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#3 Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)
Chris Paul may be the better ball-handler, and Russell Westbrook may have the more glitzy stats against his name. However, Damian Lillard certainly has the bigger playoff performances, while never quite having the talent that either of the other two players has had alongside them. Whether it was his big shot against Houston in 2014 or his 37-foot goodbye shot against the OKC Thunder two years ago, Lillard has always delivered for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard averaged 28.0 ppg and 7.5 apg last season, which burgeoned to 34.3 ppg and 10.2 apg in the postseason. However, the improved performance couldn’t stop Portland from crashing out of the first round of the 2021 playoffs against Denver. The key for Lillard is whether Portland can surround him with the right talent while he is still in his prime. Otherwise this may just be another case of a very talented player wasting his best years with one franchise.
#2 Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks)
The NBA’s future Mr. Triple Double. It is difficult to place Luka Doncic purely among the shooting guards because he does so much playmaking for the Dallas Mavericks. He is already averaging 25.7 ppg over his three-year NBA career and has 36 triple-doubles to his credit. His court vision and foot movement are so good that he can beat the best of defenses and the toughest of defenders by either making a slick pass or by scoring over them.
The one area that Doncic, though, needs improvement in is that he needs to cut down on his turnovers. While he clocked 8.6 assists per game, he also averaged 4.3 turnovers last season, which meant he had the highest assist-to-turnover ratio for any of the players who finished in the top 10 in assists averages. He also had the second most turnovers (281) for 2020-21 just after Russell Westbrook (312).
#1 Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors)
Still pretty much the king among point guards. Stephen Curry finished 2020-21 with his second scoring title (32.0 ppg) and third in MVP voting. He once again led the NBA in total long range splashes (337) while dishing out 5.8 apg and gathering 5.5 rpg. Over the last 24 games of 2020-21, the two-time league MVP averaged 36.9 points nightly and shot 42.1 percent overall from three-point territory.
With Klay Thompson expected to be back for Golden State at some point in 2021-22, Curry will have more firepower alongside him in addition to Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins. At age 33, Curry still has a few more years left in his prime. The all-time career three-pointers made record is within touching distance for him as he trails Ray Allen by only 141 threes. By the time Curry finally calls it quits on his career, he is sure to add many other glittering milestones to his NBA resume.
Guess the Bulls players in this quiz and it's not going to be easy!
