The NBA's Point Guard Youth

The collective greatness and striking youth that is today's crop of NBA point guards will be encapsulated in a few different ways during All-Star Weekend.

Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo and Russell Westbrook will all be in the main event and all are 25 or younger.

But a point guard hasn't won the All-Star Game since John Stockton shared it with Utah teammate Karl Malone all the way back in 1993 in the SLC. Before that, Isiah Thomas won it in 1984 and 1986.

The ASG is made or break on an entertainment level by point guards, thinking here of moments provided by the likes of Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd and Steve Nash, but scorers are rewarded as voters don't look single game FIC or PER.

Looking at the Rookie Challenge, we begin to see the depth and youth of the current point guard crop.

Featured on the Sophomore Team are Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday and Brandon Jennings, all three of whom already have over 100 starts in just over a season and a half of NBA service.

John Wall and Eric Bledsoe are on the Rookie Team, with the former being a Day 1 starter and the latter splitting point guard minutes in half with Baron Davis on the Clippers.

The 2009 edition featured Rose and Westbrook for the Rookies, while the 2007 game had the Paul, D-Will, Raymond Felton trio, who combined for 44 assists and 155 points per 100 possessions.

Looking back at the list of starters at point guard in the 2007-08 season, compared to the current season, we can begin to have an appreciation for the turnover the position has experienced.

Unquestionably, point guards have quickly become younger and better.

Comparing what has happened in four seasons time, point guards are a full year younger on average and have improved their PER by a margin of 1.1.

The average age is skewed by unbelievable outliers such as Kidd, Nash, Billups and even Andre Miller, who are all extending their careers at ages we are unaccustomed to if we forget about the indefatigable Stockton.

From the eye-test perspective, PER doesn't tell half the story on how much better point guards are this season as compared to 07-08.

Rondo, Conley, Bibby, Paul, Williams, Udrih, Nelson, Kidd, Harris, Calderon, Parker and Nash are the only 12 point guards to retain their job with their clubs from the 07-08 season.

Augustin, Jennings, Rose, Chalmers, Collison, Holliday, Westbrook, Curry and Wall, 30% of the NBA’s starters were either in college or high school during the 07-08 season.

Even more fascinating is to compare how the current group compares to point guards from 10 seasons ago and 20 seasons ago.

Below are point guard starters from 00-01.

Miller, Bibby, Terry, Davis, Williams, Nash and Kidd remain in the NBA and it is almost difficult to believe how old Kidd and Nash were at the time considering what they have accomplished over the past five years while firmly in their thirties.

This was an old crop, offset by the young influx of Davis, Marbury and Francis. It would have been unfathomable at the time to think Marbury and Francis would be irrelevant by 28 and retired by 31. The exit of these two players, at least in part, created vacancies we were expecting from Kidd and Nash.

The 90-91 crop is a little younger than 00-01, but older and better by PER metrics than 10-11.

We have Magic, Isiah and Stockton still playing at a high level and being on either side of 30, plus the young (and very unappreciated retrospectively) trio of Payton, KJ and Hardaway. It is difficult to remember how good Pooh Richardson was in his first three seasons, plus the career season of Michael Adams brings up the average. Kenny Smith, Micheal Williams and Rod Strickland were also in their early 20s, while putting up good stats.

Some of these guys tapered off, just as a few of the point guards we consider so promising today as well.

As far as the near future, we are going to get even younger as Kyrie Irving will likely start from Day 1, as may Kemba Walker, Bradley Beal and Myck Kabongo.