In the NBA, shooting guards are often referred to as “wings”. This is because they’re tasked with being able to score from anywhere on court. These players can dribble, shoot and pass more efficiently than any other position in basketball. The best of these wing players have been ranked by many different sources over the past decade or so. Today we examine ten of the very best shooting guards between 2000-2009..
The “top 10 shooting guards of the 2010s” is a list of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history. The ten players on this list were chosen based on their performance during the 2000’s.
The NBA’s first decade had the most talented group of shooting guards in its history. Michael Jordan dominated the NBA in the 1980s and 1990s, winning six championships, a slew of awards, and gaining international recognition. Players like Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Tracy McGrady grew up watching him. The NBA’s new generation of 2’s incorporated Michael Jordan’s fadeaway jumper and superb post technique into their arsenal, mixed in their own mix of explosive plays, and rained down on the league.
Our collection of shooting guards never quite matched MJ’s on-court or off-court success, but a couple of them came close. Between the 2000-01 and 2009-10 seasons, the 2’s in our rankings helped their teams win all ten titles while also earning several All-NBA honors and All-Star bids. The shooting guard reigned supreme at the turn of the century.
From 2000 to 2010, we’ve ranked the top ten shooting guards.
Michael Redd (#10)
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
1 time All-Star
Michael Redd only appeared in one All-Star game throughout his career, in 2003-04 (averaging 21.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists), which undervalued his worth as a shooting guard and was borderline criminal during his two greatest seasons.
Consider his two finest non-All-Star seasons:
2005-06: 25.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.2 SPG, 39.5 3P percent; 2006-07: 25.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.2 SPG; 2006-07: 25.4 PPG, 4.3
26.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.2 APG, 38.2 3P percent in 2006-07.
It’s practically unthinkable in today’s NBA for a player to put up those kinds of shooting figures and not be considered an All-Star. Unfortunately for Redd, he spent his entire heyday in small-market Milwaukee, long before NBA League Pass was available to fans. It didn’t help that he was up against all-time greats Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, and Vince Carter, as well as Gilbert Arenas and Joe Johnson, for a berth in the mid-season classic.
Redd combined one of the league’s smoothest three-point shooters with a strong off-the-dribble mid-range game. He was also a top-tier man-on-man defender, often going up against the opposition team’s greatest attacking winger.
Michael Redd’s ability to play was hampered by two torn ACL injuries in his late twenties. After just 12 years in the organization, he retired at the age of 32. Despite this, he scored 19.0 points per game while shooting 38.0 percent from three-point range, grabbing 3.8 rebounds per game, and handing out 2.1 assists per game throughout his career, figures that put him in our top ten.
Brandon Roy (nine)
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
Newcomer of the Year
1x All-NBA Second Team selection selection selection selection
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
Three-time All-Star
Brandon Roy, 23, was selected to his first All-Star game in his second season with the team. He was out of the NBA five years later, in one of the saddest storylines in the league’s storied history. Roy had a bone-on-bone knee issue that prevented him from playing basketball at the top level and would have disabled him for the rest of his life if he had continued to play.
Roy was incredible when he was on the stage. In 2009 and 2010, he helped rocket his once-dismal Portland Trail Blazers up the standings and into the playoffs by combining top-10 playmaking talents with an explosive sprint to the rim. Brandon Roy averaged 18.8 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, and 4.7 assists per game across his six NBA seasons.
Beyond the stats, Brandon Roy was one of the most intense competitors of his era, a player who yearned for the ball during the game’s most crucial moments. Before his knee problems forced him to retire early, he was a mini-Kobe Bryant.
Richard Hamilton (number 8)
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
a former NBA champion
Three-time All-Star
Richard Hamilton was the finest shot off the screen at the turn of the century and ranked in the top five all-time. Rip Hamilton didn’t have as many All-NBA selections or All-Star appearances as many of the other players on our list, and he only averaged 20 points or more per game twice in his career. Despite this, Hamilton had a significant offensive influence on his team by wearing out his defenders anytime he was on the field.
Rip was the fittest athlete of his generation. You could practically feel his opponent crack his neck with a sigh as he stepped onto the floor before tipoff, psychologically ready for the battle Hamilton was about to wage on his legs and lungs. Rip was a bundle of energy who never stopped moving, unlike many of today’s main guards (Russell Westbrook) hang around the perimeter when they aren’t immediately engaged in the action. He’d run whomever was guarding him around three screens in under five seconds, then back-cut toward the hoop, pulling in another defender before running out to the three-point line to assist his teammates create mayhem and open looks.
