The NBA playoffs have featured some amazing guard play. There is Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, John Wall, Jimmy Butler, James Harden, Damian Lillard, Monta Ellis and Chris Paul to name a few.
A star at either guard position is essential in today's NBA game. It is fair to say the Sixers need an upgrade at both shooting guard and point guard. When the season ended two weeks ago, Ish Smith was the team's starting point guard and Robert Covington was playing alongside him at two-guard.
Smith and Covington are nice role players, but when watching the players mentioned above, it becomes painfully obvious they are not in the same class. In order for the Sixers to improve on the 37 wins they have recorded over the past two seasons, better guards are necessary. But how will the Sixers acquire that talent?
D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay will likely be the top two guards selected in the upcoming NBA draft. Russell is listed ahead of Mudiay in most mock drafts, but both are expected to go in the top four.
In one year at Ohio State, Russell averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. Some compare Russell's shot to that of Curry. Considering Curry is arguably the best shooter in the game today, that comparison seems too good to be true.
Mudiay's game is more of a mystery than Russell's because he passed on college basketball and instead played in China. Like Russell, Mudiay is 6-foot-5. He is said to have a nice fadeaway jumper, and he can play above the rim.
Could Mudiay or Russell step in and be better than Michael Carter-Williams was as a rookie point guard? It is hard to say, but here are the numbers Carter-Williams posted in the 2013-14 season on his way to winning Rookie of the Year. MCW averaged 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists a night on 40.5 percent shooting.
NBA
The knock on Carter-Williams was he couldn't shoot from the outside, evidenced by his 26.4 percent from three-point range.
Rookie point guards usually experience growing pains no matter who they are. Wall as a first-year pro looked very different than the player who guided the Wizards to a first-round sweep of the Raptors this spring.
Wall averaged 16.4 points, 8.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds in the 2010-11 season, but the Wizards were just 23-59 that season. With each year that has followed, Wall has improved, and Washington has added talent around its star.
Lillard won 33 games as a rookie. Three seasons later, he and the Trail Blazers won 51 games before being eliminated by the bruising Grizzlies in a first-round series.
Stability at the point guard position is necessary when building a winning program. Assuming the Sixers bring in someone new as their starting point guard next fall, it will be the third presumed cornerstone at that position in the past four years.
After an All-Star season his fourth year in the league, Jrue Holiday was traded to New Orleans. Carter-Williams was selected No. 11 overall in 2013 to replace Holiday, but his stint with the franchise lasted just 111 games.
Whatever name ends up taking over that starting point guard role next season is going to need patience on the part of the Sixers organization and the fans.
A little time to develop and the Sixers could potentially have one of those top-flight guards leading his team in the postseason.