NBA point guards are often floor leaders of their teams. I find them somewhat analogous to baseball pitchers. As such, I've worked to develop a stat for point guards that mirrors a pitcher stat that combines elements of performance and victory: the quality start.
My stat is predicated not only on the fact that point guards have a good game if they rack up a decent number of points or assists, but also that point guards are effective if they captain their teams to victory.
Out of these assumptions comes the stat "quality performance." A point guard receives a quality performance if he scores 10 points and has five dishes in a victory. A victory is pretty much the best single simplistic stat that accounts for not only playmaking, but also defense and turnovers.
I had thought about requiring 30 or more minutes for a quality performance, but I have relented on that as a requirement, in part because, unlike in baseball, basketball players are pulled in blowouts and may not get the requisite 30 minutes in those games.
This is a stat that is helped by the number of games your team has won.
Here's how various point guard stack up in that stat. Also included are each player's games, points and assists for the season. Ties are broken by fewest games played.
|Russell Westbrook, Thunder||82||1903||607||52|
|Tony Parker, Spurs||66||1341||499||44|
|Chris Paul, Clippers||70||1186||678||44|
|Deron Williams, Nets||78||1476||604||39|
|Stephen Curry, Warriors||78||1786||539||38|
|Ty Lawson, Nuggets||73||1216||501||37|
|Mike Conley, Grizzlies||80||1168||487||34|
|Jeff Teague, Hawks||80||1166||579||31|
|Jrue Holiday, 76ers||78||1383||625||30|
|Brandon Jennings, Bucks||80||1397||521||30|
|Jeremy Lin, Rockets||82||1095||497||27|
|Damien Lillard, Blazers||82||1562||531||26|
|John Wall, Wizards||49||906||373||22|
|George Hill, Pacers||76||1076||355||22|
|Greivis Vasquez, Hornets||78||1083||704||22|
|Raymond Felton, Knicks||68||948||374||20|
|Goran Dragic, Suns||77||1134||569||20|
|Darren Collison, Mavericks||81||972||415||17|
|Steve Nash, Lakers||50||636||333||16|
|Kemba Walker, Bobcats||82||1455||471||16|
|Mo Williams, Jazz||46||592||285||14|
|Rajon Rondo, Celtics||38||522||420||13|
|Jose Calderon, Raptors/Pistons||73||826||518||13|
|Nate Robinson, Bulls||82||1074||358||13|
|Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers||59||1325||350||12|
|Jameer Nelson, Magic||56||822||413||11|
|Ricky Rubio, Timberwolves||57||608||418||11|
|Kyle Lowry, Raptors||68||435||791||11|
|Isaiah Thomas, Kings||79||1100||316||11|
|Kirk Hinrich, Bulls||60||459||314||10|
|Brandon Knight, Pistons||75||999||303||10|
|Jason Kidd, Knicks||76||458||249||5|
|Mario Chalmers, Heat ||77||666||273||5|
A cursory look at this stat is that it roughly parallels a consensus ranking of the best point guards in the NBA this season. Of particular note is that Russell Westbrook is ahead of Paul and Parker, largely on the strength of playing a dozen more games than either.
Also of note is that the top eight point guards in this stat are all still playing, i.e. their teams are in the playoffs. Holiday and Lillard have the highest number of quality performances on a non-playoff team, despite finishing near the top in assists. Hornets point Greivis Vasquez was in the middle of the pack in terms of quality performances, though I doubt that anyone would seriously argue that Vasquez is one of the 10 best point guards in the NBA, in spite of his assist numbers.
This stat is actually good at weeding out bad point guards on good teams. Of the 33 point guards I looked at, Mario Chalmers finished dead last in the stat, ironically tied with Jason Kidd. The Suns' Goran Dragic had more quality performances than both point guards in Chicago's platoon replacement for the injured Derrick Rose.
Also, for kicks, here are a few players who are not point guards who I expected to do well in this stat. I threw in Gasol because he's leading all centers in assists, and I wanted to see how high a center might go with this stat.
|LeBron James, Heat||76||2036||551||55|
|Kobe Bryant, Lakers||78||2133||469||33|
|Kevin Durant, Thunder||81||2280||374||26|
|Marc Gasol, Grizzlies||80||1127||318||19|
|Carmelo Anthony, Knicks||67||1920||171||4|
To put it in perspective, that means LeBron would be the best point guard in the NBA if he was a point guard, making this yet another stat that proves LeBron's dominance. Then again, he did lead all non-guards in assists.
Kobe and KD have more quality performances than the majority of NBA points, but Carmelo Anthony has fewer quality performances than even Chalmers, largely due to the fact that he averages fewer than three assists a game.
Quality performances: The real way to find out who is a good point guard.
Advanced stats and game logs courtesy of Basketball-reference.com.