First of all, sorry for my English, It's not my native language. Second, Chris Paul in Houston in my humble opinion, together with MVP candidate James Harden, probably will create the best backcourt in the NBA history, so I thought it would be nice to bring more informations and details about CP3 because I was watching his career carefully. There is common knowledge about Chris Paul : * he is great point guard, one of the greatest of last decade or something. * he is many times All Star player. * he played for the Clippers by the last few years * he never passed the second round of playoffs * he never got an MVP * he is taught * he plays dirty basketball * he is short, only 6.0 ft. * he flops sometimes * he is whiny little ... It's insulting, I know. * he is close friend of LeBron, DWade and Melo in famous banana bout fellowship * he is president of NBA's Players Association * he is great floor general * he is quite old (age 32) From this (rather false because not full) perspective he doesn't look that great, to be honest. But there is much more, that most people don't know about him, something that may shock you if you have only those common knowledge about CP3. Some smart people consider him as one of the greatest and most underrated point guards ever, and this is why: 1. He is probably the only player in the NBA history without statistical weaknesses Seriously. Michael Jordan : 1 weakness - 3 point shooting James Harden : 2-3 weaknesses - defense, turnovers, clutch (maybe) Magic Johnson : 3-4 weaknesses - 3 point shooting, midrange shooting, turnovers, defense (maybe, by perception of some experts because there are no stats) LeBron James : 4 weaknesses - 3 point shooting, midrange shooting, free throws, turnovers Only John Stockton also had no statistical weaknesses, but the weakness of John Stockton is he wasn't scorer, he wasn't able (generally) to take over the game by scoring and he has much worst Advanced Statistics than Chris. Don't you think the only player in the NBA history (honorable mention John Stockton) without the weaknesses deserves the recognition of that fact and respect? 2. He is one of the best clutch player in the NBA history. Listen how Zach Lowe is saying this in his podcast (35 min 20 sec) http://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-rpfqu-2854957 and this is nice compilation of his clutch shots injured CP3's clutch shoot against San Antonio in 7th game of playoffs : 3. He is all time leader in win shares per 48 minutes together with Michael Jordan. Win Shares per 48 minutes is the one of the most respected advanced statistic that try to measure all of aspects of the game to find out how much one player really impacts on winning when you fairly compare him to other players (projected to same amount of minutes played). http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/ws_per_48_career.html Chris was the first one on this list in this year but after an injury in January his is the second one after Michael Jordan. 1. Michael Jordan .2505 2. Chris Paul .2504 3. David Robinson .2502 4. Wilt Chamberlain .2480 5. Neil Johnston .2413 6. LeBron James .2389 7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar .2284 8. Magic Johnson .2249 9. Kevin Durant .2189 10. Charles Barkley .2163 11. Jerry West .2134 12. Bob Pettit .2128 13. James Harden .2119 4. He is one of the greatest perimeter defenders ever Doc Rivers says "the greatest" but he might be biased. There are not many statistics about defensive but look at that http://grantland.com/features/department-of-defense/ Two Harvard guys found the way to measure defense through new tools and they say : "According to Franks and Miller, Chris Paul is the best perimeter defender in the NBA. They have empirical evidence that the Clippers point guard suppresses and disrupts shot activity as much or more than any other guard in the league." Check this incredible video from playoff game when Kevin Durant was unstoppable through 3 quarters and Doc Rivers decided that in 4th quarter Chris will defend KD Look also his anticipation skills : 5. He is the best point guard in the NBA history in PER PER (Player Efficiency Rating) is the most famous advanced statistic that measure basically real offensive impact on the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_efficiency_rating This is the list : http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/per_career.html 1. Michael Jordan 27.91 2. LeBron James 27.61 3. Shaquille O'Neal 26.43 4. David Robinson 26.18 5. Wilt Chamberlain 26.13 6. Chris Paul 25.72 .. 14. Magic Johnson 24.11 .. 16. Russell Westbrook 23.83 .. 20. Stephen Curry 23.42 .. 23. James Harden 22.92 24. Kobe Bryant 22.90 25. Jerry West 22.89 .. 35. John Stockton 21.83 .. 73. Steve Nash 19.95 This statistic looks even more impressive when we realize that point guards have many more responsibilities on the basketball court than other players. They have to avoid turnovers, orchestrate the offense, recognize who has hot hand on their team, recognize weak spots in opponent's team etc. They basically play chess when rest of the guys play checkers, so they cannot just concentrate on shooting. 