If you’ve watched the NBA for some time, you may have heard announcers or analysts refer to certain players as “true point guards”. Even if you’re aware of which players on the court are point guards and what their playstyle is, the word “true” can make you question what differentiates those point guards from the rest.
True point guards can almost be considered traditional point guards in the sense that they play their role as a facilitator and ensuring the ball gets to the right player (depending on the play they’re running and the circumstances their team is in).
One of the biggest reasons why the term true point guard was coined was because in today’s NBA, many point guards are the ones scoring the most as opposed to being play makers. Steph Curry is an example of a point guard who dominates the scoreboard; in his career, Steph averages around 24 points per game, which is a high number for any player on the court.
Steph could be considered a “scoring point guard” because, while he still facilitates plays during the game, he often times makes up a large portion of his team’s total points.
The table below includes some other non-traditional point guards as well as some of their regular season stat averages. Keep in mind that this list is subjective.
Scoring Point Guard List
| Player | Career Avg. PPG | Career Avg. FG% | Career Avg. AST |
| Steph Curry | 24.4 | 47.4% | 6.5 |
| Kyrie Irving | 23.1 | 47.0% | 5.7 |
| Damian Lillard | 24.7 | 43.8% | 6.6 |
| Jerry West | 27.0 | 47.4% | 6.7 |
| Dave Bing | 20.3 | 44.2% | 6.0 |
James Harden is a good reference point to the players above because he has played point guard at certain points in his career but is currently assigned the role of shooting guard for the 76ers. He averages 24.9 ppg and about 6.8 assists per game. These numbers are comparable to the ones above, but Harden stands at a healthy 6’5” whereas the players above are around 6’2” – 6’3”.
In short, many of these “scoring point guards” could have likely been shooting guards if they just had the height to serve the role better.
Which NBA Players Are Considered True Point Guards?
To give this concept some context, we should discuss who in the league (both current and retired players) are considered true point guards. Below is another subjective list of NBA players who can be considered the definition of point guards based on regular season average stats.
True Point Guard List
| Player | Career Avg. PPG | Career Avg. FG% | Career Avg. AST |
| Magic Johnson | 19.5 | 52.0% | 11.2 |
| John Stockton | 13.1 | 51.5% | 10.5 |
| Chris Paul | 18.1 | 47.3% | 9.5 |
| Oscar Robertson | 25.7 | 48.5% | 9.5 |
| Isiah Thomas | 19.2 | 45.2% | 9.3 |
As you can see, some of these players were very high scorers as well, but the distinction between this list and the previous one comes in the fourth column; almost all of the players come close to averaging 10 assists per game, which is a key indicator of someone playing the traditional point guard role.
In Conclusion: Point Guards Have A Variety Of Purposes
After all is said and done, you cannot boil down how good a point guard is just by looking at a handful of metrics. Point guards are also in charge of being vocal on the court, controlling the pace of the game, and help their team adapt to changes in the game. These distinctions between the kinds of PGs that exist in the game are purely to help identify the diversity of skills and talent that those players have.