#6 Trae Young – Atlanta Hawks
2020-21 Stats: 25.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 9.4 APG, 0.8 STL, 43.8 FG%, 34.3 3P%
He led his team to the Eastern Conference Finals last season and Trae Young is going to be on a mission to prove that this was not a fluke!
Young may have found a loophole to drawing fouls last year, something that the NBA has fixed for the 2021-22 season, so it should be interesting to see how the young point guard adjusts his game, but overall, Trae Young is a mastermind with the ball in his hands.
Not only is he one of the best passers at the point guard position in the league, but he is a more than comfortable three-point shooter from the top-of-the-key.
What is very impressive is when you look at Kirk Goldsberry’s shooting chart outlining the top scorers by each zone on the basketball court over the last 25 years in the NBA. The fact that Trae Young is on this list from very deep three-point range is extremely impressive, especially since Young has only played three seasons and is only 22-years-old!
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With one of the best touches and floaters around the rim in the NBA, plus the ability to dissect defenses with his crafty handles, Trae Young is one of the better scoring guards in the entire league and will have the Atlanta Hawks contending for a high playoff seed once again in the Eastern Conference.
The NBA may have fixed their offensive foul rule that way guys like Young cannot jump into defenders to draw fouls, but good luck to any defenders who get caught behind Trae Young in pick-and-roll situations!
#5 Kyrie Irving/James Harden – Brooklyn Nets
Irving’s 2020-21 Stats: 26.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 6.0 APG, 1.4 STL, 50.6 FG%, 40.2 3P%
Harden’s 2020-21 Stats: 24.6 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 10.8 APG, 0.8 STL, 46.6 FG%, 36.2 3P%
Kyrie Irving and James Harden both take on point guard responsibilities for the Brooklyn Nets, so we are just going to lump them together here as being the fourth-best point guard(s) entering the 2021-22 season. Starting with Irving, he is coming off another great scoring year and became a member of the illustrious 50/40/90 club, even though many people did not talk about this feat.
The Brooklyn Nets are arguably the best team in the NBA entering the 2021-22 season and this is because of all the starpower they have. Irving is joined by James Harden in the backcourt and the Nets also have Kevin Durant, who you can make an argument for in being the best pure scorer in the league today.
Harden and Durant are the former MVPs on this team, but Kyrie Irving is just as important because of his craftiness and ability to score against virtually anyone guarding him. Irving’s handles are some of the best of all-time and one-on-one, there may not be too many better scorers than him in league history.
James Harden joined the Brooklyn Nets in January last season and he is being viewed as the final piece to the Nets’ championship puzzle. They ultimately lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season, but Irving was out with an ankle sprain and Harden was basically playing on one leg with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain.
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While he only played in 44 games last season due to injuries, James Harden averaged 10.8 assists per game between the Rockets and Nets and in Brooklyn, he recorded a triple-double in 12 of the 36 games he played in, which is 33% of the time. In addition to his triple-doubles, Harden scored 25+ points in 17 of the 36 games he played in.
The former league-MVP is the primary ball-handler for the Brooklyn Nets and while Durant and Irving also play a big role in this team’s success, James Harden is the “do-it-all” guy for them on the court. The Nets will need Harden to be healthy if they want to win a championship during the 2021-22 season.
