NBA Draft 2009: Guarded

The 2009 NBA Draft has been covered countlessly by numerous news sources, largely because of how many guards are in play to be future first round picks. Of the bunch, there has been much talk about the top flight guards in Stephen Curry, the sweet-shooting dynamo from Davidson College; Ricky Rubio, the Spanish floor general; Brandon Jennings, the sometimes high-top wearing Compton, CA lightning bolt; and even Jrue Holiday, the stud academic with boy wonder ball-wizardry from UCLA. All of the top guard prospects have certain questions about their game (some more than others), but a couple of guards that are for-sure top draft picks seem to be somewhat underrated, yet they have skills that may translate more favorably than most of their peers. Enter James Harden and Jeff Teague.

Harden, a Los Angeles native, has been given a fair amount of praise for his steady game and ability to score in a multitude of ways, using his power guard body to create good space for his shots and intelligence to make great basketball plays, particularly in his two years at Arizona State University. Though not a elite athlete, Harden has been criticized for not being the Vince Carter clone that fellow draft prospect DeMar DeRozan is, or having the lower register body fat count like some of the smaller guards, but Harden all-around may be the most talented guard, point or shooting, in the entire prospect pool. Standing 6'5" in shoes and measuring around 210 lbs, Harden is a true shooting guard with good ball-handling skills who can easily make a play with his own shot or creating for the open man; though less athletic than him, he's in a Ray Allen mold to some extent, skill-wise.

Teague, the speedy point guard from Wake Forest, has also seen an interesting range of opinions regarding his skill level and play on the court. A native of Indianapolis, Teague wowed the NCAA in much of the 2008-09 season with his heady play and explosive scoring, but he also was given poor marks for not engaging his teammates with more passing. In effect, Teague was looked at as a talented, but somewhat misshapen form of a point guard and has taken on more than his fair share of harsh criticism. With proper evaluation, though, the 6'2" guard is really another version of Ben Gordon, the Chicago Bulls sharpshooter with similar specs to Teague. Both are combination guards who can handle the rock and shoot the lights out, both are quick and are good with cutting the angles around the basket, and both possess an uncanny feel for scoring the basketball. For Teague, the best situation for him would be that which allows him to hone his scoring senses, while bringing him along as a more capable distributor, creating a more lethal version of the player he already is.

The question won't be what number that these gentlemen get selected at--it will be what their games will be like in two or three years down the road. They could be at the top of their class.