Sixers: Ranking Seth Curry and every starting shooting guard in the NBA

Ranking NBA starting shooting guards — 21. Will Barton, Nuggets

Will Barton has elevated his play for an injury-riddled Nuggets team, averaging 15.1 points and 4.2 assists on .422/.361/.808 splits. It’s not hard to wrap your head around Barton’s game. He’s a slinky and dynamic scorer, with a smooth, high-release jumper and the explosiveness to gain separation off the dribble.

While Barton’s production around the margins is limited, his assist numbers are notable. This is a career year for him in that department, and his ability to do more with the ball in his hands — including creating for others — has been huge with the looming absences of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.

Ranking NBA starting shooting guards — 20. Jalen Brunson, Mavericks

Jalen Brunson has made the leap from a fan favorite off the bench to an essential part of Dallas’ starting five. The diminutive 6-foot-1 point guard has translated what made him such a dominant collegiate player to the professional level. He’s a uniquely gifted scorer around the rim, probing inside and beating defenses with feather-soft floaters and clever evasive maneuvers around traffic.

For the season, Brunson is averaging 16.0 points and 5.6 assists on .499/.336/.773 splits. He’s a point guard by nature, with a real knack for controlling the tempo of a game and creating out of the pick-and-roll. He has, of course, proven adept off the ball too in his spot next to Luka Doncic. He can hit spot-up 3s, make smart cuts, and play the part of ball-mover, rather than lead creator, quite successfully.

Ranking NBA starting shooting guards — 19. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Hawks

Bogdan Bogdanovic has struggled considerably after his dynamite finish to last season. That said, there is too much on Bogdanovic’s resumé not to retain a high level of confidence in the 29-year-old’s inevitable rebound. He has been on some of the biggest professional stages in the world since even before his NBA debut, and his 3-point shot (35.4 percent) should regress to the mean at some point.

For the season, Bogdanovic has still supplied a respectable 12.0 points and 3.8 rebounds as part of Atlanta’s sprawling wing depth chart. The Hawks have tumbled far in the standings, and there is inevitably some form of shake-up coming at the trade deadline. However that effects Bogdanovic, one has to expect him to improve over the second half of the season.