Seems like a large majority of this board thinks CP3 sucks. I guess I have a slightly different perspective. I believe CP3 still has elite PG skills, but while his age and injuries are limiting his effectiveness, I don't think the system and our team are without blame for his down year. While Harden and Paul coexisted 17/18 at a fairly high level, the chemistry took a step back in 18/19. I'm not sure why, but I noticed both players seemingly frustrated with each at various points during the season. When you have two ball-dominant players that are used to running the team that is probably gonna happen and this year it seemed to happen more frequently (at least from my vantage point on the Lazy Boy). I guess my point is while we gripe about his declining game and escalating salary cap number, we may be missing CP3's value for other teams. CP3 is still one of the best true PGs in the game. He's an elite passer with uncanny court awareness and exceptional ball-handling skills. He's a skilled short-to-mid range shooter and exceptional finisher. He can be a disruptive defensive force even as a 6' player. He's considered a very good leader and mentor for younger players. Our system has asked him to increase his 3PT shots, reduce his 2PT shots, reduce his ball-handling time and play more off ball offense, and finally guard very large players under the post as part of our switching defense. Suppose we trade him to a team that maximizes his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses. That team may be willing to deal with his age, injury history and salary to better leverage his strengths, which are still very significant in the right system. In fact, we're likely the 17/18 Champs if he doesn't go down. Another approach would be to replace MDA and/or modify/change the system. Force Harden into more time as an off-guard to take advantage of him as a spot up shooter, cutter and post-up mismatch. Morey knew CP3 came with risks, but he also believed that those risks were worth his advantages. If we won the ship in 17/18 everyone would have been happy and this year's ending wouldn't have been as disappointing. Fate boned us twice, what can I say. I was just outbid on my return to Houston dream home by a non-native today. Life sucks sometimes, but you pick your sad ass up and get back to it. In any case if CP3 goes, we should get more than chump change and cap space for him, hell look what we gave up! If he stays, I think either MDA goes or a harder-line #2 coach has to come in that is willing to deal with the strong personalities on this team. Personally, I love both Harden's and CP3's games. I do think they can co-exist and prosper under the right regime/approach. Let me know if I'm missing something, I just don't want to throw away a talent like CP3 without a plan to make us better in place. Personally, I think Paul would be a good fit with LAL, BOS, PHX and several other places as well.
NOTE: I messed up the survey and should have allowed you to select 2 choices and not added ALL OF THE ABOVE.
My belief is it was a fairly even combo of inevitable decline and bad luck, especially shooting wise. I think it’s very possible that next year is at worst what we got this year with solid chance of better.
I think it was a minor decline + poor fitness + these two things hurt his confidence. I wouldn't be shocked if he bounced back a little bit. All he needs to do is get in the best shape of his life and keep his 3pt shot polished.
I would expect him to be better next year. The shooting issues just seem like a fluke. However, there's no denying he couldn't beat guys off the dribble, including bigs who were switched onto him, which was a major change from just 1 year.
CP0 doesn’t suck, but he is certainly declining...there’s no debating that it will only get worse from here...my hope is that the decline is gradual after the massive downgrade we saw from 17-18 CP3 to 18-19 CP0...hopefully he’s only a little bit worse next year and misses his usual 20 or so games instead of 30+ also, down year would be a huge understatement...this was easily the worst season of his career since his rookie year
He’s lost a step but he’s still damn good. The problem is he’s playing out of position/role. Very hard to get into a rhythm and do your normal Point God activities with Harden dominating the ball and running the show.
Decline due to age. He is ultra competitive. Therefore I can guarantee you he was trying to give his 110% against the Warriors. He is not going to take 5 games off against the Warriors willingly. Unfortunately for him his body just wouldn't cooperate with him. He was a step slower on defense and offense when compared to CP of last year and there was a significance drop in his 3 pt shooting. He will be a year older next year at this time with even more mileage both on his body and his age. Common sense dictates that odds are not in your favor if you are expecting him to get better next year. More likely he will get worse. It happens to everyone. There was an obvious decline in Lebron's game on both ends of the court as well. Rockets need to come to terms with this reality and compensate for it by either trading him for something better or by keeping him but acquiring someone that can compensate for his decline and then some.
Eroding physical ability more than anything. He used to have the ability to get anywhere he wants on the floor. Now he struggles getting past his man.
It's not just physical tho. Some of the turnovers he was responsible for this season were simply mind boggling. I expect him to have a hard time with some of the physical parts of the game because of his age but if I'm paying you 40mil you better killing it in all other aspects of the game. I think he is clearly declining and the Clippers clearly won that trade.
I think the increase in turnovers have more to do with him not being able to create the same passing angles that he used to because he’s easier to guard.
Chris is ball dominant and needs a system around him to justify 40,000,000 a yr. He's gonna look washed paired with James
He doesn't have a serious injury to rehab over the summer. I see him working harder this off-season and getting into better shape by the start of training camp. And I see a change in the offensive strategy that uses his floor general skills more. i hope
I just don't see how he fits into The System. Or next to Harden. I honestly wonder if he's regressed simply from being in a situation that's not suited for his utilizing his talents. I'm an engineer. If I got a job doing simple calculations and data entry, and I got eagerly offered an executive's salary for doing it, it'd be hard to pass up. At the same time, my engineering skills would stagnate and regress. No matter how much I was getting paid, I doubt I'd feel much zest towards it. And even if I did, there's only so much I could do within the confines of what my fixed position.
Getting more injury prone. I think part of it, CP3 has to live with, he is proactively trying to avoid injuries by playing sluggishly.
If you can’t see he has significantly slowed down due to his body betraying him then I don’t know what to tell you
I mean, he is 34, played a ton of minutes and had a ton of injuries in his career, his knees basically got injured in everyone of his last seasons...good luck if you expect him to be better, you have to pray he won't get worse imo.
