Nov 26, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) celebrates after scoring against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Point guard might be the deepest position to rank in the NBA right now, because you can get to No. 10 and still have a dude coming off 23 points per game. There are former MVPs, Finals MVPs, young guards already carrying entire offenses, and then Tyrese Haliburton sitting in the middle of all this after missing a full year with an Achilles tear. And I want to make a disclaimer: somebody good is going to end up lower than people may want in some cases.
For this ranking, I’m leaning way more toward who I would want entering 2026-27 than just copying last season’s box score and ranking them by PPG. Health, playoff basketball, and efficiency count, but having a ridiculous season on a bad team doesn’t just launch you over someone who has been a top player for a while. And at the very top, yeah, Luka Doncic vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is basically the whole discussion for the last 3 years.
15. Ja Morant
There was a time when putting Ja Morant this low would have sounded insane, and that’s exactly why this ranking feels weird. Peak Ja was already a 27-point scorer, an All-NBA guard, and one of the hardest downhill players in the league to contain, but 2025-26 gave us only 20 games, 19.5 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 8.1 APG with 41.0% from the field and 23.5% from three. That’s way too little good basketball to rank him off reputation alone, especially after another season where availability became the main story.
The playmaking still looked strong, and 8.1 assists in that limited sample tells you the feel hasn’t disappeared, so I’m not ready to push him out of the top 15 either. The Blazers are betting that a new situation can unlock something close to the old version, and at 27 there’s still time for that. If Morant gets back to consistently attacking the rim, living in transition and forcing defenses to collapse, he can jump five spots pretty fast. Entering the season, though, everyone above him simply gives me more certainty.
14. Darius Garland
You can make the case that Darius Garland is almost boring now, but that’s really just a compliment about his control. He gave us 18.8 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 6.7 APG last season while shooting 46.0% from the field and 39.6% from three, then became even more efficient after landing with the Clippers. He can run pick-and-roll, pull up from deep, play next to another ball-handler, and still create six or seven assists without needing a giant usage rate.
What keeps him this low is more about ceiling than quality. Garland is still only 6-foot-1, teams have hunted him defensively in the playoffs, and his scoring has basically lived in that 19-to-21-point area for a while now. With more creators around him, he also doesn’t have to carry the same offensive load as guys ahead of him. I trust him to be good almost every night, I’m just not sure I trust him to have a huge breakout once more in a Clippers uniform.
13. Trae Young
His career credentials say he’s close to a top-5 guard in the league, but fifteen games basically ruined Trae Young’s chance of ranking much higher for next season. He finished 2025-26 at 17.9 PPG, 2.0 RPG, and 8.0 APG after splitting time between the Hawks and Wizards, then a quad injury ended the season before we really got to see what this version of him looked like. The 45.8% from the field was actually encouraging, but the sample is tiny and 33.8% from three wasn’t exactly great either.
Still, this dude led the NBA in assists in 2024-25 and owns a career average over 25 points and 9.8 assists, so the talent didn’t suddenly disappear. Washington can give him the ball and let him run everything again, which should help the counting stats immediately. The defense will always be an issue, and now durability joins that conversation too, but healthy Trae is absolutely better than No. 13. I just need to actually see healthy Trae again before ranking him as if nothing happened.
12. De’Aaron Fox
Playing next to Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle changed the way De’Aaron Fox had to play, and honestly that’s probably why his numbers looked so low with the Spurs. He averaged 18.6 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 6.2 APG in 72 games, but shot a career-best 48.6% from the field and helped them win 62 games as an All-Star. He didn’t need to dominate every possession anymore, so the usage came down without his actual impact falling off a cliff.
That’s why I still think Fox is better than his box score suggests. His speed is still ridiculous, he remains dangerous late in games, and his 54.9 eFG% was the best mark of his career. The problem for this ranking is what happened in the Finals against the Knicks, and having Castle and Harper asking for more of his touches. In a playoff series, I could easily take Fox over some guys ranked ahead of him, but entering a full season, his current role pushes him just outside the top 10.
11. LaMelo Ball
The biggest win for LaMelo Ball last season wasn’t even a stat, it was 72 games played. After years where injuries basically owned every hope of making the playoffs, he finally stayed on the floor and put up 20.1 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 7.1 APG with 36.8% from three and 89.9% from the line. The 40.7% from the field is still rough, but at least we finally got a full season of his size, passing, and high-volume shooting.
Now in Minnesota next to Anthony Edwards, I love that for him because he doesn’t need to force 20 shots every night. Ball can push pace, create early offense, feed Rudy Gobert above the rim, and attack iso defenders instead of constantly trying to create everything himself. That setup could make him more efficient without taking away the passing that already makes him special. I’m stopping at No. 11 because he still hasn’t proven anything in the playoffs, but another healthy year could move him into the top 10 pretty easily.
10. Keyonte George
Okay, Keyonte George being top 10 may be a reach for some, at least until you actually look at what he just did. At 22 years old, he jumped all the way to 23.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 6.1 assists in 54 games, shooting 45.6% from the field, 37.1% from three, and 89.2% from the line. One year earlier, he was at 16.8 points on 39.1% from the field, so the efficiency basically transformed while the usage stayed big.
The coolest part for me is that George finally started looking like an actual lead guard instead of a scorer trying to learn point guard on the fly. The Jazz’s offense posted a 120.4 offensive rating in minutes where George handled the primary creation without Isaiah Collier, and early in the year he was even up around 9.2 assists per game before his role and lineups shifted. The defense is still the giant hole, and playing meaningful basketball would obviously tell us way more than putting up numbers during a rebuilding season.
That is why I stop at No. 10. I’m not putting him above Harden or Haliburton yet, but 23.6 and 6.1 with 53.2% effective shooting at his age is way too good to leave outside this group.
9. Tyrese Haliburton
Ranking Tyrese Haliburton ninth feels a little disrespectful for someone who has absolutely carried the Pacers in the last few years, but a full season away from the game is difficult to predict.
His last healthy regular season was still elite point guard stuff: 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 9.2 assists, and 1.4 steals while hitting 47.3% from the field and 38.8% from three. The craziest number wasn’t even the assists, it was only 1.6 turnovers per game, giving Haliburton a league-leading 5.61 assist-to-turnover ratio while finishing third in assists.
The fact that he now seems to be in full health and will make his comeback with a deep Indiana squad again is great, but I still can’t rank him like the injury never happened. If Haliburton comes back moving like the old version, No. 9 is going to look stupid within a month. Until we actually see that burst, though, putting him behind some elite guards (plus Harden) feels fair.
8. James Harden
There’s something that I must give James Harden credit for: he is 37 now, and somehow we’re still having this conversation. He split last season between the Clippers and Cavaliers and finished the year at 23.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 8.0 assists across 70 games, hitting 43.4% from the field and 37.5% from three. Even more interesting, his efficiency got better after the trade: 20.5 points and 7.7 assists on 46.6% from the field and 43.5% from three over 26 games with the Cavaliers.
The Beard obviously isn’t Houston Harden anymore, but that’s irrelevant because his current game is still perfect for running an NBA offense. He controls tempo, lives in the pick-and-roll, gets to the line 7.5 times per game, and can still manipulate a defense the way he wants. His 27.9% usage rate came with 8.0 assists, so he wasn’t just holding the ball to chase points either.
I have him over Haliburton mostly because I know what I’m getting in October. Keyonte has better legs, Haliburton has a higher ceiling if fully recovered, but Harden just gave another playoff team 26 games of high-level creation with 70 total games played. Until his body or production actually says otherwise, he’s still top eight for me.
7. Jamal Murray
For years, Jamal Murray had this funny reputation where everyone knew Playoff Murray was insane, while his regular-season numbers never quite looked like a superstar. Last season basically killed that argument.
Murray went for career highs of 25.4 points and 7.1 assists with 4.4 rebounds, then casually shot 48.3% from the field and a ridiculous 43.5% from three across 75 games. He made 3.3 threes per night, turned it over only 2.3 times, and finally gave the Nuggets an All-NBA-level regular season next to Nikola Jokic instead of saving everything for April.
The playoffs are why I can’t push him over Maxey, though. Minnesota made his life miserable, and Murray fell to 23.7 points and 5.7 assists on 35.7% from the field and 26.2% from three in the six-game first-round loss. He had three 30-point games, so it wasn’t some total disappearance, but Games 3 and 6 were ugly, and his 48.4% true shooting for the series was nowhere near good enough.
Still, 25 and 7 on 43.5% from three is absurd. Murray finally had the regular season everybody had been waiting for, and one bad playoff series doesn’t erase six years of proof that he can handle huge games.
6. Tyrese Maxey
Tyrese Maxey just keeps getting better, and at some point we probably need to stop acting surprised. Last season he climbed again to 28.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 6.6 assists in 70 games, shooting 46.2% from the field, 36.7% from three, and 89.2% from the line.
He finished fifth in the NBA in scoring, but my favorite number might actually be the 1.9 steals because Maxey went from a small offense-only guard early in his career to somebody who can cause legit problems defensively. He also made 3.1 threes per game and turned it over only 2.4 times despite playing a ridiculous 38.0 minutes every night. Philadelphia asked him to handle a massive amount while Joel Embiid kept missing time, and Maxey didn’t really blink.
At this point, Maxey isn’t just surviving bigger responsibilities, he’s actually getting better because of them. He still has another level to reach as a half-court organizer in the playoffs, but entering 2026-27, there aren’t many guards I’d rather trust to carry this much scoring and creation every night.
5. Stephen Curry
Yeah, Stephen Curry played only 43 games, and yes, he’s 38. I’m still putting him fifth, because in those 43 games, he somehow scored 26.6 points in only 30.9 minutes while shooting 46.8% from the field, 39.3% from three, and 92.3% from the line. Curry made 4.4 threes per game on 11.3 attempts and finished with a 58.7% effective field-goal percentage, which is crazy production for somebody whose age usually belongs in the “veteran bench shooter” phase of a career.
Availability was a season killer: Curry missed nearly half the season, the Warriors went 37-45, and at this point, pretending age isn’t part of the evaluation would be dumb. But this ranking isn’t fantasy basketball. Give me one healthy playoff series and Curry still scares me more than Maxey or Murray because defenses have to react the second he crosses half-court. Nobody here creates the same spacing without even touching the ball, and 39.3% from three on that volume still tells you the shot hasn’t gone anywhere.
4. Cade Cunningham
Cade Cunningham officially jumped from “young star” into the MVP-level point guard group last season with Detroit going 60-22 and as the No. 1 seed in the East, while Cunningham finished with 23.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 9.9 assists, second in the entire NBA in assists behind Nikola Jokic. He also added 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks while shooting 46.1% from the field, and that season earned him First Team All-NBA.
Those 9.9 assists are what separate him for me. Detroit still doesn’t have another trusted half-court creator, so basically the ball eventually finds Cade, yet the Pistons still produced a top-10 offense while winning 60 games. His 30.5% usage rate and massive playmaking responsibility made that season way more impressive than just reading 23.9 PPG.
Then playoff teams started throwing everything at him, and his workload somehow got even crazier. Across 14 postseason games, Cunningham went to 28.1 points and 7.5 assists in 40.8 minutes, including that ridiculous first-round battle with Orlando. I can’t put him over Brunson after what Brunson just did, but Cade is already knocking on that door. At 24, he still has a way higher ceiling to discover.
3. Jalen Brunson
There isn’t really a stat that explains Jalen Brunson better than “Finals MVP” in his trophy cabinet. During the regular season, Brunson averaged 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists while shooting 46.7% from the field and 36.9% from three, leading a 53-win Knicks to one of the best offenses. Really good, nothing shocking anymore. Then the playoffs came, and he basically decided normal Jalen wasn’t enough to win.
New York won its first championship since 1973, Brunson grabbed Eastern Conference Finals MVP and then went for 32.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in the Finals against the Spurs. Game 5 was the ridiculous ending: 45 points to close the series and bring the title home. The funny part is he still doesn’t look physically dominant at all. He’s 6-foot-2, isn’t insanely fast, doesn’t jump over people, then somehow gets wherever he wants anyway. No. 3 isn’t hype anymore. He earned this one the hard way.
2. Luka Doncic
If you told me Luka Doncic was No. 1, I wouldn’t fight you very hard, mainly because I’d personally agree with that statement. Luka just won the scoring title at 33.5 points per game while also putting up 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists, shooting 47.6% from the field and 36.6% from three. He led the league in total points despite playing only 64 games, made four threes per night, and had a 27.9 PER. Those are basically video-game numbers from a 6-foot-7 point guard.
The Lakers also went 43-21 in the games he played, and nearly everything they do offensively begins with Luka deciding which defender he wants to torture. Drop, switch, blitz, zone- it doesn’t matter because he’s big enough to see over it and really can score against whatever coverage comes next.
There are still little things keeping him behind Shai for me. The turnovers were up to 4.0 per game, the defense isn’t close, and the Lakers got swept by OKC in the second round while SGA was coming off another MVP season (yes, I know Luka didn’t play at all). Pure offensive control? Luka might already be No. 1 among every guard alive. Overall, entering 2026-27, I’m giving Shai the tiniest edge because the efficiency and two-way game are two categories that must be taken into account.
1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Back-to-back MVP is really just more than enough already, but fine, let’s do the numbers with SGA too: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 6.6 assists in 68 games while shooting an absurd 55.3% from the field, 38.6% from three, and posting a 66.5% true shooting percentage.
For a guard with a 32.3% usage rate, 66.5% true shooting is just ridiculously good. The Thunder went 64-18, the best record in the NBA, and SGA finished with a +16.3 net rating while he was on the floor.
He also only turned it over 2.2 times, and then had 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks as a point guard, and now Luka’s offensive edge starts getting eaten up by everything Shai gives you on the other end. The Thunder didn’t repeat as champions, losing a seven-game Western Conference Finals to the Spurs, but I’m not dropping the reigning back-to-back MVP because Victor Wembanyama happened.
SGA was First Team All-NBA unanimously and won Clutch Player of the Year too, so even with Luka right there, Brunson coming off a championship, Cade getting closer, and Curry somehow still being Curry at 38, Shai has done enough to keep the top spot.