The NBA has become much more of a guard-driven league in recent years. Star point guards are found throughout the league, so much so that an excellent floor general in Mike Conley has never made an All-Star appearance.
Here are the top-5 projected starting backcourts (point guard and shooting guard) in the NBA for the upcoming season.
Those who just missed the cut are Minnesota Timberwolves (Jeff Teague, Jimmy Butler), Oklahoma City Thunder (Russell Westbrook, Andre Roberson)
5. Portland Trail Blazers - Damian Lillard & C. J. McCollum
Lillard was named to the All-NBA Second Team in the 2015-16 season and has been named an All-Star twice.
Last season, he had career-highs with a 27.0 scoring average, 4.9 rebounds per game, 44.4 Field Goal Percentage, and 89.5 free throw percentage. He has only missed 14 games in his five-year career.
After spending his first two seasons on the bench, McCollum has become an excellent scorer since becoming a full-time starter in 2015-16. That season he averaged 20.8 points per game, and he upped it to 23.0 last season. He led the NBA with a 91.2 free throw percentage and had career-highs with a 48.0 field goal percentage and 42.1 three-point percentage.
4. Toronto Raptors - Kyle Lowry & DeMar DeRozan
Lowry and DeRozan will be entering their sixth season together in the Raptors backcourt. Lowry has been named an All-Star in each of the last three seasons.
In 60 games in 2016-17, he finished with career-highs in scoring average (22.4), rebounds per game (4.8), field goal percentage (46.4), and three-point percentage (41.2). He has averaged at least 6.4 Assists Per Game every season since 2010-11.
Last season, DeRozan was named to the All-NBA Third Team and finished 11th in MVP voting.
His 27.3 points per game (5th in the NBA) were a career-high, and it was his fourth straight season averaging 20+. He is excellent at drawing fouls and getting to the foul line, as evidenced by averaging at least eight free throws attempts a game in three of the last four seasons.
3. Washington Wizards - John Wall & Bradley Beal
Wall has averaged 10+ assists per game for the past three seasons, and his 23.1 scoring average in 2016-17 was the highest of his seven-year career. His 10.7 assists per game and 45.1% field goal percentage last season were also career-highs. He was named to the All-NBA Third Team and finished seventh in MVP voting.
Beal had the breakout season in 2016-17 that many were expecting. He finished with career-highs in scoring average (23.1), assists per game (3.5), field goal percentage (48.2), and free throw percentage (82.5). He shot over 40% on threes for the third time in his five seasons. He stepped up even more once the postseason began last season as in 13 games, he averaged 24.8 points per game (also 23.4 points per game in 10 games in the 2014-15 postseason).
2. Golden State Warriors - Stephen Curry & Klay Thompson
Curry won back-to-back MVPs in 2015 and 2016, and he and his backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, have won two of the last three NBA Finals (appeared in all three). He finished sixth in the voting last season, but his stats were expected to slip with the arrival of Kevin Durant. In his eight years, he has shot a career 43.8% on three-pointers (7.6 attempts per game), and 90.1% from the foul line. He has averaged at least 22.9 points and 6.6 assists per game in each of the last five seasons.
Thompson has been named to the last three All-Star teams and has shot over 40% on threes in all six of his seasons. He has improved his scoring average every year, with his career-high of 22.3 coming last season.
He's also very durable, as he has never missed more than five games in a season.
1. Houston Rockets - Chris Paul & James Harden
Paul joins the Rockets after spending the last six seasons with the Clippers. Not only is he a passing savant (at least 9.1 assists per game in each of the last 10 seasons), but he has also been named to the All-Defensive First Team the past six seasons. He shot a career-high 41.1% on threes in 2016-17 and joins an offense that loves to chuck them up.
Harden finished as the runner-up for MVP for the second time in his career in 2016-17. He led the NBA averaging 11.2 assists per game and was second in scoring average at 29.1. He has been named to the last five All-Star Games, and last season was the third time he was named to the All-NBA First Team.
