Similar to an NFL quarterback, an NBA point guard will direct the offensive schemes for a franchise. He is the leader on the court, an extension to the head coach. However, due to the brutal competition and some young bloods coming into the league, securing a job as a team’s top point guard is a fickle thing.
You either have it or not.
Some went on to become superstars, but due to other factors within the basketball court, a lot fell off the cliff and became forgettable.
Here are the top 10 point guards that went from superstar to forgettable overnight.
Which point guards went from stardom to forgettable in a very short amount of time?
Russell Westbrook
To call Westbrook forgettable at this stage in his career may be a bit of a stretch, but the Clippers point guard is far from his MVP-winning prime. As he gets older, his athleticism is beginning to show its age, and Father Time is, as we know, undefeated. In Oklahoma City, Westbrook was a triple-double machine with unmatched athleticism.
Slowly, as his role diminished, he began to lose some of that explosiveness. That only got worse as the media magnified the guard during his time with the Lakers, the Clippers, and now, the Nuggets.
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Monta Ellis
Everyone knows the drama that transpired between Ellis and Curry in the earliest hours of the 2010s in Golden State. What’s less known, however, is just how young Ellis was when this transpired. Today, as I write this, Ellis is 37 years old. Had his career panned out as it should, he should soon be considering retirement. Instead, Ellis was out of the league seven years ago.
Ellis continued to thrive after his time in Golden State, earning a $44 million dollar second contract. He only made it two years into this deal before the Pacers used the stretch provision to waive him.
Ellis saw his numbers drop significantly. During his tenure in Indiana, Ellis averaged 11.3 points per game while hitting only 31.2 percent of his three-pointers while shooting 43.3 percent from the field. This was less than capable for a league moving towards a new generation of shooting, and so Ellis was left in the dust with others on this list.
Deron Williams
Deron Williams went from All-Star point guard in talks to be the best court general in the league with Steve Nash, Chris Paul, and Rajon Rondo to being out of the league all too quickly. As soon as the dominant guard was traded to the Nets, his body began to break down. Unfortunately, Williams tried to tough out ankle injuries, which inevitably worsened them, and he never fully recovered.
Baron Davis
For a moment in time, Baron Davis was a top-ten player in the league. His knees finally gave up on him, however, after years of difficulties. Davis destroyed his right knee in a 2012 playoff game against the dominant Miami Heat. He had knee problems for the majority of his career, but that didn’t stop him from being fun to watch.
Whether he was dunking on opposing players or making game-winners with ease, B. Diddy was all about winning. If it weren’t for his health, Davis would’ve definitely made more than two All-Star games.
Eric Bledsoe
Poor Bledsoe went from a very good point guard to zero very quickly, in large part due to the three-point revolution. His irrelevancy wasn’t even his fault. Had he played five seasons sooner, Bledsoe would’ve been in the NBA longer than he wanted, but due to timing, he was unable to find a role in the ever-changing league.
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf
Before Colin Kaepernick, there was another professional athlete blackballed for taking a knee during the country’s national anthem. Abdul-Rauf was the same as Kaepernick, who also refused to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He was a quiet scoring point guard who was an elite free throw shooter at over 90% in his career. He could dunk, too, which made him a fan favorite.
Adbul-Rauf was hard to guard, given his small size and speed, but fans and the league looked at him funny once he changed his name and vocally converted to Islam. Ultimately, he was blackballed for his beliefs, and he has gone on record saying that the best of his career was stolen from him.
Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway
Oh, Penny, Penny, Penny… Hardaway was well on his way to a Hall of Fame career when luck decided it had different plans. In 1998, Hardaway injured his left knee and was never the same again. Although he played for 14 years, the real Penny was only around for four seasons. In those first few years, Hardaway put up 19.7 points, 6.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game.
He also carried the Magic to a Finals appearance along with superstar and Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. Hardaway was a favorite for brands trying to sell merchandise at every corner. His legacy remains intact, however, with his signature Nike line still pulling in oodles of money.
Ty Lawson
In his prime, Lawson was in the category of “sneaky good/fringe All-Star caliber,” but today, his name is little more than “Who?” The diminutive point guard was pretty good at his peak, averaging around 16 points and eight assists per game for a four-year span for the Nuggets from 2011-2015. He was traded to a Rockets team looking to get over the hump while coming off a Western Conference Finals run in the 2015 offseason. For Lawson, that trade was the beginning of the end.
The Rockets as a whole were, to put it kindly, dysfunctional that year, and Lawson was no help. He averaged just 5.8 points and 3.4 assists per game before getting bought out mid-season. Lawson had a few more stops in the NBA over the next two seasons with the Pacers, Kings, and Wizards but never reached the same level of play as he did in Denver.
Lawson played in China, where he received a lifetime ban from the Chinese Basketball Association for saying in an Instagram story that Chinese women were thick. (No, seriously. That actually happened.)
Micheal Ray Richardson
Micheal Ray Richardson was dubbed “the next Walt Frazier” by the media, which today may not sound too impressive, but at the time was a big deal. That would be like calling someone today “the next Damian Lillard.” Drugs ultimately prevented the seven-season player from having a longer career.
Micheal Ray was a lockdown defender with a flashy offensive game before receiving a lifetime ban for substance abuse in 1986. Richardson was reinstated in 1988 but failed another drug test in 1991.
He was a fan favorite in New York and New Jersey, making four All-Star games when he was at his peak. Sugar Ray went from being the first player in history to lead the league in assists and steals per game to not being mentioned at all. In fact, I bet you didn’t even know who he was before now.
Isaiah Thomas
Thomas’s fall from grace was twofold — injury and situation. While nursing a hip injury that cut short the all-star point guard’s prime, he was traded from Boston, the city he loved, for a rental on Kyrie Irving (which blew up in Boston’s face).
Thomas went from dropping a 40-piece the night of his sister’s death to bouncing from bench to bench amongst the league’s bottom-feeder teams — Charlotte and Denver (before they were a contender). Ultimately, he wound up being an incredible story of adversity and defying the odds after finding himself as one of the best guards in the league after being the last pick in the draft.
Unfortunately, Thomas will forever be remembered for his short prime in Boston, lingering as one of the NBA’s great “what ifs.”
