[ESPN] Buy or sell: CP3 more important to his team than Steph Curry

Buy or sell: CP3 more important to his team than Steph Curry
Andre Snellings
http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...ll-chris-paul-more-important-team-steph-curry

Buy or sell: Chris Paul is more important to the Rockets than Stephen Curry is to the Warriors
The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets just got their starting point guards back this weekend. And both teams welcomed them back with open arms. The Warriors went 5-6 in the 11 games that Steph Curry missed with a strained groin, while the Rockets went 0-3 in the three games that Chris Paul missed with a sore left leg.

So which team missed their PG more? And who is more valuable to their given team?

Curry might seem like the clear choice, as some consider him a favorite to win his third NBA MVP award this season. Curry ranks in the top five by player efficiency rating (PER) at 27.77, well ahead of Paul's PER of 19.9 (56th). Curry is on an astounding pace when healthy, averaging 42.8 points per 100 possessions while making 54.1 percent of his 2-point shots, a whopping 49.2 percent from behind the arc and 92.3 percent from the line. Meanwhile, Paul's per-100 stats are down 3.0 points and 0.7 assists compared to last season, while his turnovers have ticked up by 1.0 per-100 and his true shooting percentage is down at 56.0 percent, his lowest mark since 2006-07.

Match Curry's individual numbers with the Warriors' dynasty continuing to drop games in Curry's absence and he seems the obvious choice. But it has to be mentioned that the vast majority of the time Curry has missed overlapped with Draymond Green being out (toe). Thus, the Warriors' recent woes can't be solely attributed to Curry, as Green typically has his own MVP-level impact on the Dubs' fortunes. Plus, the Warriors feature an MVP in Kevin Durant and another all-history shooter in Klay Thompson.

The Rockets were the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference last season after posting the NBA's best record (65-17) and highest average scoring margin (plus-8.5). Their struggles out the gate this season have caught everyone's eye, raising questions of whether the departures of Trevor Ariza and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute were too much for them to recover from.

However, closer examination shows that the majority of Houston's struggles can be attributed to Paul's slide and absences. In the games Paul has missed, the Rockets are 0-5 with an average scoring margin of minus-9.4. In their other 16 games, they are 11-6 with an average margin of plus-3.3. But the trends suggest strongly, that the Rockets (with Paul) are improving rapidly after a very slow start. They have won 10 of their last 13 games that Paul has played in with a scoring margin of plus-7.8, numbers very reminiscent of the win rate and scoring margin that propelled them to the top of the West last season. Interesting.

Paul's importance to the Rockets is easy to understand, as the entire Mike D'Antoni offense is built around having smart, skilled on-ball decision makers surrounded by shooters who can create and exploit offensive mismatches. Though James Harden is a worthy MVP, Paul is still the best floor general on the team, the best decision-maker and creator for teammates and also the best mid-range operator on a team that otherwise primarily shoots 3-pointers or layups.

When Paul is out, the Rockets' offense gets more one-dimensional around Harden with more limited finishers needing him to create the offense. Paul's presence, then, guarantees that the Rockets always have redundant MVP-caliber lead guards running the D'Antoni system as well as a shooter on the court that the defense has to respect as a secondary creator. When it's working well, it makes the team seem close to unbeatable. But when Paul is absent, the team's holes are easier to exploit.

While it can be argued and well-supported that Curry might be the better player overall, I buy that Paul is more valuable to the Rockets than Curry is to the Warriors.

 

Curry buoyed by his all star buddies Thompson, KD and Green. Facts!