CLIP: Ranking the Top 5 Shooting Guards in the NBA for 2026

**Wes Goldberg** (0:00)
That brings us to Shooting Guard. Mike, why don't you hit us with your top five, how you had it in order, and then we'll go off of that.

**Mike Shearer** (0:07)
Yeah, man, this was so tough, because frankly, you run out of really high level shooting guards pretty quickly, at least with the ones I had in this group. And I think there is a tighter margin between the top two guys than a lot of people probably do, but I still probably went with the obvious one, which is Anthony Edwards, number one, I had Donovan Mitchell, two, I had Devin Booker, three, and then four, five, six gets super interesting. I had three guys in here, one of whom you might not even classify as a shooting guard, but I had four, I had Stephen Castle, five Desmond Baines, six Austin Reeves.
And I'm curious if you guys had somebody else in here. My argument for Castle even being here is that basically he was a point guard, he was so bad at point guard, the Spurs were like, you can't be point guard anymore in the playoffs, you're gonna have to go to being an off ball guy for a while, right? And so maybe he can become a point guard, but on this team with so many ball handlers, I think like he ended up playing more shooting guard when it came down to it.
I really like the growth we saw from him last year from his rookie to his second year. The three pointer was better than I think people realized. And there's like proof of concept there that I like. So I have him at number four and then five and six was Bain versus Reeves. Kind of slightly different guys like Reeves, you know, is a little bit better with the ball in his hands, he's a little bit better of a playmaker, better foul draw, et cetera. Bain just, I like his shooting, I think it's rock solid. I think he's enough of a defender and such a good shooter that he kind of fits anywhere, whereas Reeves you have to be a little bit more careful about who's around them. So I ended up with Bain at five, but like I'm not really gonna seriously push back if people have Reeves at four and Bain at five and Castle off the board entirely. This was hard.

**Wes Goldberg** (1:38)
Mo, is there any names that were not including here? Any thoughts on Mike's list?

**Mo Dakhil** (1:41)
Yeah, the last three he just named.
The last three he just named. None of them were on my list.

**Wes Goldberg** (1:49)
Who did you have then?

**Mo Dakhil** (1:51)
I'm with him. Ant's number one.
There's no conversation, in my opinion. Anthony Edwards' number one at Shooting Guard. I had Mitchell at two, which is the same as Mike. Now, this next guy might not be a Shooting Guard.
You guys might have him in other positions. But I am betting on Tatum coming back. And I have him kind of more, to me he's more of a Shooting Guard. And I think he'll have to, I mean, unfortunately with the Celtics, he'll probably actually have to play more big positions. So I can, I'm happy to take him off the list.

**Wes Goldberg** (2:24)
Yeah, Mike, where did you end up on Tatum?

**Mo Dakhil** (2:26)
Power forward.

**Wes Goldberg** (2:27)
You had him small forward, because I kind of just split the difference.

**Mo Dakhil** (2:31)
So we all have. And Hauser is there, three. So yeah, we're all over the place.
Yeah, that one's kind of hard. So I'm fine if we take him off the list. I had Jalen Williams from OK St. I have him as a small forward.

**Wes Goldberg** (2:43)
I have him as a small forward as well.

**Mike Shearer** (2:45)
Because it's going to be Shea and Kacen Lawless probably as the one, two. And that's going to end in a chat and Isaiah. So that kind of forces them to small for me.

**Mo Dakhil** (2:52)
It's always like this is why I have a problem with like the way nowadays. Yeah, point guard, shooting guard, small forward. It's like, you know, it's it's point guard, two wings, two bigs. So it's kind of in that way. But that's where I had him. And then I had Devin Booker at five.
Oh, you had Booker. So we were we're we're only off by two guys. I guess I have two guys that you didn't even consider for the positions. So, you know, that's that's where I was with my list. I like Castle. Would your point? I think Castle is going to have to be a shooting guard in the NBA. Like, I don't think that's I don't think he can be a point guard. And it's not like the way that team's constructed. It's going to be Dylan Harper. And I'm just going to tell you now, next year, whenever we do this, Dylan Harper will be in my top five. If he has the year, I think he's going to have. So, like, you know, that's the in that area. But I think with the way the Spurs are built, he's just going to be a shooting guard with the ability to be the secondary playmaker type type stuff. So I think your reads on that. It's really good, Mike, with that. So like he is more a shooting guard than a point guard.