Bradford Doolittle, an analyst for ESPN, used some projections of the WARP (wins above replacement player) to tell us who the Top 10 point guards for the 2014-15 season will be.
None of those Top 10 include any of the Suns three luminaries at a position considered the Suns' biggest strength.
Listed in the Top 10, in terms of projected WARP:
- Chris Paul (17.8)
- Russell Westbrook (15.1)
- Stephen Curry (14.2)
- John Wall (13.8)
- Kyrie Irving (12.1)
- Kyle Lowry (11.8)
- Damian Lillard (11.24)
- Mike Conley (11.21)
- Ricky Rubio (10.9)
- Ty Lawson (10.1)
The Phoenix Suns' Goran Dragic was listed as an honorable mention, and Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas were listed in the 'next up' category with 9 other point guards.
So, the Phoenix Suns point guards all rank somewhere between 11 and 22 among NBA point guards. Anyone else think that's crazy low?
Last year, the Suns' three point guards were 3 of only 10 point guards in the NBA to average at least 17.7 points, 5.5 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals.
Going even further on how good these guys were last season, just using raw, simple stats:
- Goran Dragic is the ONLY NBA player (any position) to put up 20+ points and 5+ assists on 50% shooting (40% on 3-pointers) in the 2013-14 season
- Eric Bledsoe was one of only two NBA players (with Russell Westbrook) to put up 17+ points, 5+ assists, 4+ rebounds and 1.6+ steals per game last year
- Isaiah Thomas was one of only SIX NBA players (one of 4 point guards) to put up 20+ points, 6+ assists and 1.3+ steals last year
And these guys can't even sniff Top 10 for the 2014-15 season when listing only point guards, huh?
Here's a quick explanation of where this guy was coming from on the list:
20 of next season's top 50 players by projected WARP are point guards. Championship trends aside, it's a point guard's league.
Starting Monday with point guards, over the next week we'll rank players by position according to forecast WARP, which is perfect for this kind of exercise because it accounts for a player's efficiency, volume of production and team context. This also means that injury and age played a part in the rankings, so notable veteran point guards who suffered injuries last season, like Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker, are absent from the top 10.