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In anticipation of the 2018-19 NBA season, we decided to rank the top 10 players at each of the conventional basketball positions - point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards and centers. The list of the most elite point guards going into the new season is already out - you can read it here.
The list of top 10 shooting guards was relatively easier to decide on than the one-guards list - purely because the league is much stronger at the PG position than at the two-guard position, which is mostly manned by role players and sharpshooting specialists across the league today.
However, the top 10 list of off-guards is arguably as strong as, if not stronger, the list of point men. Read on to find out who finished No.1:
#10 CJ McCollum
Per nba.com, CJ McCollum was the most active athlete in the entire league last season, running an average of 2.9 miles per game. CJ has evolved into an All-Star caliber player for three seasons now, and he's as good on the ball as he's off it - a busybody spending 24 seconds coming off screens and getting open on the perimeter.
Defence is still a concern for the undersized shooting guard, but, as Jennifer would note from the offseason, CJ is trying his hardest on that end of the floor.
He may never be more than a league-average defender at that, but he's doing an okay job of it right now; although it won't be enough for the Blazers to be true title contenders any time soon.
A drop off in his efficiency in 2017-18 from 2016-17 means CJ is now on the verge of being upstaged among the top 10 shooting guards in the league, but he holds on to his spot among the elite guards of the league.
#9 Devin Booker
If last season was any indication, Devin Booker is constantly reupping and taking his game to the next level. Still younger than Donovan Mitchell and Ben Simmons, Booker averaged nearly 25 points per game on really good efficiency last season before going down to injury.
This he did while being the focal point of opposing defenses' attention every single game on a Suns team shorn of any talent on either end of the floor - one that finished dead last in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
Booker will now play with veterans like Ariza and Ryan Anderson and No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton in the starting lineup.
The Suns' bench will be buoyed by the likes of TJ Warren and Josh Jackson, although it is unclear who will start at the point guard role.
Booker is more than capable of playing as a combo guard as he demonstrated last season. The youngest 70-point scorer in NBA history is only just getting started in this league. Expect him to be a stellar scorer before long and worthy of the max contract he has right now.
#8 DeMar DeRozan
Placing DeMar DeRozan at the No. 8 spot on this list is a decision I took with a heavy heart, but the former Raptor and current Spurs man has now had one playoff disappointment too many for him to be placed any higher given the kind of competition he has at the shooting guard position today.
Legitimately an All-Star starter when voting for the exhibition game finished last season, DeRozan's offence trailed off at the end of the Raptors' regular season campaign.
He was pretty good against the Wizards, often playing like the best Raptor on the floor, but his continued run of petering out against the Cavaliers for the third straight playoff campaign consigned Toronto to a sweep as the No.1 seed at the hand of LeBron James and his motley supporting cast.
Coach Pop is capable of taking his game to the next level, but since we're still reeling at the abject choke job by Deebo last May, he still places at a position he's fully capable of making the jump from at the end of the season.
#7 Donovan Mitchell
The biggest success story of the 2017 NBA draft so far, Donovan 'Spida' Mitchell has been nothing short of spectacular through the course of his NBA career.
There have been a number of historically great rookies in the storied history of the NBA, but few, if any, have outplayed two perennial All-Stars en route to taking their team past their opponents without home court in their first playoff series.
The best rookie of the 2017 draft class thus far, Mitchell is in one of the best situations in the NBA - mentored by one of the best head coaches in the league, backed by a front office that traded up on draft night to acquire him and with a bunch of teammates who know their roles very well and execute it to perfection.
Expect Mitchell to be an All-Star caliber player for the entirety of the 2018-19 NBA season, health permitting.
#6 Bradley Beal
It came a season late, but Bradley Beal's maiden All-Star game appearance this season was fully warranted.
The Wizards' main source of shot creation as a playmaker as well as a scorer during John Wall's frequent injury absences last season, Beal showed the league he's fully up to the task of playing a stellar second fiddle to the Wizards' franchise player.
Beal is one of the best isolation players at the two-guard position in the league today. His extremely refined dribbling moves in addition to his ability to contort his body through non-existent spaces make him one of the toughest players to guard in the league.
