Who is the best point guard in the NBA today? Is it Russell Westbrook even though he tends to take a lot of shots during games? Is it Chris Paul even though he's never led any of his teams to the NBA Finals? Or is it Derrick Rose—who celebrated his 26th birthday over the weekend—even though he's spent most of the last two seasons on the sidelines with injuries? It's a question that's impossible to answer because all three of those players (plus a handful of others, including Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, and Stephen Curry) could be considered the "best" right now.
How do they stack up when compared to other great point guards of the last two decades, though? To answer that question—and to celebrate D-Rose's b-day—we put together a list of The 20 Best Point Guards of the Last 20 Years*. Scroll down to see who made the cut and where they ultimately landed.
*We did not include Magic Johnson—who played 32 games during the 1995-96 NBA season at the age of 36—on this list because of the unusual circumstances surrounding his brief NBA comeback. We didn't think it would be fair, to NBA fans or, more importantly, to him, to try and "rank" him on this list based on that 32-game stretch. But it is worth noting that he averaged 14.6 PPG, 6.9 APG, and 5.7 RPG in less than 30 MPG that season. Respect that.