It seems like when Jordan left, there was a good young crop of 2's for the NBA going into the next 10 years or shortly after in Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Dwane Wade, Ray Allen, Jerry Stackhouse, Michael Finley, Michael Redd, Eddie Jones, Allan Houston, Reggie Miller, Latrell Spreewell, and Ginobili.

Now it just seems like we have a much worser pool of 2's.

Wade and Kobe are obviously the cream of the crop, but they are both past the apex of their careers with Kobe showing age for the first time this playoffs and Wade less than a year from 30.

O.J. Mayo and Eric Gordon are two young guys with a lot of potential, but neither has shown to be likely to be elite yet. Monta Ellis and Curry are both two very good tweeners, but neither are really true 2's or have complete games.

Roy should have been the best 2 in the game right now most likely, but his knee injuries have downgraded his ability.

Evan Turner his still young as a 2/3 type player and occasionally showed flashes this year, but he could easily be a role player in a couple of years.


Am I missing something or is there a true, shallow pool of young talent at the 2 spot?

[This message has been edited by BailJack6 (edited 5/27/2011 10:06a).]

Interesting. Iverson would definitely be a PG if he entered the NBA today. Seems like 10 years ago we talked about the lack of young PGs

Nick Young is looking good.

Do you consider Durant a SG or SF? He plays both pretty regularly.

James Harden.
Joe Johnson.
Kevin Martin
Wesley Matthews


I guess a lot of young guys that may become 25ppg scorers, or may stay in the 15-20ppg range.

It goes in waves. During the last decade, the NBA was absolutely loaded at the 3 and 4 spots. Centers were basically extinct despite being stocked full during the 90's.

Now we're seeing a down period for two guards, but an incredible upswing in point guards. It's all up and down.

With that said, I think Eric Gordon will be the next good one. I don't think we'll see the 6'6" Kobe/Jordan prototype shooting guard in the near future, though.

I definitely count Durant as a 3. Kevin Martin is a good mention as well as Joe Johnson (although he is also a bit of a tweener between 2/3 like Paul Pierce in the early 00's who I didn't count). However, both Martin and Johnson are on the back side of their 20's.

Matthews and Harden are both worth mentioning, but both have a ways to go to fill the void of the 00's set of 2's. It's a good point on Iverson being more of a PG in today's game as well.

It's a great point on talent at positions going in waves in the NBA. I'm certainly not trying to make the argument that the NBA is void of talent as a whole, as I think there are a lot more players I'm excited about it now than in the early 00's.

While part of the amount of star PG's now is due to the revised hand check rules, the NBA is loaded at the position now compared to 10 years ago.