Los Angeles and Denver.
But, it’s not just the deepest spot for an 82-game season. It’s also the most imperative for a franchise with title aspirations, and a head coach that doesn’t want to lose his voice every night.
If you don’t have a trusted point guard on hand, team communication (on offense and defense) is sacrificed to a huge degree. Additionally, offensive sets aren’t as fluid, and screen-rolls are easier to contain.
A floor general is the controller of tempo, as well as the one responsible for getting the team calmed down and adjusted to the game-plan. More often than not, scouting reports start and end with the point guard. Even when going against the league’s top two small forwards (Kevin Durant and LeBron James), their two point guard sidekicks are even bigger threats sometimes.
With NBA Power Rankings, it was my pleasure to sort through, and ultimately arrange all 30 of the league’s starting point guards. It’s the most difficult exercise I’ve ever endured, but it didn’t take away from the excitement.
There are a couple starting slots that seem up in the air, since opening day starters won’t be announced until each team prepares for their first opponent. Thus, I used my best judgement when selecting the starter for each team, so Philadelphia, New York, and Utah fans may have critical word or two.
To assist me through this process — pun intended — I created a special advanced formula that would offer some perspective on an important point guard quality.
Let’s begin with diving into the new metric.