Dion Waiters on Bradley Beal’s Best Backcourt Boast: “That’s nonsense.”

Oct 30, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal (3, right) shoots over Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters (3, left) in the fourth quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

We live in the age of the point guard.

A sticky mixture of rules changes, an emphasis on the pick and roll, the spreading of offenses and a pipeline of amazing basketball talent has created something of a rolling road jam in backcourts across the league. And each and every one of these guard duos is ready to lay claim to the title of “Best Backcourt.” It makes sense; few players make the NBA while lacking in confidence, and none generate a lengthy career and any kind of acclaim without a nice, hefty pile of arrogance.

So naturally, Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal believes that he and John Wall make up the best backcourt in the league. No harm, no foul, gentlemen — keep up that confidence! But there is one slight problem: Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters disagrees. Strongly.

To be fair to Dion, he might not necessarily be campaigning for himself and Kyrie Irving. There are a lot of spectacular backcourts in the league. Perhaps Waiters is a big fan of Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic. Maybe he appreciates the pugnacious defense of Patrick Beverley, especially contrasted against the offensive juggernaut that is James Harden. Hell, Waiters could just be a really big fan of what Detroit’s trying to do, though to be honest, Dion, I’m not exactly seeing it — and I say that as a big fan of Stan Van Gundy.

If we use Occam’s razor, however, and go with the simplest explanation, I think we all know who Dion’s talking about. It’s just a guess, but Waiters probably meant these guys:

These two guys? On the same team? Yeah, we see where you’re coming from, Dion. Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports