Detroit Pistons: 10 best point guards in team history

4. Kevin Porter (1975-77, 1978-79)

One of the NBA’s forgotten stars of the 1970s and early-1980s, Kevin Porter led the league in assists four times and was the previous owner of the single-game assists record before Scott Skiles broke it in 1990. Porter was also the first player to record 1,000 assists in one season.

Porter’s best year happened as a member of the Pistons in 1978-79, when he scored a career-high 15.4 points and dished out a league-high 13.4 assists per game. He dominated the competition in his primary area of expertise. The league’s second-place finisher in assists that season was John Lucas, who averaged 9.3 assists.

Porter was the starting point guard on the Washington Bullets‘ 1975 NBA Finals squad — he led the league that year with 8.0 assists per game — but was traded that summer to the Pistons.

He played two full seasons with Detroit and part of a third before he was traded to the New Jersey Nets for the majority of the 1977-78 season. He was then traded back to Detroit, where he played one more year, and then went back to the Bullets as a free agent to finish his career.

While Porter was with the Nets in 1978, he set an NBA record with 29 assists in one game against the Houston Rockets. It stood until 1990, when Skiles notched 30 assists in one night.

Porter’s most overall productive game with the Pistons was a 30-point, 25-assist stat line he posted in 1979 against the Boston Celtics, a game in which the Pistons scored 160 points in a blowout victory.

Porter averaged 11.9 points, 10.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game for Detroit. His playmaking ability helped the the Pistons make it to the 1977 NBA Playoffs, but they were eliminated in the first round.

Five players have more single-season assists titles than Porter, and all five are in the Hall of Fame: John Stockton, Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Steve Nash and Jason Kidd. Porter never even made an All-Star Game, but he still ranks 15th in NBA history in assists per game.