Hamilton possessed a lightning-quick release that he could get off with barely a sliver of room when he got his hands on the ball. He could also pivot in the air, square his shoulders toward the hoop, and hit a mid-range jumper with ease.
During his heyday, Richard Hamilton averaged 18.5 points per game on primarily contested shots from the key out to the arc. He was selected to three All-Star teams and played a key role in the Detroit Pistons’ 2004 championship victory against the much fancied Los Angeles Lakers.
Ray Allen is number seven.
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
1 time champion
1x All-NBA Second Team selection selection selection selection
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
8-Time All-Star
Ray Allen is regarded as one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters. With 2,973 three-pointers, he ranks second all-time in three-pointers made, and he managed to maintain his long-distance percentage over 40% during his 17-year career, a remarkable achievement given the frequency of beyond-the-arc bombs he took.
Allen was more than just a three-point shooter. It’s easy to forget that he was a fantastic athlete. Allen’s best years were spent in Milwaukee and Seattle, when he combined a lethal crossover game with a quick-burst first step to go past his defender. Once in the lane, Allen could finish at the rack or loft a soft floater over an opposition big man. Jesus Shuttlesworth had a strong mid-range game as well. Pump faking from deep, waiting calmly as his defender sped past, and moving inside the arc for a long two were all no trouble for him. During his career, Allen shot a lethal 43.4 from 16 feet to the three-point line, one of the finest marks ever.
Ray Allen was selected to the All-Star squad eight times in the first decade of the twenty-first century and made a handful of All-NBA teams. Most notably, he was a key part in the Boston Celtics’ 2008 championship run, spreading the floor for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce while also providing supplementary playmaking and top-tier man-on-man defense. Ray Allen concluded his career with 18.9 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, and 3.4 assists per game.
Manu Ginobili, No. 6
Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
Three-time champion
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
Sixth Man of the Year a total of one time
Manu Ginobili hasn’t amassed the same number of individual awards that Ray Allen did over the course of his lengthy career. Despite this, Ginobili is ranked one position higher than Shuttlesworth because he gave up his stats, international renown, and a lot of money to help the Spurs win titles as the team’s sixth man.
Manu Ginobili spent practically his entire career as a backup shooting guard for Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, but we have a great example of the sort of damage he could do as a starter. Pop ultimately put Ginobili in the starting lineup with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker during the 2004-05 season. During the regular season, Manu averaged 16.0 points per game, 4.4 rebounds per game, 3.9 assists per game, and 37.6% from three-point range while playing some of the finest perimeter defense in the previous 20 years. Ginobili was named to his first All-Star game (he was also named to his only other All-Star squad in 2011, when he was reintroduced into the starting lineup for the whole season), and he racked up a staggering number of analytical statistics. He had a +19 net rating after finishing the season with a 117 offensive rating and a 98 defensive rating, which was 7 points more than the regular season MVP, Steve Nash. Manu was also worth 11.0 win shares (again, greater than MVP Nash), and with Ginobili on the field, the Spurs were +16.6 points per 100 possessions.
Manu dominated the 2004-05 playoffs, forging a great twosome with Tim Duncan, averaging 20.8 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game, and 4.2 assists per game, collecting one of his three chips between 2000 and 2010. Manu finished his career with four championships and the respect of every NBA fan in the state of Texas. While many of Ginibili’s colleagues have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, he remains on the outside looking in, which is a major disservice to a player who could have pursued greatness with another club but instead decided to stay loyal to Pop and the Spurs throughout his career.
Vince Carter, No. 5
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
1x All-NBA Second Team selection selection selection selection
7-time All-Star
You’re aware of Vince Carter’s abilities in the lane. He slammed the rim and was a 360-degree-slamming-tomahawk-jamming-hit-his-head-on-the-rim athlete in the 2000 dunk contest, threatening the whole league with his remarkable athleticism.
Carter could also shoot the ball well from the outside. He scored 40.3 percent from three-point range in his second season in the league, and he continued to prosper as an inside-out shooting guard in his third and fourth seasons, hitting 40.8 percent of his three-point tries and 38.7 percent from beyond the arc, respectively. Over the course of his career, he shot 37.1 percent from three-point range.
Perhaps no player in NBA history has had the combination of outside shooting touch, rim explosion, and playmaking like Vince Carter had in his heyday. He was an irresistible force on the floor who never won a championship but lacked the sort of big man skill that Kobe Bryant (Shaq), Ray Allen (Garnett), and Manu Ginobili (Duncan) had.
The 2005-06 playoffs serves as a wonderful illustration of the postseason odds Vince Carter faced on a regular basis. On the New Jersey Nets, Vinsanity paired up with Jason Kidd to make a strong backcourt combo, but Jason Collins was their primary center. Despite Carter’s 29.6 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game, and 5.3 assists per game during the 2006 playoffs, the Nets were swept in the Eastern Conference Semifinals as Shaq wrecked Collin’s life on the block.
From 2000 through 2010, it was Vince Carter’s tale. He was a seven-time All-Star who swept the league with his great all-around offensive versatility, but he could never reach the summit, falling in the playoffs to deeper teams with superior big men. Carter had some of the best-extended averages in the league’s history, averaging 25.0 PPG, 5 RPG, 4 APG, and 38.0 3P percent during his heyday.
Tracy McGrady (#4)
Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
2X NBA Scoring Champion
2X All-NBA First Team selection selection selection
3X All-NBA Second Team selection
2X All-NBA Third Team selection
1X Player of the Year
7-time All-Star
Tracy McGrady didn’t enjoy the kind of long-term success that Vince Carter, Ray Allen, or Manu Ginobili had, but from 2001 to 2006, he was hotter than any other player in the league over a five-year period.
Tracy McGrady won back-to-back scoring titles in 2002 and 2003, averaging 32.1 points per game, 6.5 rebounds per game, 5.5 assists per game, 1.7 steals per game, and 38.6 3P percent, then 28.0 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, 5.5 assists per game, 1.4 steals per game, and 33.9 3P percent, respectively. Since Michael Jordan, T-Mac possessed the largest bag of tricks in the NBA. With a sweet left-to-right floating mid-range jumper, he annihilated defenders, a shot so difficult that it has vanished from today’s analytics-driven NBA. He also covered territory like a more agile Giannis, dropping his shoulder under his opponent, generating an inch or two of space before blowing by him and two-stepping to the basket, where his weekly highlight dunks breathed fire.
“Kobe on the hardest people he ever played against – Iverson, Marbury, Arenas, Melo, Durant – but ranked Tracy McGrady as the toughest,” according to Dave McMenamin, the best perimeter defender from 2000 to 2010.
Kobe did not include LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, or Manu Ginobili on his list. T-Mac was a long, athletic, and vicious competitor who wanted to tear his defender’s soul in two, and he gained Bryant’s admiration over a who’s who of NBA stars.
T-Mac was never able to get beyond the second round of the playoffs due to injuries sustained during his heyday. He plummeted from averaging 24.6 points per game as an All-Star in 2007 to 8.2 points per game just two seasons later.
Despite this, he was one of the finest players in the world around the turn of the century, earning All-NBA First Team honors twice, All-NBA Second Team honors twice, and All-NBA Third Team honors three times. He was also a seven-time All-Star and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Allen Iverson (#3)
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Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
1X MVP of the Regular Season
3X NBA Scoring Champion
3X NBA Steals Champion
2X All-NBA First Team selection selection selection
2X Second Team All-NBA
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
10 TIMES ALL-STAR
Allen Iverson was like a snowball rolling downhill, becoming larger, quicker, and deadlier as the game progressed from halftime to the fourth quarter. With his exceptional fitness, fearlessness in the lane, and ability to go past numerous defenders who were focused on stopping him during crunch time circumstances, he shattered teams.
During the 2000-01 season, AI broke the internet before it could be broken, averaging 31.1 points per game over 71 games with the 76ers, about 20 points more than teammate Theo Ratliff (12.4 points per game), who finished second on the club in nightly buckets. Iverson blew up the regular season like a $2.00 cherry bomb, then dragged the 76ers all the way to the finals, where Shaq and Kobe proved too much for even him to overcome.
If you ask any Philadelphia 76ers fan what they think about Iverson, they’ll give you a big grin and tell you how much they adore him. Every time AI careened down the lane amid the NBA’s trees, he placed his 5-11, 165-pound body on the line.
Iverson finished his career with one of the top career stat lines in NBA history, averaging 26.7 points per game, 6.2 assists per game, and 2.2 steals per game. He is also a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team, the 2001 regular season MVP, and one of the top shooting guards from 2000 to 2010.
Wade, Dwyane
Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
1 time champion
MVP of the Finals 1 time
1X Leader in Points
2X All-NBA First Team selection selection selection
2X Second Team All-NBA
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
3X Second Team All-Defensive
Six-time All-Star
Dwyane Wade’s offensive prowess from 2000 to 2010 was astounding, but it was his two-way excellence that put him in second place on our list. Over the previous 30 years, only Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James have been able to match Dwayne Wade’s combination of scoring and on-ball defense.
