Heading into the 2018-19 NBA season, it’s time to take a look at the league’s stacked group of starting shooting guards and rank them all.
With free agency all but over and the new season still more than six weeks away, the dog days of NBA summer are out in full force. What better way to pass the time than ranking all 30 projected starting shooting guards for the upcoming 2018-19 campaign?
At this point in the offseason, official depth charts aren’t a thing yet. Injuries can change a team’s projected starting lineup in an instant, as could a team’s goals for the season once the losses start piling up. In that case, more established veterans could easily see their minutes reduced in favor of the younger guys who need playing time to develop.
After starting with point guards on Monday, we’ll now be taking a look at the 30 players who should spend the majority of the upcoming season starting at shooting guard for their respective teams, assuming everyone stays healthy (fingers crossed, but don’t hold your breath on that one).
The question is, what factors go into determining these rankings? There is no advanced algorithm or specific statistic to determine potential wins added or anything along those lines. These aren’t based on fantasy projections or contract value either; they’re simply one writer’s opinions on each player’s potential on-court value in 2018-19.
As such, these are just some good old-fashioned rankings based on the players’ stat lines from last season, the impact and fit they’re expected to have with their current teams, their opportunity and projected team success, their propensity for injury and a myriad of other factors that go into determining a player’s true value.
In an effort to generate discussion (and probably draw the ire of NBA Twitter for the second day in a row), it’s time rank all 30 projected starting shooting guards for the upcoming 2018-19 NBA season. Let’s get right into it.