Exactly what is the difference between a point guard and a shooting guard?

Usually the point guard brings the ball upcourt, sets up the first play, and passes the ball to the shooting guard or other key offensive players.

Usually the shooting guard heads upcourt ahead of the point guard, serves as an outlet receiver if the point guard gets defensive pressure from more than one player, and is one of the primary offensive options for getting the ball from the point.

The point guard is the primary ball handler. Many times the point guard just distributes the ball and doesn’t score a lot of points. The shooting guard’s primary responsibility is to score points. Often the point guard will shift over to the shooting guard slot on a substitution, but there is always a point guard on the floor.

Generally in basketball there are 5 positions
1— point guard
2— shooting guard or “off guard”
3— small forward
4— power forward
5— center

Some teams will play without a true center and will play with 3 guards and 2 forwards.

And all this time I thought it was just a random miss-mash.

Point Guard

Vs.

Shooting Guard

The point guard is a ball handler primarily. He drives into the key breaking up the defense and passes off to another player or scores himself.

The shooting guard is a guy you want to be open to catch that pass from the point guard who can drain a 17 foot shot like it’s a layup and hit 3 pointers like tomorrow was yesterday.

A ”natural point guard playing as a shooting guard” is just that.. they would be a natural as a point guard, but the coach decided he would better benefit the team as a shooting guard.