RealGM

The National Basketball Association today announced that Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul has been named Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, Jan. 4, through Sunday, Jan. 10. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers was the Eastern Conference winner.

Paul helped the Clippers to a 3-0 week behind averages of 23.7 points, 12.3 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals. He posted two double-doubles during the week and scored at least 20-plus points in all three games.

On Jan. 6 in Portland, Paul collected 21 points and a season-high 19 assists in a 109-98 win. He had 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a 97-83 win over the Hornets on Jan. 9. A day later, Paul posted another double-double with 25 points and 11 assists in addition to five rebounds and three steals in a 114-111 overtime win against the Pelicans.

Paul has helped the Clippers win their last nine games, the longest active winning streak in the NBA. Over the past 10 games, he is averaging 21.1 points, 10.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds.

Clippers.com

As easy as it is to overlook a superlative like Player of the Week, it feels like Paul’s lack of winning the award is a microcosm of the way Paul’s discussed and acknowledged in relation to his peers. The active leader in Win Shares Per 48 Minutes (according to Basketball Reference), Paul falls incredibly short when compared to the two players behind him in that category in LeBron James (49) and Kevin Durant (21). Not that WS Per 48 is an end-all, be-all, but why should Paul’s impact be regarded as any less meaningful than other players who lead the way for perennial winners and are considered the best at their position/craft?
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I don’t know if it’s because we look at players like Paul, Durant and LeBron and just assume they’re discussed and lauded so frequently that it isn’t a priority to focus on them as much as the players who are maybe a little further under the radar, but what Paul’s done over his last 10 games has been absurd. Leading the Clippers to a 9-1 mark, again, eight of those wins have been without Griffin, Paul’s posting a 114.9 offensive rating to go along with a 96.7 defensive rating via NBA.com.

To dive deeper, Paul’s 53.5 assist percentage over the last 10 games (on the season he’s up to 46.2) far surpasses league leader Rajon Rondo’s 47.5 mark, and his 4.15 assist-to-turnover ratio (on the season he’s up to 3.53) would put him second behind C.J. Watson’s 4.17 mark, who’s appeared in eight games this season and plays considerably fewer minutes with a much lower usage rate. So while Paul’s not only leading the team in scoring over its last 10 games with 21.1 points per game, with a 46/34/89 shooting line, he’s also been the most efficient facilitator in the league over that period:

nickhx2 wrote:i actually think that cp3 is pretty underrated nowadays. all anyone wants to talk about is curry and westbrook, which is understandable.

but meanwhile, cp3 is just freaking killing it with his usual brand of elite and super efficient play, much of which doesn't show up in your regular box score.

Ranma wrote:Another thing I don't get is how Russell Westbrook gets more consideration in MVP talk than Chris Paul. Yeah, Paul tends to defer to teammates too much but Westbrook's shot selection rivals Jamal Crawford's and, despite his athleticism, he shies away from defending the best ball-handler on the opposing team. Granted nobody can really guard Steph Curry, but Chris Paul does one of the best jobs in taking on that task while Westbrook hasn't guarded him in their last two matchups with the Warriors, which were both losses. He also turns the ball over more than Chris does. In fact, one could argue that he detracts from the real team MVP by taking shots away from the much more efficient Kevin Durant with his shot-chucking.

nickhx2 wrote:media narrative stuff i guess. let's face it, cp3 is not who people want to watch, casual fans and media alike. his time in the spotlight is over and that's how it'll always be.

the more nba seasons i see the more i realize how ridiculous the awards and award talk are. they're pretty much on the level of the all-star game, so i take them with a grain of salt quite often.

Quake Griffin wrote:He screams and beats his chest after those hard dunks.
It's given him this aura of being one of the hardest playing NBA players in the league if not the hardest playing NBA player.

I always ask people….if he plays so hard, why doesn't he defend well or with the same intensity that he attacks the basket?
Typically, I'm met with excuses or the fact that he can and just doesn't all the time.


Hooray for volume stats and turnovers on about mid 50s TS (this year being his 1st above 55%), all the athleticism in the world but no use of it to lock up one of the more stacked positions in the league on defense!