Beal continued to excel from downtown in his sixth season in the league - he's averaged north of 37% in every single season and can play as well as a spot-up shooter as in the role of a pull-up shot creator.
He's made strides on the defensive end every year as well and now projects as an above-average defender at his position.
#5 Klay Thompson
Is there a single team in the NBA into which Klay Thompson does not fit in seamlessly? I very much doubt it.
The 6'7" shooting guard can guard up to four positions on defense while running around every single second on offense, coming off screens and draining 3-pointers like it's nothing on a nightly basis.
We've been pushing Klay Thompson slightly into the background ever since Kevin Durant's move to Oakland, but it's the no-frills swingman who arguably is the best two-way player on the Warriors roster.
A low-maintenance player with little, if any, egotistical tendencies, Thompson's ability to drop 40 points on any night make him invaluable even to a historically great Warriors team.
They really may not be title favourites this season if it weren't for him pulling off an impeccable shift on both ends of the floor while playing every game.
#4 Jrue Holiday
One of the least-heralded but easily the most valuable performances from the regular season last season was the shift Jrue Holiday put in following DeMarcus Cousins' Achilles injury 48 games into the season. Holiday's pre- and post- All Star Game numbers speak for themselves in this regard.
As a defender, Holiday is perhaps the single most versatile guard in the league - able to cover the likes of Russell Westbrook and John Wall at the point guard position while also being able to switch onto the likes of Kevin Durant effectively - as he showed during the postseason.
Holiday's 49.4% field goal conversion rate was among the highest figures for guards playing over 40 games and averaging more than 20 minutes per game last season - lower only than Steph and higher than Kyrie, who were all completing over 49% of their field goal attempts last season.
An All-Defensive First Team selection from last season was absolutely warranted given his stellar efforts on that end.
#3 Victor Oladipo
The summer of 2017 was a tumultuous one for the Indiana Pacers, who had no idea they were getting an All-NBA Second Teamer and an All-Defensive First Teamer and the single best guard defender in the league when they traded Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis - a trade that can now be declared as a win-win for both teams.
Oladipo showcased a side of his game he'd never done in the past. He averaged career highs across the board in his fifth season, surging up the ladder of the best players in the league pretty quickly while doing so.
The Pacers were so dependent on him that they lost all 6 games he missed during the regular season.
If Oladipo maintains his performances this season or takes a leap and the Pacers win up to 55 games, you would be hard-pressed to play down his MVP candidature.
#2 Jimmy Butler
With the Butler-Timberwolves standoff still at its dramatic worst, much of the current NBA fanbase seems to have forgotten about Jimmy Buckets' talents.
The Jimmy Butler trade that was viewed as a win-win only a couple of months back is now being deemed as a sore loss for the Wolves organization, which seems to have hit a rut with Tom Thibodeau as the President of Basketball Operations in addition to his head coaching role.
Butler was the primary reason the Wolves made it to their first playoffs in 14 years and were competing for the third seed for the majority of the season.
His ability to do anything and everything asked of him - from guarding centers on switches, dishing to teammates, going solo and getting buckets, spotting up from the perimeter, locking down the opposition's best player on a nightly basis - Jimmy G is able to all of this and more because of his versatility and all-round excellence.
A fully healthy campaign for any team that he's traded to will be enough to vault Butler into MVP contention at this stage.
#1 James Harden
The Bearded Picasso, as Trevor Ariza labeled him in his MVP pitch for the 2016-17 season, won the trophy that has eluded him (wrongly) on at least two separate occasions last season after leading the Houston Rockets to a league-best 65-17 record.
Harden is the most dominant iso player in the world today. He averaged 1.22 points per isolation possession on a much higher frequency than any other player - a rate better than most teams' transition efficiency. Harden switching on to a big man on offense is about as sure a point-generating formula as any in the league.
Harden averaged 30.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game during the regular season last year. Previously valid criticisms of his defense are really no longer applicable, as coach Mike D'Antoni has successfully schemed his defenses in such a manner that Harden is able to act as a post defender on the weak side, using his tremendous lower body strength to an advantage on those scenarios.
With the burden of being his team's sole playmaker and elite scorer off his shoulders, Harden really took off last season. Expect him to be there and thereabouts in MVP contention this season as well.
Guess the Lakers players!
