Top 5 Point Guards in Celtics History

Does Rondo make the cut?
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports

Honorable Mention:

Nate "Tiny" Archibald

Archibald was an amazing basketball player and one of the league's best point guards in his prime. He averaged 34 points and 11 rebounds in his third year in the league with the Kansas City Kings. He joined the Celtics towards the end of his career, and only played in green for 5 seasons. He was an all-star for three of those seasons, but never averaged more than 14 points and 8 rebounds per game. Tiny is not on the top ten of the Celtics all-time assist leaders. Archibald was ranked fifth in Bleacher Report's "6 Greatest Point Guards in Boston Celtics History".  

Number 5:

Rajon Rondo

Rondo, the current Boston point guard, has already played more seasons with the C's than Archibald (8). Rondo may still be traded from Boston before he retires, but for 8 seasons, Rajon Rondo has been great. He won the championship with the Big Three in 2008 and has led the league in assists twice. The Captain is sixth on the all time Boston Celtics assists leaderboard with 4,045 as of today, February 25, 2014. When it's all said and done, if Rondo stays in Boston for the rest of his career, he may have a legitimate shot at taking over Bob Cousy's #1 spot on the assists leaders. Rondo barely made this list because he still can't really score and he hasn't been the greatest friend to the Celtics' front office.

Number 4: 

Dennis Johnson

DJ was a huge part of the Bird-Havlicek-Parish original big three teams because he was great at handling the ball and making big shots. He was a clutch, timely shooter who took care of the ball and played excellent defense. There's really nothing bad to say about Johnson, there's just nothing too outstanding that would make him higher on this list. DJ won three NBA Championships and one Finals MVP. Larry Bird, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, played with Parish, Havlicek, Jordan, Magic, Hakeem, Barkley, and more whether they were on the C's or the Dream Team, but he had some interesting words to say about Dennis Johnson. 

"The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson"

-Larry Bird

 Number 3: 

JoJo White

White is probably the second best player on this list, but I couldn't put him ahead of K.C. Jones because of the winning factor. It's not like JoJo White wasn't a winner, it's just that K.C. Jones was an ultimate winner on a similar level to Bill Russell. White's stats are much better than Jones, for White was a consistent 18 and 5 guy who played a ton of minutes. White is 9th all time on the minutes leaderboard for the Celtics, but he only won 2 championships. Another reason I put Jones ahead of White is because White played just 7 of his 10 seasons in Celtic green. 

Number 2: 

K.C. Jones

Many people believe that White was a better point guard than Jones, but I disagree because Jones won more championships as a player and coach. K.C's offensive statistics don't really make sense because of how different the game was back then, but he was obviously a great defender and passer. Jones won 8 championships as a player and two as a coach. He also won 2 NCAA Championships in college; he's a true winner.

Number 1:

Bob Cousy

This wasn't a hard decision, Cousy is obviously the best point guard in Boston Celtics history. He was a 6 time NBA Champion, 13 time All Star, won the league MVP, and led the league in assists 8 times. He averaged a career 18.4 points and 7.5 assists. He played for the Celtics for all 13 seasons of his career, and is a true Celtic for that. He leads the team today in assists, is sixth in minutes played, games and points, and third in free throws made. 

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