How much do you think CP3 was held back the rest of his career by the 2010 knee injury?

[ardee]

It seemed like his production never returned to 2008 and 2009 levels after that, despite his start to the 2009-10 season being his best ever (literally started the season 26.1/3.2/9.3 on 62/66/86 shooting in the first 10 games).

Do you think without that injury he'd have kept up 2008 levels of play throughout his prime?

[No-more-rings]

He probably would’ve been a bit more athletic a few of those years, but I think he’d still have the same weaknesses which is mainly his limited size.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Assuming he has better durability and doesn't continually get untimely injuries in the PS (not a guarantee) ...possibly the best PG ever.

[Doctor MJ]

It seemed like his production never returned to 2008 and 2009 levels after that, despite his start to the 2009-10 season being his best ever (literally started the season 26.1/3.2/9.3 on 62/66/86 shooting in the first 10 games).

Do you think without that injury he'd have kept up 2008 levels of play throughout his prime?

Couple things:

1. If we look at his Shooting table on bkref, what we see is that he stops getting to the rim nearly as much. While the injury might have been the switch that flipped his approach, this is also something we just expect to see when players age - particularly small guys.

2. In terms of his volume scoring, I don't see an analogous trend as what we see in the regular season. Paul really seems like someone in the playoffs who for many years was happy to volume score when the defense let him see that daylight.

[ardee]

It seemed like his production never returned to 2008 and 2009 levels after that, despite his start to the 2009-10 season being his best ever (literally started the season 26.1/3.2/9.3 on 62/66/86 shooting in the first 10 games).

Do you think without that injury he'd have kept up 2008 levels of play throughout his prime?

Couple things:

1. If we look at his Shooting table on bkref, what we see is that he stops getting to the rim nearly as much. While the injury might have been the switch that flipped his approach, this is also something we just expect to see when players age - particularly small guys.

2. In terms of his volume scoring, I don't see an analogous trend as what we see in the regular season. Paul really seems like someone in the playoffs who for many years was happy to volume score when the defense let him see that daylight.

He was 24 when the injury happened... I agree you're likely to see someone get to the rim less once they're 29-30, but not that young.

I feel like the same explosiveness was simply not there after the knee. Even when he was scoring more in the Playoffs, it was more midrange work and also using trickery and guile to get to the rim. In 2008 and 2009 he'd just blow by you.

Very sad what happened. He had a great career but it could have been even better. It's just unheard of for someone to peak at age 22-23.