MIES (Switzerland) - Four of the five top scorers in the Basketball Champions League so far are guards, the MVP of the Month, Joe Ragland, is a guard, and three members of the Team of the Month are also guards; T.J. Shorts, Joe Ragland, and Errick McCollum (we could have easily named all five as guards). There is a very strong case to be made that this season the BCL is a guards league. In fact, when we consider that four of the six MVPs of the BCL thus far have also been guards, we could probably make the case that it usually is a guards league but that is a debate for another time.

Today, we are here to recognize the almost unbelievable level of guard play we have seen so far in Season Seven and ask the question: If we could name an All-Star Five, or Team of the Month that is completely made up of Guards, who would be in it?

T.J. Shorts

In a season that is only three games old, Shorts has already drawn comparisons to Tyrese Rice and Isaiah Thomas - neither has looked hyperbolic when you have seen the way he has been playing. If there is a way to defend this guy, nobody has found it yet. His ability to change direction and speed means that he can choose the tempo against any defense he has faced so far and staying in front of him is almost impossible. In previous seasons teams may have thought standing off him or going under in the pick-and-roll was the answer but this year he's shooting 56 percent from deep and scoring 50 percent of the shots he's taking off the dribble. What's more, of the seven three-balls he's taken off the dribble, he's made five of them.  As a natural lefty, the first idea would be to send him right but that usually results in him pulling up for a jumper or making a runner and he's making those runners 54.5 percent of the time as well. And when he goes left? Let's not even go there. Shorts is leading the league for Efficiency at 31.7 per game and is joint top for scoring with Errick McCollum at 26.7 points per game. With Telekom Baskets Bonn also top in their group, he is also driving his team to win games. When it comes to picking the five best Guards in the BCL so far, T.J. Shorts II is the easiest choice of them all.

Joe Ragland

You could be forgiven for thinking Ragland should have been the first name on this list as he was the MVP of the first month of the season. And if this list was in any kind of order you might have been right but it isn't, so we will just name him here and forget trying to pick an order. Instead of listing the outstanding stats behind Ragland's MVP of the Month award, you can just read them all here. He really was incredible in the month of October and also powered Hapoel Atsmon Holon to a 3-0 record. Probably the most impressive stat of all for Ragland is that he is averaging 18.7 points. Not because those points are freakishly impressive - even if they do rank him eighth in the league for scoring - but because he's also second in the league for assists at 10.3, with over 50 percent of Holon's buckets coming from a Ragland assist. Pass-first Point Guards aren't meant to score at the rate that Ragland is doing so far. He's been the ultimate tear-and-share breadwinner for Holon to start the season. According to his former teammate, Michale Kyser, Holon should be retiring Joe Ragland's jersey at the end of this season. If he continues to rip it up like this, they just might.

Errick McCollum

We already mentioned that Errick McCollum is at joint top in the scoring charts with T.J. Shorts with 26.7 points per game but how about this one, if you include points from assists as well as scoring, McCollum is generating 24.3 points per game in the pick-and-roll alone. His shooting splits are equally absurd; 50 percent FGs, including 59 percent from three-point range (on 7+ attempts!) and 91 percent from the charity stripe. We knew he was going to do something like this for Pinar Karsiyaka but yet somehow watching him do it has been even more impressive. The eye-ball test says that McCollum is up there with the best in the BCL (probably all of Europe) when it comes to runners and off-balance shot making and the stats so far support the eyes. He's scoring a ridiculous 75 percent of his runner so far. Now, that number will probably cool off as the number of games played goes up but will Errick McCollum cool off? unlikely. At 34, McCollum has been doing this. This isn't new and as long as he keeps driving Karsiyaka to wins (they are 2-1) there probably isn't a safer bet to be in the runnings for season MVP down the line. 

Dee Bost

 Whilst T.J. Shorts has certainly stolen Dee Bost's hairstyle from his Monaco days, he certainly hasn't stolen his game. At least not in the Space Jam, Nerdlucks, stolen talent sense anyway.  If anything, Dee Bost is playing even better this season and even more Bost this season than he did last year. In BCL Season Six, he scored 13.7 points, on 38 percent shooting, whilst taking 8.7 threes per game. Season Seven has seen those numbers go up to 18.3 points, on 46 percent shooting and 10 threes taken per game. He's also leading his team for assists at 6.3 and when you count the fact that he's making those 10 threes at a 40 percent clip, his Effective Field Goal Percentage is up to a scary 62 percent. And he's also yet to miss from the stripe this season, with nine on the run. The cherry on top of all that? Bost is leading the entire league in transition scoring at 1.9 points per possession. This isn't just running the show, it's running and gunning the show. Dee Bost doing Dee Bost things.

Marcelinho Huertas

The Final Four MVP for the current champs, Lenovo Tenerife, and now the all-time assists leader despite only participating in three full seasons. There you go, this section was a quick read. We could also tell you that his shooting splits are possibly the best among all the players in this selection; 64.3 percent overall, 71.4 percent from three, and 100 percent from the line. We could also tell you that he already has 24 of Tenerife's 60 assists or that if you include assists, he's generated 60 points from three games in the pick-and-roll alone but really we don't need to. Everyone knows who Marcelinho Huertas is and how good he is at what he does. Does that mean anyone has found a way to do anything about it? Not yet.