Wade averaged 30.2 points per game, 7.5 assists per game, 5.0 rebounds per game, 2.2 steals per game, and 1.3 blocks per game for the Heat during the 2008-09 season, as he used an incredible array of off-the-dribble mid-range jumpers in conjunction with his outlandish flashes to the rim as every opposing head coach in the league game planned solely for him, essentially ignoring Miami’s second-leading scorer Michael Beasley (1 (13.0 PPG). Wade didn’t just have fun on the court; he also worked hard on defense, averaging 2.2 steals per game and hounding the opposition team’s shooting guard into submission. Wade was beaten to the MVP award by his future teammate LeBron James during the regular season, but he won the scoring championship and was nominated to the All-Defensive Second Team.
Dwayne Wade had a similar year the following year, in 2009. He carried a Miami team that lacked another All-Star by averaging 26.6 points per game, 6.5 assists per game, and inspired perimeter defense. As his team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, he watched LeBron James win another MVP Award.
Dwyane Wade’s life wasn’t all horrible in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Unlike his opponents Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, and Vince Carter, he won it all with Shaq in 2006, earning six All-Star invitations, a Finals MVP Trophy, and being nominated to the All-NBA First Team twice.
Kobe Bryant, No. 1
Accolades from 2000-01 to 2009-10:
Champion four times over
1X MVP of the Regular Season
MVP of the Finals twice
2X Leader in Points
8-time first-team All-NBA selection
1x All-NBA Second Team selection selection selection selection
1x All-NBA Third Team selection selection selection selection selection selection selection
7X First Team All-Defensive
Second Team All-Defensive 2X
10 TIMES ALL-STAR
From 2000 to 2010, Kobe Bryant was the greatest shooting guard, and despite the other great 2’s on our list, it wasn’t close. Bryant’s achievements are self-evident. He was chosen to the All-NBA First Team eight times and the All-Defensive First Team seven times throughout his career. Only Michael Jordan and LeBron James can match Kobe’s two-way dominance.
Kobe was the king of competition. I could go through all of his in-game exploits to demonstrate his I-hate-to-lose-more-than-anything-in-the-world attitude, but sometimes a single anecdote, one that moves us from macro to micro, paints a better image.
Laron Profit, a little-known NBA player, and his Lakers colleague Kwame Brown were in a pick-up game against Kobe Bryant in September of 2005. It was game point, and Kobe was dribbling up the court with the ball. The ball rolled to half-court after Kwame knocked it away. Bryant raced after it, dived between Kwame’s legs, snatched the rock, and blasted past Brown for the game-winning shot.
Consider the following scenario: Kobe Bryant, the finest player in the world and a three-time champion, despised losing so much that he risked his life leaping for a lost ball in a meaningless pick-up game.
Kobe is summed up in the narrative.
Bryant was a 6-6 winger with a lot of potential. Nonetheless, his work ethic, fearlessness, and competitive spirit set him apart, propelling him to the top of our rankings as the finest shooting guard of the first decade of the twenty-first century and the second-best all-time behind only Michael Jordan.
The Shooting Guard Era was from 2000 until 2010.
Superstar centers were crucial to winning championships in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Point guards and two-way wings are supreme in today’s NBA. However, the shooting guard position was king in the 1990s and 2000s.
Michael Jordan was the catalyst for all that followed. The rest of the 2’s on our list, including Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and the rest of the 2’s on our list, took MJ’s flame and spread it around the NBA.
From 2000 to 2010, our shooting guards reigned, assisting their organizations in hanging banners while amassing their own personal hardware. The shooting guard’s heyday was around the turn of the century.
Next
Michael Jordan Is The Best Scorer In NBA History, According To The Last 40 Scoring Champions
Kobe Bryant’s Season-by-Season Points Per Game: In his prime, Black Mamba was unstoppable.
The Answer Was A Scoring Machine: Allen Iverson’s Points Per Game For Each Season
Tracy McGrady defeated Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Shaquille O’Neal to win the NBA scoring title in 2002-03.
The NBA’s Top 75 Players Are Divided Into Tiers: There Is Only One GOAT
The “best shooting guards of all time” is a list that ranks the 10 greatest NBA shooting guards of the 2000s. The article also includes a brief history and statistics for each player.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the greatest shooting guard in NBA history?
A: The greatest shooting guard in NBA history is Michael Jordan.
Is James Harden a top 5 shooting guard?
Who is the best shooting guard?
A: The best shooting guard is Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
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