One thing I really want to call out for those who hasn't noticed or been paying attention to is Chris Paul's dribbling ability. Now the obvious answer is that he is a great dribbler who is careful with the ball and to a large extent, that is very true. However, what has always impressed me more about his dribbling is his method of dribbling. Like how Harden bases his offensive ability around his change of pace, CP3 does the same by controlling the pace of his dribble via strength. If you watch and listen to his dribble, you get a sense of loud and soft, fast and slow bounces depending on what he wants to do, where he wants the ball to be so he can make a quick pass if possible or even to shoot. This alone makes it very difficult for opponents to actually take the ball away from him or for him to lose it. It is such a cerebral form and utterly beautiful.
He has a distintive dribbling style that allows him to go where he wants to go. Its not flashy like a kyrie, not explosive like a westbrook, not even crafty like a Harden that lulls defender into falling asleep.... CP3s handle like the rest of his game is just efficient.
Contrast this with someone like Austin Rivers. Bouncing it off his foot, getting stripped, falling over, failing to protect the ball, basically any way you can turn the ball over, he will try it and perfect it.
Paul had an absolutely dirty dribble recently (can't remember when/where now) where he was heading through the paint towards the basket. Sandwiched in between several standard dribbles, he did one really hard, back-spin dribble. It froze the defense so hard that he found the corner man for the open shot. "Dribbles" are something I barely ever noticed (not including cross-overs or unnecessarily flashy stuff). It was amazing.
At 1:27 he is like its crazy if he had another ball like was about to show you something. Look off to the left of the screen and you see 2 ball racks filled with them right on the sidelines.
CP3 has always had crazy handles. What's different about this year is he's not dribbling the air out the ball and making decisions faster.
Yes man! I thought that was what this thread would be about. At first I thought he carried - could not figure out how he froze an entire defense with a f***ing DRIBBLE!
This is a good thread topic. You can literally see what the OP is talking about when you look at the highlights. Controlled dribbling hard and soft depending on how he attacks and what direction he's going. Good read!
