Greatest NBA Shooting Guards in History

Six Finals appearances, six titles and six Finals MVPs, alongside ten scoring titles and the highest career regular season average in league history at 30.1 points per game. His 1988 season, when he took MVP and Defensive Player of the Year at once, is the two-way peak no other guard has matched.

Five titles across two distinct Lakers eras, back-to-back Finals MVPs in 2009 and 2010, and 81 points against Toronto in January 2006, still the second-highest single-game total ever scored. He closed out 20 seasons in one uniform by dropping 60 in his final game.

The only player to win Finals MVP from the losing side, West took the award in 1969 after the Lakers fell to Boston in seven games. He made an All-Star team in all 14 of his seasons, led the league in scoring in 1970 and in assists in 1972, and finally won his ring in 1972.

The 2006 Finals, when Wade averaged 34.7 points and dragged Miami back from an 0-2 hole against Dallas, is the most dominant Finals run by any guard not named Jordan. He won the 2009 scoring title at 30.2 per game and added rings in 2012 and 2013 next to LeBron James.

Drexler made ten All-Star teams and carried Portland to the Finals in 1990 and 1992 before winning his title in 1995 with Houston, reunited with college teammate Hakeem Olajuwon. He is one of a handful of players with 20,000 points, 6,000 rebounds and 6,000 assists.

Four scoring titles between 1978 and 1982, the first clinched on the season's final day with 63 points against New Orleans after David Thompson had scored 73 that same afternoon. The finger roll was his signature, though San Antonio never reached a Finals during his years there.

Allen held the career record for three-pointers made at 2,973 until Stephen Curry passed him in 2021, built on 40 percent shooting from deep over 18 seasons. His corner three with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals saved Miami's season and remains the biggest shot here.

Eighteen seasons, all of them in Indiana, ended with a career three-point record of 2,560. The eight points in 8.9 seconds against the Knicks in 1995, plus 25 fourth-quarter points at Madison Square Garden a year earlier, made him the era's defining postseason antagonist.

Three straight scoring titles from 2018 through 2020 and the 2018 MVP anchor his case, capped by a 36.1-point average in 2018-19 that no player had reached since Jordan. Leading the league in assists in 2017 gives him a scoring and playmaking combination unique on this list.

Back-to-back scoring titles in 2003 and 2004, including a 32.1-point average for an Orlando team with almost nothing around him. The 13 points in 33 seconds against San Antonio in December 2004 is the stretch he is best remembered for, in a career that never produced a deep playoff run.

Four championships with San Antonio and the 2008 Sixth Man of the Year award, nearly all of it earned coming off the bench. He also led Argentina to Olympic gold in 2004, beating the United States in the semifinal, a claim no other guard here can make.

Winning four titles in Golden State came alongside the record for points in a quarter, 37 of them against Sacramento in January 2015. He hit 14 threes against Chicago in 2018, a single-game record at the time, then lost two full seasons to an ACL tear and a torn Achilles.

Twenty-two seasons stood as the NBA record until LeBron James passed the mark, and no other career has spanned four different decades. The 2000 Dunk Contest and the leap over Frederic Weis at that summer's Olympics defined his peak, with 25,000-plus points piling up across the years that followed.

Ten championships in twelve Boston seasons leave him second only to Bill Russell in career rings. A bank shot specialist and the Celtics' designated closer, Jones beat the buzzer in Game 4 of the 1969 Finals to pull Boston even with the Lakers at two games apiece.

Seven times the NBA's most accurate free throw shooter, Sharman retired holding the career mark at 88.3 percent. He won four titles beside Bob Cousy in Boston's backcourt, then coached the 1971-72 Lakers to 33 straight wins and a championship, reaching the Hall of Fame as player and coach.

Greer made ten straight All-Star teams and remains the leading scorer in 76ers franchise history with 21,586 points over 15 seasons in Syracuse and Philadelphia. He started for the 1967 champions who went 68-13, and shot his free throws as jump shots throughout his career.

Sweet Lou earned the nickname with a jumper that held up across 13 seasons, and the Hawks retired his number 23. He made six consecutive All-Star teams between 1969 and 1974, a stretch that overlapped with Pete Maravich's arrival in Atlanta.