To determine which of the current crop of NBA speedsters deserves the honors of 82games top floor general, we'll look at a variety of stats, primarily on court/off court comparisons (how a player's team did with him on the court versus on the bench).

1) Offensive Impact: Team Scoring

Points Scored per 48 Minutes Player Team On Court Off Court Net  Kidd NJN 99.7  84.7  +15.0   Williams MEM 102.1  89.9  +12.2   Fisher LAL 103.1  92.0  +11.1   Marbury PHO 97.9  87.8  +10.1   Bibby SAC 107.0  97.1  +9.9   Francis HOU 95.2  85.6  +9.6   Nash DAL 105.9  97.6  +8.3   Stockton UTA 98.6  91.1  +7.5   Hudson MIN 101.0  93.9  +7.2   Arenas GSW 104.9  98.5  +6.4

These numbers are a little too dependent on style -- the PG's who love to push the ball and get out on the break will shine here. Nevertheless, these guys get the offense going. They play for some of the more entertaining squads in the league, and it's also hard to miss that nine of the top ten are western conference players! Kidd stands on top by a healthy margin, but the Grizzlies Jason Williams shows a surprisingly large effect on the Memphis offense, in part perhaps because his fondness for launching the quick three will increase total possessions in a game.

2) Offensive Impact: Effective Field Goal Percentage

Team eFG% Player Team On Court Off Court Net  Kidd NJN 47.7% 43.7% +4.0%  Fisher LAL 49.7% 45.7% +4.0%  Williams MEM 50.1% 46.3% +3.8%  Bibby SAC 51.5% 48.4% +3.1%  Nash DAL 50.7% 47.8% +2.8%  Parker SAS 50.5% 47.8% +2.7%  Williams TOR 46.6% 44.1% +2.5%  Stockton UTA 49.6% 47.2% +2.4%  Marbury PHO 47.6% 45.3% +2.3%  Terry ATL 47.9% 45.9% +2.1%

Perhaps a more important indicator of offensive impact, as a point guard leading a deliberate slow paced team can still be among the leaders, Kidd is still on top. Jason Terry and Alvin Williams crash the top ten party to give the East three representatives. Kidd may be #1 in the net change, but it's Mike Bibby and the Kings who lead the way in actual percentage, hitting at a prodigious 51.5% effective FG when he's on the court. Indeed Kidd's raw number is rather average, but the Nets without Jason truly struggled to find the basket.

3) Defensive Impact: Effective FG% Allowed

NBA '02-03 Roland Ratings Player Team On Court Off Court Net  Parker SAS 44.5% 47.5% -3.0%  Crawford CHI 46.2% 47.7% -1.5%  Francis HOU 46.0% 46.9% -0.9%  Terry ATL 46.7% 47.4% -0.8%  Delk BOS 46.6% 47.4% -0.7%  Davis NOH 46.1% 46.7% -0.5%  Fisher LAL 47.6% 47.9% -0.3%  Armstrong ORL 48.5% 48.8% -0.3%  Harrington DEN 47.6% 47.8% -0.2%  Palacio CLE 48.3% 48.5% -0.1%

Offense being only half the game, we better take a look at the defensive side of the ball. As the point guards who push the ball will likely improve total scoring for both sides, the eFG% number is a better measure. Here we find Tony Parker as the top PG by a huge margin, ironic in light of the Spurs going all out to get Kidd. Mostly you find that the top point guards don't seem to shave off much eFG% for the other side. On offense the #10 player was +2.1%, here on defense it's a mere -0.1%!

4) Roland Ratings: Team Net Points

NBA '02-03 Roland Ratings Player Team On Court Off Court Net  Kidd NJN +7.8  -2.3  +10.0   Francis HOU +3.0  -5.7  +8.7   Parker SAS +7.7  -0.4  +8.1   Crawford CHI -1.2  -9.1  +8.0   Fisher LAL +4.6  -3.3  +7.9   Stockton UTA +5.5  -1.5  +7.0   Davis NOH +4.7  -0.2  +4.9   Terry ATL -2.6  -7.1  +4.5   Bibby SAC +8.8  +4.6  +4.2   Nash DAL +9.0  +5.0  +4.0

As the best single number to take from the on court/off court stats, the Roland Ratings show which players meant the most to their teams. Kidd again claims top billing, but note how much better the Chicago Bulls were with Crawford at the helm over their Jay Williams. On the other hand, both the Kings and Mavs were so good and so deep, that even with their main leaders on the sidelines, they still outscored opponents to the tune of aboue 5 points per game!

5) Passing Statistics

NBA '02-03 Close Shot Feeds Player Team Close Assists Dunk Assists Close 48min  Kidd NJN 247   175   6.8    Stockton UTA 227   46   5.8    Tinsley IND 169   72   5.2    Williams MEM 156   92   5.0    Miller LAC 162   76   4.0    Williams CHI 92   59   3.8    Arenas GSW 139   77   3.7    Nash DAL 134   70   3.6    Snow PHI 187   43   3.6    Crawford CHI 93   53   3.6

There's all kinds of passing stats we can throw out, but for true hoops fanatics the real deal in a point guard is the player who can find the open man inside, leading to high percentage layups and dunks. Perimeter assists can't match up with defense-shredding inside bullet passes. Kidd stands apart in feeding dunks to his teammates (Francis was second with 125). He will take risks, but easy scores abound for the Nets. John Stockton also shows his class in this category.

6) Counterpart Matchup
The final piece of the puzzle for today's analysis, is how our fearless point guards have played in the head-to-head matchup with the opposing PG. Of all the positions, Center and Point Guard surely rates as the ones that have the most interesting tete-a-tete action between players. We've tracked the stats of the player in question and his counterpart while he is on the floor to come up with the following "nets" (and please note for players who played at other positions, only their point guard minutes are included here). The 'score' is simply the sum of the other columns.

Sixth man of the year Bobby Jackson of the Kings grabs this section's "overall leader", but there are two quibbles with his lofty perch: he only played a little over a third of the team's total PG minutes, and his "score" comes entirely from "scoring" where he outshot his opponent by a whopping 9% EFG, and outscored the hapless adversary by 9 points per 48 minutes. The #2 man Marbury likewise does most of his damage from the points in the hoop department. Only Kidd wins the battle in every stat listed: effective shooting percentage, free throw attempts, rebounds, assists, and points.

All things considered, it's hard to go with anyone else but Jason Kidd and the revolution!