John Stockton vs Chris Paul all time who you voting?

[floppymoose]

Vaccine denier vs Nut puncher. Decisions decisions…

[MavsDirk41]

Its close but ill take Stockton. Guy played all 82 16 seasons which is amazing. I also factor in the amount of success he had with Malone in Utah for over a decade. They had 11 seasons winning 50 plus games while Paul has bounced around the league. Paul might have a smal advantage in peak but ill still take Stockton.

About 150 games more played by stockton.

Regular season records:
Stockton 953-551 63.4%
Paul 861-493 63.6%

Playoff
Paul - 12-15 in series. 81-68 54.4%
Stockton 17-19 in series 89-93 48.9%

Weird to see Paul with the better playoff record. Also worth noting Stockton played a LOT of game 5's in the first round...like a LOT (11 in total).

So from a team success...honestly you could take either. Especially depending if you've taken the more modern view on some of the play by play data of old stockton and think perhaps he was more of the engine of the jazz than the popular opinion of the 90's and early 00's. If you're still a huge believer it was Malone driving it...I think you'd need to lean more to Paul.

You put some great data in there, had no clue Stockton played that many game 5s. Just amazing to me that he played all 82 16 seasons. Thats really amazing, especially considering his size. I always thought that he was the engine that drove that Utah team personally, but you cant imagine them not playing together so who knows. Im also a little biased towards the guy who played with the team that drafted him for his entire career like Dirk. But you could take either one and no wrong answer tbh.

[benhillboy]

You’re really splitting hairs as far as on floor impact. They’re both immortals who are wildly similar. I’m taking CP3 tho, his player-coaching and articulation acumen is light years ahead of Stock when trying to fine-tune younger players on your roster.

[f4p]

Its close but ill take Stockton. Guy played all 82 16 seasons which is amazing. I also factor in the amount of success he had with Malone in Utah for over a decade. They had 11 seasons winning 50 plus games while Paul has bounced around the league. Paul might have a smal advantage in peak but ill still take Stockton.

He bounced around the league with 12 seasons winning 50 plus (adjusted for lockouts and covid)
And has the franchise record for wins in a season for 4 different franchises, which I'm guessing is a record.

[f4p]

Stockton, easy.

Why? Chris Paul got his butt whipped by at least half of his allstar PG matchups in the playoffs. Stockton is much more reliable and straight up better at what you want a PG to do.

Didn't Stockton take some beatings, especially in terms of his counterpart putting up big numbers? Stockton's numbers fall off hard in the playoffs so it's weird to call him more reliable. And CP3 shut down Steph in 3 different playoffs.

[benhillboy]

For CP3 to sport a career regular and postseason on/off of +9.1 and +6.2, respectively, with all the different coaches and teammates he’s had is basketball sorcery.

[HMFFL]

Maybe, maybe not, depends on if he could consistently sustain shooting more through whole games/series' while guarding opposing star PG's, while they get a good amount of time resting off him on guys like Barnes while he was guarded by their defensive wing. This was a team build issue with the Hornets and Clippers teams he played on, but that is life, you're not putting MoPete, Peja, Redick, Crawford or Barnes on the opposing point guard.

That said, Griffin was a 6 x All-Star and 5 x All-NBA and would have had more if not for injuries, he was a HOF talent, but didn't have a HOF career due to health (actually basketball HOF is lenient so who knows), but certainly was that level of talent when they played together.

Paul took 1 FGA less in the regular season and 0.1 FGA more in the post season compared to West in 07-08.

In 08-09 he took 0.9 less in the RS and 1.4 less in the post-season than West, and for the post season, that was also a defense loading up factor.

Then of course some injury / returning from injury seasons and then he's a Clipper with Griffin.

i will say that in this specific comparison, this critique probably isn't the right one, and is a better one in a comparison to someone who scores more as this critique is even more relevant to Stockton.

..and Stockton did at times did shoot more than his usual in for example, some closeout games, but in many he just didn't make a lot of the extra shots. Of course that then goes against the idea that it was just situation that caused him to shoot less and score much less than Paul vs skillset and tools.

Regardless, it's a close comparison, much closer than the poll suggests, but in some ways similar guys, even in both being dirty, though based on his contemporaries, Stockton was seen as nastier in that sense. Must be a smaller player thing.

The issue that remains for me is that he didn't shoot enough. That's always been the case. If you're the best talent on your team, you take it upon yourself to be the #1 option, but Chris Paul never took it upon himself to be the guy. David West only made an all-star team with CP as his teammate. The same might be said for Blake Griffin except when he played in Detroit? 


CP never played with a superstar talent until he joined James Harden in Houston and that was brief. 


