tsherkin wrote:canada_dry wrote:tsherkin wrote:
Chris Paul has only ever really struggled with health in the playoffs. Health and size, of course, since being 5'11 or whatever is its own form of ceiling despite his evident ability. I don't think his style of play has presented him any real sort of issue at all.
2014 playoffs vs okc
2015 playoffs
2017 game 7 1st round
2019 vs warriors
2021 in the finals.
2022 game 7 vs mavs.
Most 2 game leads blown of any player ever.
He has a history of coming up small that way exceeds injuries. A lot like embiid. And a lot like in embiids case people only want to talk about health rather than context imo.
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Struggling and issues with his style of play arent the same thing, though.
Ehh, you could definitely make an argument that Chris Paul's tendency to hold the ball and play ultra conservatively does put more of a ceiling on his team's offensive potential compared to what it could be. He is less willing to aggressively push the ball upcourt and push pace in favor of limiting mistakes. However you can definitely argue that he misses a lot of secondary transition opportunities due to this and just the baskets that get created with an initial aggressive push where offensive chances materialize only after the ball is advanced.
The easiest way I can explain this will make sense to anyone who has coached boys and girls in basketball. Generally boys are much more willing to play selfishly/thinking of themselves to push the ball upcourt even if on first glance there is NOTHING there and multiple defenders back. However this aggression is a really nice thing to have as just forcing the defense to make a decision of some kind is ALWAYS VALUABLE. So even in the case of a reckless transition 1v3 push where the handler gets swallowed up under the rim and surrounded by 3 defenders, often an opportunity is created because the defense reacted and made a choice and their communication and exceution wasn't perfect, so a shooter was left open, or a lane for a cutter presented itself.
With coaching young girls they often are SO team oriented that they will not aggressively push the ball upcourt, and often you have to really really really drill that into them to be aggressive and push the ball by yourself, that they don't have to wait for the entire team to get organized with them.
With CP3 I see a lot of that in his game. He's such a control freak on the floor, wanting to make every decision, and not make a single mistake that sometimes he definitely is too risk-averse, which like you said combined with his 5'11" stature somewhat limiting him in the playoffs especially when opponents throw big defenders on him, can be a problem. Especially since a lot of times his teams in his prime were so reliant on him creating EVERYTHING because he specifically did not let other players do certain things, his Clipper teams could never adapt IMO. Those Clipper teams definitely should have been running more initial actions through Griffin at times with his solid playmaking and instead they ended up bogging themselves down going entirely through CP3. It's tough to create nonstop looks spamming PnR as a 5'11 dude when you have 6'6-6'8 on ball defenders who can not only move their feet with you, but can play back and still contest everything. Always predictable actions, and not playing fast enough to get to multiple actions in a half court set if the initial option or 2 was well defended.
CP3 is an all timer and one of the best PGs ever. But I think it's burying your head in the sand to not acknowledge he has clear flaws in terms of play style that did limit his ability to succeed at the highest level.
Also fair to note that when he is losing he has an all time terrible attitude and does some really really questionable stuff. Punching Julius Hodge in the nuts. Or this play from the finals that is literally blatantly shoving someone in mid air as hard as he could. This play should be talked about as one of the dirtiest attempted plays in the history of the NBA, it just gets glossed over because Giannis still dunked it and held onto the rim. But a 2 handed shove on a player high in the air with no play on the ball/not even looking at the ball is as scummy as it gets in basketball basically. That should have been a flagrant 2 ejection instantly.
If Chris Paul did not play with great teams everybody would hate on him because he controlled the ball too much and was too small.
LeBron is 0-7 in game winning/tying FGs in the finals. And is 20/116 or 17% in game winning/tying FGs in the 4th/OT for his career. That's historically bad 
