Chris Paul's final season

[floppymoose]

Best nut-puncher ever

[Sofia]

Hope he takes 50 field goal attempts in his final game and scores 62 points

[chrisab123]

Scott Foster in shambles

[Calvin Klein]

Hope it’s back in Phoenix

mostly intangibles, leadership, which they seriously lack

[WestbrookGOATed]

I still see him signing with the Clippers.

It makes the most sense, for sure.

[TheGeneral99]

Phenomenal career, and I have a feeling will largely become EXTREMELY underrated because he never won a ring or MVP. He so close to both accolades but just couldn't get over the hump.

The fact is that despite being 6 feet tall, Paul was an MVP level player for about 15 straight years, one of the highest IQ and skilled players ever, and made every team he was on much better. He was an impact player in every sense of the word and did it consistently on both ends.

Also, the fact that him and Harden were within a game from beating the super team juggernaut Warriors that demolished the Lebron super team Cavs, says something about how good this guy was. Him pulling his hammy in game 6 will go down as one of the most unfortunate injuries in playoff history.

[dhsilv2]

I'd bet heavily that CP3 ends up in LA but if he really wants to both start and maximize his chances of making the Finals, he should go to Milwaukee. The East field is wide open and he would be playing alongside the best player in the conference by a huge margin. Barring an injury to Giannis, they're virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs. Plus not only could he start in Milwaukee, he would also be in line for a larger role running the offense than with either the Clippers or Lakers.

Of course the trade off is three months of sub-freezing temps during daylight hours in one of the league's smallest markets which is why he's almost certainly not going to end up a Buck.

Paul thrived in OKC which is a smaller market and isn't an hour drive from Chicago. Maybe the cold is an issue for him and that's fine. But i doubt the market matters much to him.

[dhsilv2]

A lot of people watching basketball today will never know how good CP3 really was. 07-08 CP3 was as good as any point guard ever not named Magic or Steph.

Steph is not a PG by any meaning of the word. He's usually the shortest guy on the court for his team, that's about it.

Draymond facilitates the offense and until last season, Klay defended the opposing teams PG/lead guard.

I mean he was the primary ball handler who normally brought the ball up. I'd say 20-30% of teams through NBA history had a guy we call a point guard who did the same role. The reality is positions are just made up concepts to teach kids the game. But for the purposes of the NBA...he's more a point guard than Lebron is a forward (lebron being an actual text book point guard most of his career other than his height). So meh...

[Blame Rasho]

And a long, distinguished career it has been.

Remember the whole Williams vs Paul debates…

[tsherkin]

And a long, distinguished career it has been.

Remember the whole Williams vs Paul debates…

Barely. That was a LOOOONG time ago, hehehe.

[JM00n69]

And a long, distinguished career it has been.

Remember the whole Williams vs Paul debates…

It was a legit debate at the time though. Deron fell off after he ousted Jerry Sloan from UTAH and then got traded. Serves him right. But Deron was right up there for a minute

[JM00n69]

Scott Foster in shambles

Scott refs his last game and Paul fouls out in the first half. The perfect ending

[tsherkin]

And a long, distinguished career it has been.

Remember the whole Williams vs Paul debates…

It was a legit debate at the time though. Deron fell off after he ousted Jerry Sloan from UTAH and then got traded. Serves him right. But Deron was right up there for a minute

I don't think he was ever as good as Paul, but he was productive alongside Boozer in Sloan's system. Williams was a good player, but never quite the savant Paul was.

[JM00n69]

Remember the whole Williams vs Paul debates…

It was a legit debate at the time though. Deron fell off after he ousted Jerry Sloan from UTAH and then got traded. Serves him right. But Deron was right up there for a minute

I don't think he was ever as good as Paul, but he was productive alongside Boozer in Sloan's system. Williams was a good player, but never quite the savant Paul was.

No I think plenty of people had him over Paul at a point in time. I had them equal then but DWill definitely had a better team and a legendary coach at the time. Us knowing how it ended for both of them now clouds our judgement I think.

[magee]

Clipper bound along with Beal once he's bought out?

This team would be so tough in 2018. Haha.

[tsherkin]

No I think plenty of people had him over Paul at a point in time.

Yes, that was the debate at the time. They were wrong, of course, but that's a secondary issue. It was certainly the debate at the time, though, yes.

[SOUL]

No I think plenty of people had him over Paul at a point in time.

Yes, that was the debate at the time. They were wrong, of course, but that's a secondary issue. It was certainly the debate at the time, though, yes.

People weren't as religious about advanced stats at the time though. Deron was a top 2-3 point guard for a few years and I think he was like 9-1 or 10-2 or something against CP3 at one point in time and outplayed him in a decent amount of those games to add to the discussion.

[tsherkin]

People weren't as religious about advanced stats at the time though. Deron was a top 2-3 point guard for a few years and I think he was like 9-1 or 10-2 or something against CP3 at one point in time and outplayed him in a decent amount of those games to add to the discussion.

Yes, I understand WHY people were wrong, of course: I recall the debates.

[SOUL]

Yes, I understand WHY people were wrong, of course: I recall the debates.

I just don't think you can refer to it necessarily as "wrong" if that was the reality of the situation at the time. They were both starting from relatively similar talent levels around their roster. Deron went deeper in the playoffs w/ Utah, winning four playoff series to CP3's one. Consistently outdueled him head to head (12-4 record) and they put up similar stats against each other.

Those are extreme cherry-picked reasonings to why people made the argument, but they are still valid because citing off advanced stats when your team is getting your ass busted time and time again by a rival at your position just doesn't really hit that hard. CP3 obviously is, has been, and will always be the superior player, one of the best point guards ever, but those particulars still exist.

[JM00n69]

No I think plenty of people had him over Paul at a point in time.

Yes, that was the debate at the time. They were wrong, of course, but that's a secondary issue. It was certainly the debate at the time, though, yes.

People weren't as religious about advanced stats at the time though. Deron was a top 2-3 point guard for a few years and I think he was like 9-1 or 10-2 or something against CP3 at one point in time and outplayed him in a decent amount of those games to add to the discussion.

I think it was team success mostly but CP3 was not clearly better for 1-2 years than Deron. I'm not saying he was worse either but when it came to winning plays/shots and Deron was a big body for a PG that could back down pretty much any guard and get his in the post. He also didn't hesitate to take it on himself to make the last play. RS and playoff team records went to DWill. Paul was an elite tier playmaker already but still in his first few years in and the Hornets were not as good as a team and Jerry Sloan ran a tight ship at UTAH for 20yrs just like Pop did at SAS- that unfortunately gets forgotten imo and was a major factor for DWill success.

Dwill dropped off soon after his Jazz stint. Let's not forget that Chis Paul was considered washed up and one of the worse contracts in the NBA after he got thown under the bus by HOU and went to OKC. The talk was he was completely done then but he prover everyone wrong again. A much much better career but for a minute they were close if you didn't know the future.