6. He has the biggest assist to turnover ratio in NBA history comparing to other Hall Of Famers this image comes from 2015. The gap between him and for example Russell Westbrook is just devastating 7. Biggest assist to bad pass ratio AST/Bad pass (2014) Chris Paul: 7.83 Steve Nash: 4.10 Deron Williams: 4.33 Jason Kidd: 3.77 Rajon rondo: 2.59 John wall: 4.26 Baron Davis: 3.82 Stephon Marbury: 3.75 Andre Miller: 4.40 Calderon: 5.28 James: 4.02 Westbrook :4.48 Rose: 4.47 Curry:3.40 Felton: 3.46 In 2008 Chris Paul had 93 bad pass turnovers and 925 assists for a ratio of 9.95. 8. Chris is the second best player in Real Plus Minus (advanced statistic) After LeBron James Chris is the second best player in the NBA according to real plus minus statistic. Some experts believe this is one of the most accurate statistics about who is really the best in a league. http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM Season 2013-14 1 LeBron James 2 Chris Paul 3 Andre Iguodala Season 2014-15 1 Stephen Curry 2 LeBron James 3 James Harden .. 7. Chris Paul Season 2015-16 1 LeBron James 2 Draymond Green 3 Chris Paul Season 2016-17 1 LeBron James 2 Chris Paul 3 Stephen Curry 9. CP3 has the biggest PER in the NBA history from all point guards in playoffs http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/per_career_p.html 10. 50-40-90 club in playoffs If not the last 7th game with Utah from this playoffs he would be the only player in the NBA history doing it twice (being in 50-40-90 club from all playoff games). Right now he is one of the 30+ players who were able to do that. 11. 20-20-0 game Chris is the only player in the NBA history (at least in modern era of basketball) who was able to have 20 pts 20 assists and 0 turnovers. This is the full highlights 2016.12.10 vs Pelicans (without Blake Griffin) 12. Intelligence According to people surround him he is the most intelligent player in the league. Whatever he does he does because of his intelligent not because of athleticism or height. That's way his flopping skills are also so great, but also his understanding the flow of the game is amazing. Let see the difference between him and DeAndre Jordan : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64OWlQDLFSU 13. The best midrange shooter In 2015 grantland called him the best midrange shooter in the NBA. Analysis here : http://grantland.com/the-triangle/m...ont-sleep-on-chris-pauls-deadly-elbow-jumper/ 14. MVP Many experts believe CP3 deserved MVP few times in his career. In season 2007-2008 when Kobe won, Chris Paul was clear MVP and was better in every possible aspect of the game except points per game. The next season 2008-09 there were only two players above entire league CP3 and LeBron http://bleacherreport.com/articles/21807-why-kobe-bryant-should-give-the-mvp-to-chris-paul https://www.sbnation.com/2015/3/18/8242275/chris-paul-most-valuable-player-nba-2015 etc etc In every season without major injuries he was serious MVP candidate but he had never got it. 15. Why he had never passed the second round? One player cannot pass the second round, this is the collective success of multiple different people, teammates, bench, coaches, GM. On player, the biggest star can impact like 30%, rest is on others. Michael Jordan during the years 83-90 had 0 playoffs successes because his team was not good enough. I'm not going to mention how many times Clippers were just injured. 16. What Chris Paul brings to the table? Chris is exact opposition of current MVP Russell Westbrook. CP3 brings : + unselfishness + great decision making + amazing efficiency + great defence + lack of turnovers + great clutch skills (Russell however is not that bad in clutch) He is also one of the greatest vocal leader and floor general. I hope he will help James Harden to be even better and together they will create unstoppable force, the best backcourt in the NBA history, two future Hall of Famers and current friends. Regards from Poland
Great post. Chris Paul to me is clearly a top 5 player. If there's a weakness, it's that he's not gonna go out and score 30 points a game. But we have Harden for that.
Regards from TX. You are amazing. May this mark a new golden era of Texan-Polish diplomatic relations.
To echo the points made here when Chris Paul plays his first game as a rocket he will be the best point guard to have ever worn a rocket uniform.
That's why it is laughable when people complain about what the Rockets gave up for him compared to the Paul George trade. CP3 is a superstar in the same vein as Lebron, KD, MJ, Shaq, Hakeem. George is a good 2nd option or great 3rd option like Bosh, Love, Carmelo, Hayward, Kyrie. There is no comparison.
Wow, a lot of really good info in there. Good job collecting it all. I'm hearing a lot of "Chris and James won't be able to play together cause they both need the ball in their hands." Such nonsense I think. They are both very smart and capable players. I see them playing off of one another very well. Both very good catch and shoot guys and excellent PnR players that you have to send help on. Neither player has played with another really good G, now they get that chance to share creative duties.
I didn't even read most of it but I'm giving it a thumbs up cuz you got graphs and videos. Dedication.