I never took CP as a serious threat to winning a championship due to New Orleans and the LA Clippers.  There was no reason for me to consider them anything more than a regular season team. Sadly, injuries derailed them (Clippers), too. 

Griffin was an All-Star the year before Paul. He was definitely a different level of player than West, the ball handling and playmaking ability make a difference, and he was a superior scorer.

That's right.
KIA was a big sponsor at the time and they needed Blake Griffin to jump over a car. He was the last rookie to make an All-Star roster. KIA money!

[Calvin Klein]

Cp3 no doubt

[LAvision]

Cp3, there’s a reason every team he went to, the team got significantly better.

[Raps in 4]

CP3, but they're in the same tier.

[LockoutSeason]

Both are perfect examples of why traditional point guards are overrated. It doesn’t matter how good they were, they were never going to win as the leader of their teams.

There’s a reason why PGs are extinct and were replace playmaking wings and big men.

[NZB2323]

I’m taking prime CP3 over Stockton, but CP3 got hurt in the playoffs a lot. I don’t think that either one is the wrong choice.

[TheGOATRises007]

CP3 is the better player, but his playoff availability is a big black mark.

[Handlez]

Stockton.

Reliability, availability, motor that never stopped, and tough as nails.

Stock is underrated. Love that dude.

[bledredwine]

Stockton, easy.

Why? Chris Paul got his butt whipped by at least half of his allstar PG matchups in the playoffs. Stockton is much more reliable and straight up better at what you want a PG to do.

Terry porter famously took stockton lunch money lmao, what the hell is this argument,

Stockton playoffs numbers were wildly worse than paul's as his scoring (already paedestrian) got worse in the playoffs

Stockton was a total beast in the 97 playoffs and was Utah's best player for their near-title run, but his matchups were pretty weak (Darrick Martin, Nick Van Exel, Matt Maloney, old Ron Harper). In tougher matchups, like against Porter or against Payton in the 96 WCF, Stockton laid some eggs.

Not to mention Gary Payton has stated that John Stockton was the hardest player for him to guard.

[TheGeneral99]

Stockton was unbelievable, highly underrated, but personally in terms of prime I am going to with CP3 just because of how more dynamic he was as a scorer. If you were to give me prime CP3 vs. prime Stockton for one season, I'm taking CP3.

In terms of all-time Stockton may have the slight edge due to longevity and durability, he never missed a game.

Both are top 5 all-time at the position after Magic, Steph, and Oscar.

[Calvin Klein]

I've seen CP3 go absolutely nuts and dismantling teams on his own in the playoffs, as a 35 year old in Phoenix, let alone in NO and LA. I don't think Stockton ever had that kind of performance, but I'm open to being corrected.

Stockton was never close to being MVP either.

[f4p]

Terry porter famously took stockton lunch money lmao, what the hell is this argument,

Stockton playoffs numbers were wildly worse than paul's as his scoring (already paedestrian) got worse in the playoffs

Stockton was a total beast in the 97 playoffs and was Utah's best player for their near-title run, but his matchups were pretty weak (Darrick Martin, Nick Van Exel, Matt Maloney, old Ron Harper). In tougher matchups, like against Porter or against Payton in the 96 WCF, Stockton laid some eggs.

Not to mention Gary Payton has stated that John Stockton was the hardest player for him to guard.

In the 1996 WCF, Stockton averaged 9.9/7.6 on 40/20/58 shooting splits (14/11 in the regular season). So not that hard to guard apparently.

[Rauxcee]

Stockton was a total beast in the 97 playoffs and was Utah's best player for their near-title run, but his matchups were pretty weak (Darrick Martin, Nick Van Exel, Matt Maloney, old Ron Harper). In tougher matchups, like against Porter or against Payton in the 96 WCF, Stockton laid some eggs.

Not to mention Gary Payton has stated that John Stockton was the hardest player for him to guard.

In the 1996 WCF, Stockton averaged 9.9/7.6 on 40/20/58 shooting splits (14/11 in the regular season). So not that hard to guard apparently.

I love that you, some rando sitting at a computer screen looking at a box score, knows more than Gary Payton, who actually played in the game, faced Stockton, and made the comment.

What other NBA players do you more about than the actual NBA player who experienced the game?

[jeeph]

Voted Stockton.

I'll start off by saying if I was to rate them in say NBA2k, Paul would be rated higher. On an individual scale only taking into account of 1 vs.1, Paul would come out on top.

But basketball is a team sport. Stockton made his teammates better more than Paul did. To me, a PG's primary duty is running the offense, breaking down defenses, and getting your teammates opportunities of success. Not necessarily being the best player by the numbers every night. Paul, the better player, Stockton team player. In other words, the more talent you put around Paul, would make his impact diminish. Stockton would get better the better his team got I believe.