Hakeem
MJ
Payton
Duncan
Stockton
Don't sleep on Stockton.
600+ more steals than the #2 on the all time list, and almost 4K more asissts.
CP3 was better than Stockton on both ends and was an MVP level player during his prime while Stockton never was so how is John a better two way player? Stockton was a great defensive PG but CP was a communicator QBing at 5'11. He was also much stronger, strong as an ox and could body up bigger players and guard them in the post. He wasnt on Payton or Kidds level man to man but he could D up. Look at how he was shutting down Dame Lillard in the 2016 playoffs before he got hurt. Dame was shooting 36%....
He was washed last year before this resurgence but he was Ding up Steph Curry great in the 2014 and 2018 series. Ppl can post the play where Steph dropped him but that is far from telling the whole story. Steph was barely shooting above 30% from 3 against him. He played great defense on prime Tony Parker, Conley etc. as well. The biggest problem he had at his position was Westbrook with his size, power and athleticism and even then its b/c of transition and no one could defend KD and he was drawing all the attention so Russ got alot of open lanes/easy buckets thats just tough to keep in front of. But overall PGs werent going off against CP3 for the most part besides that 09 series where he was hurt and Nuggs bodied them. Stockton himself been lit up by so many PGs in the playoffs. Payton, Terry Porter, Rod Strickland even bum ass Kenny Smith had series absolutely lighting up Stock.
Even at 34 years of age now CP was putting the clamps on dudes like Bron and PG at the end of games this past season and the offense fell apart when that happened. No one will ever reach Stocktons assists or steals records but CP led the league in steals many times himself and was a 9x All Defense PG and made 1st team 7 times while Stockton never made 1st team. Stockton was a really good defensive PG and in his role but his impact was limited. He was more of a cog that played the passing lanes as well as any guard and limited assists.
Stockton is up there for sure specially for guards but I would have CP, Payton and Frazier before him. Kidd is right there with Stock IMO much better defender, better passer IMO but is held back since he cant score well