Welcome to the latest chapter in “John Pretends He Writes for ESPN.” The Worldwide Leader asked its network of blog writers to answer a few questions about the point guard position, so I thought I’d chime in with my (totally unsolicited) take.

Who’s the best point guard in the NBA today?

Today? As in right this very second? I had some questions about CP3′s knee, but after the way he torched the Lakers in the playoffs, I have to go with Paul. No other guard combines a pass-first mentality with an ability to take over when needed quite as well Paul does.

Here are my top 10: 1. Paul, 2. Rose, 3. D. Williams, 4. Nash, 5. Curry, 6. Rondo, 7. Westbrook, 8. Parker, 9. Wall, 10. Kidd

Who’s the most underrated point guard in the NBA?

Williams jumps out, only because people forget him during “best point guard” discussions. I also like Ty Lawson and Kyle Lowry as two up-and-coming PGs who will eventually break into the top 10.

Who’s the most overrated point guard in the NBA?

I have them ranked #6 and #7, but I would not want Rondo or Westbrook running my team. I prefer Rondo (that’s why I have him ranked higher), but he’s too moody to lead a team with any consistency. Westbrook is talented, but he shoots too much and turns the ball over WAY too much. (By the way, once we have a new CBA, I think the Thunder should offer Westbrook for Paul straight up and see if the Hornets bite.)

Who’s the most promising point guard in the NBA?

I have to go with Wall given all the upside. I’m really interested to see what kind of player he turns into. I like Lawson as well. The most interesting young point guard is probably Ricky Rubio — is he going to pan out? If not, David Kahn will finally be without a job.

Who’s the best point guard of all time?

Magic. He could take over when he needed too, but got more joy out of getting his teammates involved with easy buckets.

When the Oklahoma City Thunder drafted James Harden #3 overall in the 2009 draft, it was a sign that the team had confidence in Russell Westbrook as their point guard of the future. After all, the 2009 draft was loaded with point guards (Ricky Rubio, Ty Lawson, Brandon Jennings, Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday and Darren Collison, to name a few), but the Thunder elected to go with a shooting guard instead.

After the 2009-10 season, while Tyreke Evans was winning Rookie of the Year, and while Jennings, Curry, Collison and Taj Gibson were joining Evans on the All-Rookie First Team, Harden was something of a disappointment. He was an important player in the Thunder rotation, but he came off the bench and could only muster an All-Rookie Second Team nod. It was a solid if unspectacular rookie season.

Now, with the Thunder in the Western Conference Playoffs, Harden is playing 31+ minutes off the OKC bench and is often closing out games. He’s like Manu Ginobili — he’s not a starter, but he’s a closer, and that’s what matters.

It got me wondering — how does Harden’s playoff performance (12-5-4 on 46% shooting) stack up with other guards his age (21)?

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Whenever I see Ty Lawson play, I think of Chris Paul. The two players have different games, but physically, they’re similar. Paul stands 6’0″ and weighs 175 pounds. Lawson is 5’11″ and weighs in at 195 pounds, so he’s a little stockier than CP3, but they’re both fairly undersized for the point guard position.

Here are the per 48-minute stats from each player’s rookie and second season. Since Paul played about 16 minutes more per game in his rookie season (and 10+ minutes more in his sophomore season), we need to adjust per minute for an apples-to-apples comparison.

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Since the season ended, NBA.com’s editors have been working tirelessly to bring us the Top 10 plays from all the NBA’s superstars. Below are the clips for three of the best athletes in the league: Derrick Rose, D-Wade and Russell Westbrook.

In general, NBA players play better at home. That’s a fact. The Top 250 players (in terms of total minutes played this season) are 6.3% better in Efficiency Per Minute (EPM) when playing at home.

But as with anything in life, there are exceptions to this rule. There are certain players who, for whatever reason, play better on the road.

The table below shows the Top 50 players (in terms of Efficiency Per Game), along with both their home and away EPM, and the “percent better” they are when playing at home. If the number is negative, the player actually performs better on the road.

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The NBA.com editors have been busy putting together Top 10 clips for the best players in the league. Here are the top plays from LeBron, Kobe and Blake Griffin.

Dwight Howard’s 46-point, 19-rebound effort in a Game 1 loss to the Hawks got me wondering — when a player scores 40+ points in a game, does it give his team a better chance to win? Conventional wisdom would be yes, it should increase the chances of his team winning, but by how much?

To find some answers, I fired up Basketball-Reference’s excellent Player Game Finder. Here are a few of the more interesting results:

– Since the 1985-86 season (which is as far as BR’s data goes back), a player has scored 40+ points 1,734 times or 66.7 times per season, including the postseason.

– In those games (both regular season and playoff), teams who had a player score 40+ points won 1,205 of 1,734 games (.695) so it does indeed mean a team has a better chance to win.

– A player has scored 40+ in the postseason a total of 148 times. His team won 104 times (.703), so it does not make a huge difference whether or not the game is regular season or postseason when it comes to win %.

– Of the 1,734 games, 893 (51.5%) were by guards, 657 (37.9%) were by forwards and 184 (10.6%) were by centers.

– The most points scored in a game (since 1985) was Kobe Bryant’s 81 points against Toronto in 2006. David Robinson scored 71 against the Clippers in 1994. Michael Jordan scored 69 against the Cavs in 1990. The most points scored in a playoff game in that span was a tie between Charles Barkley (1994 vs. Golden State) and Michael Jordan (1992 vs. Miami), each with 56 points.

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Do you miss Blake Griffin already? Check out this compilation of all of his dunks from the 2010-11 season.

Here’s a look at each first round matchup, taking into account Dean Oliver’s Four Factors of winning:

1. offensive and defensive effective FG% (which weight three-point shots with an extra point)

2. turnover rate (percentage of possessions ending in a turnover, both on offense and defense)

3. offensive and defensive rebound rate (percentage of available rebounds on each end of the floor)

4. FTM/FGA (which shows how well a team gets points from the free throw line)

Since we’re using both offensive and defensive numbers, I’ll call them the Eight Factors.

I have also included pace (possessions per game) and offensive and defensive efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions) for reference. Below the two rows for the two teams is a third row that shows the difference in each category. A positive number is good for the first team listed (which will always be the higher seed). A negative number means the higher seed is worse in that category.

I’ll put the season series results in parenthesis next to each matchup.

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There’s a nice post over on TrueHoop about the five seeds in the West that are still up for grabs heading into tonight’s action.

Here’s a quick overview: Spurs are locked in as the #1 seed. Lakers/Mavs are battling for the #2 seed, but if L.A. wins, they lock it up. Mavs could slip to #4 if they lose and the Thunder win. Blazers are locked in at #6. Hornets and Grizzlies are battling for the #7 seed, but New Orleans can clinch it with a win.