He has landed in a mind-boggling, near-improbable situation: Chris Paul backing up Steph Curry? The notion is jarring for those of us who remember the days when they were on the opposing ends of a proxy war over the stylistic future of basketball. On Thursday, just hours before the 2023 NBA draft, the Golden State Warriors agreed to send Jordan Poole, Ryan Rollins, a top-20-protected 2030 first-round pick, and a future second-rounder to the Washington Wizards in exchange for the once-almighty Point God, who has spent the last week being flung from hypothetical scenario to hypothetical scenario with very little control over his fate. We won’t go over the lowlights today, except to say that many of them have been at the hands of the team he was just traded to. Until, as we’ve witnessed postseason after postseason, he clutches the basketball so hard that the pressure makes it slip out of his hands. Chris Paul’s 18-year career, spanning five-soon, six-teams, has been built and destroyed by his talent for organization, the way he can cull the tempo and exert control over an inherently unruly game. If we narrow that down a bit further and only include seasons on that list with an assist-to-turnover ratio of at least 3:1, we drop down to seven players, knocking out Price, Hardaway and one of Stockton's seasons.The pursuit of a ring has a strange way of forcing players to face their greatest inner conflicts. Four of those people are John Stockton, four are Chris Paul, while Tim Hardaway and Mark Price round out the rest. In fact, since 1946 only 10 players have averaged at least 16 points, nine assists and two steals per game, while shooting 47 percent. Paul is having a season that only he is capable of having. On a team where he seems to be considered to be more of a head coach than the guy actually coaching the team, he's the unquestioned leader of the offense and defense.Īt this point in the season, I don't think you could argue that any other point guard in the NBA is an MVP candidate, but Paul has to be a top-five guy, if only because of the success of the Clippers in the first third of the season. When we break it down to intangibles, no other point guard compares. Only Michael Ray Richardson, Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson have led the league three times, Paul has done it four times already. If he were to hold that steals lead, it would be the fifth time in his career that he has led the league in steals per game. Paul's defense among point guards is once again tops in glamor stats, beating out Mike Conley for the lead in steals (Conley is at 2.4 per game, Paul has 2.7), but he's also just a very smart and tenacious on-ball defender. He's second in the league in assists, behind only Rajon Rondo who is sitting pretty yet again with 12.2 per game. In fact, the only point guards in the NBA who can match his high threat to score with a terrific efficiency are Tony Parker (19 points, 50.5 percent), Jrue Holiday (18.3 points, 45.3 percent), and Kyrie Irving (22.8 points, 47 percent). Paul is capable of scoring as well as guys like Deron Williams and Brandon Jennings, but he's three or four notches more efficient. There just aren't any other point guards in the NBA that can compare to him in every aspect of the game. Not only do the Clippers make the most out of their possessions, Paul runs the offense in a methodically patient way, kind of like Peyton Manning using the entire play clock to read the defense, call audibles and keep the defenders on edge. Watching Chris Paul play makes it incredibly obvious as to why. Somehow, however, the Clippers are able to score 101.2 points per game, fourth-most in the entire NBA. Los Angeles has a pace that is slower than the majority of the league, averaging just over 91 possessions per game, 12th fewest in the NBA. You can really tell what affect a point guard has on a team when you watch him with his and the team's stats in mind. As Paul has continued playing at an extremely high level, the rest of his team has gotten better and smarter, leading to this extended run they've gone on.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |