I’d probably take Beal too fwiw I just don’t think it’s a crazy reach to think Mitchell belongs in the discussion. He is easily in the top tier for 2 guards imo. He wins and he’s been uber productive since he was a rookie in the West. And he was awesome in the playoffs last year too.
I don’t consider Kyrie or Harden 2 guards still even in their offense. They are naturally lead guards. They played as PGs their entire career before Brooklyn. I think Paul George would be considered a 3 by most pundits. I would probably classify Butler as a 3 as well. All these guys are interchangeable with the 2 and 3 or 1 and 2 spots. Kind of show what today’s “positionless basketball” meaning really is.
CJ McCollum is another one I really enjoy watching and is under appreciated
I think the Nuggets have a great shot despite the Murray injury. The Suns got unlucky with the seeding. I think the WCF will be Lakers/Nuggets vs. Clippers/Jazz.
Not as sure in the East. I still don’t trust the Sixers.
Yeah, he’s definitely good. I guess I meant more that he’s not to the level where he can carry most teams to the title - the Jazz are much more of an “Team effort”.
I know the numbers suggest that the Nets are simply too overpowering with all three stars on the court but I feel like that was said about the Miami Big 3 too. And Spoelstra had/has a much longer coaching resume than Nash
I just don’t think Mitchell was leading anything. He’s their main scorer but has never been their best player, aside from the bubble when he went ballistic. But so did Jamal Murray and for a week there people were saying Murray was the best player on the Nuggets but it was just basing it off of one series. Also Booker has never been a PG.
That’s a fair way to look at it. I think he can carry a team scoring but I don’t think he does enough of anything else consistently. Kind of why he fits that traditional 2 guard mold in my eyes.
Porter taking that next step that people were hoping he would is a game changer for the Nuggets. He’s a 20+ ppg player now. He’s becoming the player he was expected to be before his injury at Missouri. Next year if everyone stays healthy I think they are legitimate contender if Porter and Murray continue to develop and Jokic continues to dominate.
I think Beal is in a tier of his own at this point, with Klay’s injury woes. Mitchell is definitely in the group behind Beal in my eyes and might even be in that tier on his own. I agree that Harden/Kyrie are more PGs than anything. I think that next group is LaVine, Booker and Jaylen Brown, and I have Mitchell above all of those guys.
I forgot about Klay. Him, Beal, Mitchell and Booker the top group of 2 guards in your eyes? I’d probably lean
Beal
Klay
Mitchell
Booker
In that order. But depending on how teams play, Mitchell could be above Klay if you want a 2 guard with more ball skills. Plus, if Klay’s knees are bad and it affects him defensively, I think there is a real chance he isn’t even in the discussion anymore.
Because it’s one game play in (technically) so anything can truly happen. I would love to see Steph go nuclear on LAL by scoring 50-60 points with a win over LAL.
I always see Klay at the top of this discussion regardless of forum. Which tells me at least one of three things:
Prime Klay was the platonic ideal of a SG.
There just aren’t many good SGs in the league right now.
Positional roles and definitions in the modern game have changed so much that the conventional SG is not really a key ingredient to winning basketball anymore.
Maybe all three are true.
There are playoff teams with a pure PG and a big pile of wings, four-guard lineups, point-center unicorns, whatever Doncic is, etc.
I would say Beal is the best pure SG in the game right now with Klay out yet their games are so dissimilar. Beal stays on the ball creating shots for himself. Klay can score 60 without taking a single dribble.
I like that order before Klay’s injury, yeah. I’ve never been a big LaVine fan, seems like an empty calories guy. Definitely would have him behind everyone else discussed.
If I’m designing the prototype SG, Klay is it. Deadly shooter, great defender, can go get a bucket on his own or run off of screens. He’s an out-of-body experience to watch when he’s on.
I think all 3 are fairly spot on. Players like Doncic and Harden would have been SGs in a previous world, but are now PGs due to the heliocentric modern offenses and evolution of “positionless basketball” where the main handler can be any size and that handler becomes the PG. When you look at the current SGs, they’re all SGs because they just score but aren’t good passers (relatively). And if you just shotmake and not playmake you’re kind of naturally inferior or less valuable than someone that does both.
This topic is interesting and I never would have realized how the true “shooting guard” has nearly gone the way of the dodo. Most guys are “lead guards” or classic “point guards” and teams are just playing two of them.
LaVine is a SG I guess. Simmons is impossible to put in a position. I know Harden plays on-ball all the time, but I still think of him as the SG to Irvin’s PG. Jimmy Butler is a 2 for me, even though he operates at various times as a 1-2-3-4. Doncic is really a PG for that team, but he also shares the court with Burke or Brunson most of the time so it highlights the new definition of guard.