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From a post on another forum:

I received quite a surprise when I looked at the official play by play sheet and discovered that Paul was credited with assists on seven of West's 13 field goals. Rick Barry once told me that the only statistic that he trusts is free throw percentage and Oscar Robertson has complained many times that the definition of an assist is much more liberal now than it was during his playing days. I went back to the tape to look at each of West's field goals. His first three scores came on driving moves for which no assist was credited. Then things get very interesting. West's fourth field goal came at the 1:02 mark of the first quarter. Paul passed to Bonzi Wells, who swung the ball from the right elbow to West on the left baseline. West caught the ball at 1:06, took two dribbles and lofted a tough floater over Duncan. An assist is supposed to be awarded only if the recipient immediately shoots, not after he takes multiple dribbles, so there is no way that an assist should have been awarded--and if an assist was awarded it should have been given to Wells, not Paul.

Robertson would have a fit if he saw West's fifth field goal: Paul passed the ball to West at the 1:51 mark in the second quarter. West made a jab step to the right, drove left, stopped and shot a tough fadeaway jumper over Oberto and Thomas. West made a fake, took a dribble and then shot a fadeaway, so there absolutely should not be an assist awarded for that shot. Sloppy scorekeeping like this makes it easier to understand how guys like Paul and Steve Nash are racking up such lofty assist numbers and why people are convinced that West and Amare Stoudemire could not tie their shoelaces if their point guards did not help them. West displayed excellent footwork and ballhandling but people will look at the play by play sheet and boxscore and say, "Look how Paul is making West better."

West's sixth field goal was a hook shot for which Jannero Pargo received an assist, which is pretty strange considering that West received the ball on the left wing at the 1:13 mark, faked a jumper, took one dribble to the left, dribbled between his legs, drove across the lane to the right and shot a hook over Oberto at the 1:08 mark. How exactly did Pargo "assist" West?

At the 7:43 mark of the third quarter West made his seventh field goal, a dunk after a nice feed from Paul, the third time that Paul was credited with an assist on a West shot but the first one that actually was a legitimate assist by Paul.

At the 3:51 mark of the third quarter, Paul passed to West, who was stationed on the left block. West faked a drop step move, took two dribbles and then delivered a left handed hook. Again, no assist is supposed to be awarded on such a play but Paul was credited with one.

Less than two minutes later, Paul passed to West on the right wing. West faked a jumper, took two dribbles into the lane and made a tough runner. Shockingly, the friendly New Orleans scorekeeper did not give Paul an assist on this play.

About a minute later, Morris Peterson passed to West on the left wing. West faked a jumper, took two dribbles and made a fadeaway jumper. Naturally, Peterson was (wrongly) credited with an assist.

At the 10:17 mark of the fourth quarter, Paul passed to West on the right wing and West immediately raised up and made a jumper. That was correctly scored as an assist for Paul.

At the 9:36 mark of the fourth quarter, Paul passed to West on the left wing and West executed a reverse pivot before firing a fadeaway jumper. Paul was awarded an assist; West made a move after receiving the pass but he did shoot almost immediately, so that assist is marginal but acceptable. West's 13th field goal was a dunk off of a nice Paul feed.

So, of Paul's seven assists on West's field goals, three were clearly wrong, three were clearly correct and one was marginal. I have no idea whether or not this ratio is typical or a one game aberration but there is no question that the play by play sheet and boxscore from this game tell a much different story than the naked eye does.

Paul is a very good point guard and he hardly needs to have anybody padding his statistics. What's more, this is not fair to West--who is generating a lot of his offense on his own--nor is it fair to the players whose assist records Paul is breaking.

Duffman100 wrote:I'd like someone to go over all of Oscar's career with a fine tooth comb.

JellosJigglin wrote:I think Paul's teammates help him inflate his assist numbers in a different way. Whenever I watch that team play, it seems like getting a pass from Paul is like getting the green light to shoot. Doesn't matter how early in the shot clock it is, if he passes the ball, they seem to shoot it right away. They're definitely not the most patient team on offense, but it works for them.

JellosJigglin wrote:I think Paul's teammates help him inflate his assist numbers in a different way. Whenever I watch that team play, it seems like getting a pass from Paul is like getting the green light to shoot. Doesn't matter how early in the shot clock it is, if he passes the ball, they seem to shoot it right away. They're definitely not the most patient team on offense, but it works for them.

Copperhead wrote:He gets them in the best positions/best spots to make shots.

Not directed at you Jellos but is this what it comes down to now? When Paul leads the league in any category, people will look to find out how his numbers come and how they're 'inflated'? LMAO!

Tabasco wrote:The only example on there that makes absolutely no sense to me is the one where Paul passed to Bonzi who then passed to West for the score. Why the hell would Paul get the assist for that??

Red Robot wrote:Assists are definitely one of the more subjective stats. They've always been "inflated".

Paydro70 wrote:Well, Chris Paul averaged 11.9 apg at home, 11.2 at home... so whatever the "New Orleans" effect is, it's apparently not that extreme (since we would EXPECT Paul to play slightly better at home).

It's quite possible scoring has changed in the past 20 years... it would be very hard to show conclusively though. If anything, it just confirms that people should be compared to their era, not a uniform standard. But most advanced stats already do that.