"Washed up" Chris Paul is the best clutch player in the NBA and will be in All-Star Game this year

$40mill per year for 16 points and 6 assists per game? 36% from 3.
Career lows in a lot of categories.

I mean, great that he can still play well enough to provide some support for Gilgeous-Alexander, Schoeder and Gallinari. As 4th scorer on the team behind those guys, he is able to pick his spots.
Let's be realistic, he is a LONG WAY from carrying a team, and being a superstar, and a long way from even being the best player on that team...

The issue with Paul was $40mill per season. You can be a bottom feeder in the playoffs carrying a 16-6 guy (getting older every year), but you can't be a top 4 team with him as second fiddle. Harden carried Paul's carcass to the top 4 last season.

 

Yea hes turn into the new Kevin Martin for that team blah..

 

Even if we only got him for ~60 games with lots of "load management", that's still better than WB, who is pretty injury prone himself. His health this year is also impressive, and while the Thunder offense is different, he's also playing a bigger part of it there... But yes, the constant risk of a hamstring injury at the worst possible time was probably the single biggest knock on his value.

 

Alexander is by far their best player. A 40 million dollar guy who is not good as a 3 rd year player

 

He just got 25, 11 and 8, 50% shooting with a win over raptors without Galo and Dennis.

Man I miss me some CP3.

 

okc is bouncing back lately, gelling well and find their comfort zone. cp3 has a lot in his tank.

 

This guy was legit, time to trade back for cp3 and admit junior and daddy greaseball messed up

 

And SGA is not an all star but CP3 is???

 

Well remember what James Harden said “ I know what’s the problem, I know what need to do. Yeah stop the turn overs and stop going into la la land every night once they get a led in a game

 

Go is a great third option at this stage of his career.

 

On the contrary, he was great one year and decidedly mediocre the next. Not exactly what you want from your $35M/yr superstar.

Anytime a player takes an entire year off for no apparent reason, I'm ready to move on and find someone willing to at least put in the effort.

 

Paul has never been known to be some insane scoring machine. He sets up players around him to succeed. In L.A. Blake and DeAndre fed off his lobs and timed passes. He can however be a clutch player taking smart shots.
I agree for 40 mil Paul is no longer the Answer for second fiddle in an iso system. Westbrook however definitely is not and loosing our draft picks for a guy that has the basketball IQ of a peanut is depressing.

 

so many people here still can't fathom the thought that cp3 is still very much a very good player. the ones that drilled into their own heads that he is just washed up can't stand how well hes playing. many are even just waiting for some injury bc there's not much left to actually say about his actual play and how well his impact on the game is still being made

 

Just not an accurate assessment of his contributions.

He leads his team in win shares.

He leads his team in 538s Raptor rating and wins above replacement.

He leads his team in nba.com/stats player impact estimate.

He is having one of his most efficient scoring seasons of his career.

He IS the best player on that team.

Literally the only argument against CP3 is the looming if/when he gets hurt question.

His on court play has been stellar. Based purely on the totality of this current season he’s been FAR better than Westbrook.

 

The depressing thing is that there were no other takers for 40mill 16-6 guy.
Nobody wants that albatross contract. We basically dumped it when given the chance. Sure, Paul George would be a way better 2nd fiddle for Harden, but nobody was trading him for CP3s mess of a deal, even with a trillion picks.

We either broke it up into trash chunks (think Knight!) or take back a flawed all star. Could be worse. We could have got DLo!

Good luck to Paul, but if here, he wouldn't even be hitting 16-6... just a bad fit now and had to go.
I'm more bummed out we didn't move Gordon for a 6'8 guy as well. Nothing against him either, but too many little dudes.

 

I wonder how OKC would have been doing with Westbrook and no Paul George. I don't think the Rockets would have done better with CP. But OKC seems to be playing well with CP, better than with WB.

 

this same team with cp3 was 20-5 after the AS break and rated top 5 on both sides of the ball in that span. there's a pretty good chance this team would be around that level

 

Other than truly trying to trick themselves into thinking we really made a great trade I just can’t understand this head in the sand attitude towards how good Paul still is.

The outright denial is soo strange.

 

To be fair, we did have Eric Gordon mostly healthy after the AS break. That helped.

My opinion is that if Westbrook is your lead guy, everybody plays worse. If he is your second guy, his weaknesses might not be as pronounced and he might even give you a lift from time to time.

Chris Paul's problem is his injury proneness, and his fall out with Harden didn't help. I don't blame the management for wanting to get rid of him. Whether we are better with WB I still can't tell. The trade was pretty much a terrible contract for another terrible contract.

 

the only thing we can really look at is the injury side of things which is fair but at the same time the rockets still got a guy who isn't exactly healthy himself. so not much there at the end of the day. and we're at the point of people just waiting for him to actually get hurt.