The Best Backcourt in the NBA?

In the upcoming days I will be starting my NBA season preview hopefully giving a look at all the teams, conferences, best storylines, best league pass teams and bold predictions.

So to hold everybody over I figured that I would dive in to this new debate over who has the best backcourt in the league. I heard the beef between Dion Waiters and John Wall and it really got me to thinking about who was truely the best backcourt in the league.

If you didn't hear the background on the story, here is an article that describes the situation in detail. Essentially Bradley Beal proclaimed that the Wizards had the best backcourt in the NBA and Dion Waiters called it, "Nonsense". Waiters believes that he and Irving hold that title.

Now I love Kyrie Irving but Dion Waiters seems like a random person to make lofty statements like that. I get the confidence but do the numbers really support this?

Now I needed somewhere to start so I decided to look at the rosters of all the teams in the league. The biggest thing that made this somewhat easy was the talent discrepancy at the two different guard positions. Most basketball fans know that point guard is one of the deepest positions in the league so finding a team with a good point guard is really easy. The shooting guard position is the one that is a little more talent challenged in terms of star power. So it narrowed down the choices a little bit.

Also be aware that some situations are in flux. The Thunder don't know who their starting shooting guard will be. I think if Reggie Jackson were to get that nod then he and Russell Westbrook would get at least some consideration in terms of a position on this list.

The top backcourts that I found in no particular order include:

Washington Wizards: Point guard John Wall and Shooting guard Bradley Beal.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Point guard Kyrie Irving and Shooting guard Dion Waiters.

Golden State Warriors: Point guard Steph Curry and Shooting guard Klay Thompson.

Brooklyn Nets: Point guard Deron Williams and Shooting guard Joe Johnson.

Toronto Raptors: Point guard Kyle Lowry and Shooting guard DeMar DeRozan.

Charlotte Hornets: Point guard Kemba Walker and Shooting guard Lance Stephenson.

San Antonio Spurs: Point guard Tony Parker and Shooting Guard Manu Ginobili.

Phoenix Suns: Point guard Goran Dragic and Point guard/Shooting guard Eric Bledsoe.

Those are mainly the only teams with formidable players at both guard spots. Most other teams have great point guards and specialist at shooting guards. This include the Clippers with Chris Paul at point guard and J. J. Redick, a shooting specialist at shooting guard. You also have the teams like the Heat and the Rockets that have an all-star shooting guard and an average or below point guard.

Now I can break out all the stats and we could count how much each back court scored and assisted compared to the others but that might not be a good indication when you try to factor in shooting percentages, defense, and how often they get to the foul line or create opportunities for their teammates.

The best way to look at all of those combined is to look at the win shares and efficiency ratings of each back court. Win shares is the estimated amount of wins that this person (or 2 people in this case) adds to the team. The player efficiency rating is the all encompassing statistic for how well a person plays. The average PER is 15. Kevin Durant posted a 29.8 PER for reference.

My gut and eyes told me that the Warriors were the best back court in basketball but here are the numbers:

Wizards: 11.9 win shares and 33.8 cumulative PER. (Beal only added 14.3).

Cavs: 8.3 win shares and 34.1 cumulative PER (Waiters only added 1.6 win shares and 14 PER).

Warriors: 20.1 win shares and 38.4 cumulative PER (Klay added 6.7 ws and 14.3 PER).


Nets: 10.3 win shares and 33.1 cumulative PER (Both had similar PER and ws).

Raptors: 20.5 win shares and 38.5 cumulative PER (Lowry added almost 12 ws, DeRozan almost 9).

*Hornets: 12.5 win shares and 31.5 cumulative PER (Lance had the higher ws, Walker had higher PER. Also played on separate teams last year so no as valid).

Spurs: 11.6 win shares and 38.9 cumulative PER (The low ws not surprising because the Spurs share the ball but man their PER is amazing).

*Suns: 14.4 (18.5 for full season) win shares and 41.0 cumulative PER (Keeping in mind Bledsoe only played 43 games. So he only had 4 win shares which would give him around 8 win shares in a full season)

Based on the numbers it looks like the Toronto Raptors had the best back court. I actually thought that they were underrated coming into this article. The numbers prove that to be incredibly true because they had more win shares than any other team and posted the 3rd highest PER. The Warriors were not far behind and I put them at second. The numbers rank out the teams:

1. Raptors

2. Warriors

3. Suns

4. Spurs

5. Wizards

6. Nets

                                                                                                        7. Cavs

                                                                                                         8.Hornets (only because they have yet to play with each other.)

So the two teams disputing this title were relatively low on the list. It should be noted that Bradley Beal was also hurt at times last season and increased hi playoff production to 19 points per game and a PER of 17. So he'll most likely get better and that coupled with John Wall's progression should jump the Wizards ahead of the aging Spurs.

The Cavs on the other hand was not surprisingly carried by Irving and I don't see that getting better with LeBron and Kevin Love in Cleveland to take away opportunities from Waiters (which is obviously justified). Their low ranking is also not surprising because of the reports the had issues last years.

The Suns are a team that might have had a chance to take the number one spot if they were healthy the whole year. Their PER was amazing. Also Bledsoe's ability to play defense at a high levels and the Suns system allows for both guards to flourish in the pick and roll.

The Warriors were great offensively and although they were carried a lot by Steph Curry, Klay scored at a great clip and added more defense than Steph Curry ever could. I still think this is the best back court to watch.

Once I started doing this blog I suspected that the Raptors would rank high because of their combined
scoring ability and their fairly underrated defensive abilities. Lowry is a hard nosed strong defender and DeRozan can be really scrappy as well. Imagine also how much higher their stat totals would have been if they traded Rudy Gay before last season. Seeing as their stats improved after Gay was traded to the Kings last December.

Everybody will have their own opinion but the Raptors might have the best back court in the NBA. Get those boys in Toronto more national TV games!!!!