Where does Darius Garland rank among NBA’s point guards?
Ranking the NBA’s point guards: Tier 3 – All-NBA Level Players
This group of players elevate their teams towards winning in an excellent way, more consistently than Tier 4 but not quite to the level of Tier 3. These are the players who can get into the All-NBA conversation but likely won’t make it. Young and Murray are elite offensive players offset by defensive woes, while Lowry and SGA are well-rounded players, with all four landing around the same place.
6. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks
There are few players as good offensively as Trae Young, with his scoring, shooting and truly elite playmaking elevating an Atlanta offense that ranks second in the league in offensive rating. The Hawks run their offense entirely through Young and he delivers. Yet on defense he nearly gives it all back. Point guard is the least important position defensively, which saves Young to an extent, but it keeps him out of Tier 2.
7. Kyle Lowry, Miami Heat
Lowry was a key piece of the Toronto Raptors’ title team in 2019, and now on the Miami Heat he is both fitting right into their system perfectly, while also injecting a bit of Lowry into them: the Heat are scoring more in transition than last year, and they lead the league in charges drawn by in impossible amount; the Heat draw more than twice as many charges as the second-place team, which is closer to 30th than to the Heat. That’s the impact Lowry has, bringing defense, passing and shooting without needing a ton of shots. He’s the perfect third banana.
8. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
It’s hard to tell given that he has played on a tanking team the last two seasons, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has grown into a really good player. His 3-point shooting has dropped this year, but his impact while on the court shines through even so. It will be necessary to see his play on a more talented roster to truly evaluate his growth, but assuming the shooting comes back around he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses. He’s one of the better tough-shot makers at the point guard position.
9. Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets
Jamal Murray has missed this entire season recovering from an ACL tear, and he has never actually made an All-Star Game, but he has proven in multiple postseason series that he is the real deal offensively. Some of the greatest scoring outbursts in modern postseason history have come from Murray, and given the state of modern sports medicine there is no reason to think he will have lost that shotmaking when he returns.