Last season I took things simple with the combo guards. I looked for players who could score both often and efficiently, showed an ability to play some PG in a pinch and put up an RSB40 in at least the 6.0-6.5 range. This year I’ve got a little better grip on the position, or at least I feel as if I do. When I originally separated past prospects, I had put them in the 5 traditional positions. This year I’ve isolated some combo guards and I’ve been able to come up with some better data on what successful combo guards looked like in college. There have been only 2 who have been wildly successful pros, Allen Iverson and Gilbert Arenas.  Both entered the NBA after their sophomore seasons:

 

Player	FG Pct.	2-point Pct.	P40	A40	A/TO	RSB40
Allen Iverson	.480	.546	30.5	5.7	1.2	9.3
Gilbert Arenas	.479	.519	22.3	3.2	0.8	7.8

 

Iverson was a terrific all-around player, but Arenas was a little more difficult to get a feel for. Everything looked OK, but the 0.8 A/TO would have scared me off some. He’s become a good enough passer in the pros, but he’ll never be mistaken for Jason Kidd or Steve Nash. The fact that as a sophomore he was able to score often and efficiently with a high RSB, should have gotten him drafted before early in round 2 though.

There are no CGs who compare to those 2 this year. Bayless is by far the best of the bunch. There are some potential surprises after him, but that’s about it. The non-Bayless players listed here also have some stiff competition from a deep SG class, so they all likely face a long road to their NBA dreams. OK, here are the numbers:

 

Player	fgpct	3pct	2 pct	P40	A40	S40	TO40	A/TO	RSB40	fga/a	PPS
Bayless, Jerryd	0.458	0.407	0.489	22.75	4.65	1.11	3.42	1.36	4.38	3.12	1.57
Hill, George	0.545	0.450	0.580	24.04	4.79	1.99	3.28	1.46	9.99	2.95	1.70
McKiver, Rob	0.396	0.386	0.415	26.54	3.28	1.86	2.85	1.15	6.26	5.94	1.36
Carroll, Jaycee	0.530	0.503	0.551	24.89	2.42	1.04	2.15	1.13	8.08	6.65	1.54
Smith, Jujuan	0.462	0.383	0.604	19.88	3.10	2.34	2.34	1.33	7.51	4.65	1.38
Roberts, Brian	0.476	0.455	0.498	21.70	4.05	0.42	3.25	1.24	3.88	3.74	1.43
McCalebb, Bo	0.506	0.405	0.535	27.59	3.68	2.83	2.75	1.34	8.25	5.21	1.44
Gordon, Jamont	0.415	0.319	0.480	19.43	5.59	1.26	4.59	1.22	9.42	2.77	1.26
Low, Derrick	0.432	0.385	0.510	18.13	2.02	1.84	1.40	1.45	5.70	6.98	1.28

  

These comps are a little shaky, as far as being great information goes. There just weren’t a lot of CGs out there to glean information from. But this is what we have. I didn’t include George Hill, because the averages are for major college players only.

  

Freshmen	FG Pct.	2-pt. Pct.	P40	A40	A/TO	RSB40
Jerryd Bayless	.458	.489	22.8	4.7	1.4	4.4
Rotation Regular	.460	.491	19.0	4.0	1.2	6.0
Journeyman	.455	.500	17.9	4.7	1.4	7.2
Never made it	.428	.468	15.1	4.0	1.4	6.1

 

Junior	FG Pct.	2-pt. Pct.	P40	A40	A/TO	RSB40
Rotation Regular	.474	.514	21.2	4.8	1.6	7.9
Journeyman	.463	.499	19.5	4.6	1.4	7.2
Jamont Gordon	.415	.480	19.4	5.6	1.2	9.4
Never made it	.450	.502	21.2	4.5	1.3	6.3

 

Senior	FG Pct.	2-pt. Pct.	P40	A40	A/TO	RSB40
Rotation Regular	.470	.498	20.8	4.8	1.7	7.6
Bo McCalebb	.506	.535	27.6	3.7	1.3	8.3
Jaycee Carroll	.530	.551	24.9	2.4	1.1	8.1
Journeyman	.475	.515	23.7	4.4	1.3	7.5
JaJuan Smith	.462	.604	19.9	3.1	1.3	7.5
Brian Roberts	.476	.498	21.7	4.1	1.2	3.9
Derrick Low	.432	.510	18.1	2.0	1.5	5.7
Never made it	.438	.469	22.0	4.1	1.3	6.5
Rob McKiver	.396	.415	26.5	3.3	1.2	6.3

  

Now for the subjective rankings and comments. This is how I would rank the players, all other things being equal.

 

1. Jerryd Bayless, Arizona: This is a player with a couple of crazy extremes in his statistics. He’s a great scorer, both in frequency and efficiency. His P40 is 22.8, with percentages of .458 overall and .407 on treys. He gets to the line more than most and hits .839 on FTs. He produces 1.57 points per FG attempts, a number topped only by James Harden’s 1.63 among major college guards this season. Since scoring is the most important thing for guards who don’t play the point, it’s easy to see why Bayless resides in the top 5 in most mocks. The other extreme is what worries me. Bayless simply didn’t do the dirty work as a freshman, averaging a meager 4.38 RSB40. Historically it has been important for players to do both things well in college if they intended to go onto successful pro careers. I wanted to look at both extremes and players who were both PGs and SGs who were near these levels as college freshmen. First the bad news. Here are players who posted an RSB40 of less than 5.0 as college freshmen:

 

Player	Pos	RSB40	FGA/Assist	A/TO	PPS
Jerryd Bayless	CG	4.38	3.12	1.36	1.57
Mark Jackson	PG	3.98	0.98	1.35	1.65
Travis Best	PG	4.47	1.70	1.96	1.28
Kenny Smith	PG	4.08	1.40	1.61	1.31
Scott Skiles	PG	3.79	1.96	1.25	1.31
Negele Knight	PG	4.54	1.55	1.68	1.08
Melvin Booker	PG	4.81	1.95	1.30	1.21
Dejuan Wheat	CG	4.49	2.87	1.79	1.37
Bobby Hurley	PG	4.35	0.91	1.73	1.28
Litterial Green	PG	3.69	2.68	1.56	1.35
Kevin Pritchard	SG	4.70	4.03	1.43	1.17
Michael Jackson	PG	4.52	3.02	0.97	1.33
Marcus Taylor	PG	4.69	2.68	1.68	1.19
God Shamgod	PG	4.13	1.28	2.20	1.16
TJ Parker	PG	4.89	3.26	1.17	1.32
Allan Houston	SG	4.99	3.66	1.26	1.31
Rex Chapman	SG	4.86	3.79	1.47	1.19
Vern Fleming	SG	4.66	2.62	1.23	1.34
Shawn Respert