CP3 in the last 5 games, 46 assists 1 TO

[rand]

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

Come on dude, it's a 46:1 assist-to-TO ratio. That's extremely impressive no matter what.

[dygaction]

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

Come on dude, it's a 46:1 assist-to-TO ratio. That's extremely impressive no matter what.

Dude sounds like Skip on RealGM

[Michael Jackson]

He passed Magic on the assist list tonight!!!

Yeah but I read in this thread that CP3 only throws easy passes so he didn’t really pass Magic. In fact his passes are so easy any NBA player could have those numbers. I’ll never understand why a guy who makes passes that lead to scores should even be mentioned honestly. Stockton really just had to pass to Malone and any of us could do that.

[Dupp]

Goat ball handler doing goat ball handling ( and passing) things.

[UcanUwill]

Sounds like what a good floor general should do...

So he does his job?

so he makes the right passes and rarely forces things? Sounds like a good thing to me

1 TO in 5 games is obviously insane, but I know what he means, Reminds me of RUbio vs Calderon, Rubio always had way more turnovers, but his passing was far more creating, he would constantly turn dead possessions into something with his passing, where Calderon always had great ASI/TO ratio, but he was ass, because he would just pound the ball and make the simplest pass every single time, not creating anything. I am not saying Paul is like Calderon, just saying its not always a greatest thing, to have low TO to passing numbers.

[donato]

It's a fantastic ratio, but that's barely 9 per game. Good for sure, but very far from amazing quantity.

[turnaroundJ]

I didn't realize how much the Suns rely on him. I wonder what will happen to them in a few years when CP3 is done.

[og15]

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

That's a bad thing? Substance > Flash.

I've previously argued that because he never forces things, he's never been able to push his team that far in the playoffs.

The lack of risk taking, or lack of ability/will to force things means his value doesn't result in the sort of heights a LeBron, Kobe or [insert superstar contemporary] achieved and works as a sort of hard ceiling on what CP3 teams are capable of.

Though CP3 is probably cerebral enough to know this. He would IF he could, but he can't, so he won't.

I think his final few moments of game 7 against Houston when he had Covington switched into him on the perimeter but decided to pass it to Dort instead of breaking Covington down and finding a shot sorta encapsulates this.

It was actually SGA who passed to Dort in that game.

There is some truth here, but not sure why forcing playmaking would be good. Paul doesn't just make easy passes, he breaks down and shifts the defense, in our current age, there's even data to show this.

In terms of scoring, part of why CP also doesn't force it as much is that he's limited by his size when you compare him to LeBron and Kobe, he simply can't force it like them. He's even limited by his size compared to Curry and Lillard. It's a lot easier for LeBron and Kobe to force it, Paul on the other hand has to work harder than them to get his shots and to get up as many shots.

The other part is that Paul will many times not care to shoot if other guys on his team are making shots and they aren't losing. Many of these other guys are scorers, and they simply won't play whole halves just setting up, they have to get the scoring feel in too.

It's a lot tougher for Paul both size and stamina wise to carry heavy playmaking and scoring than it is for LeBron.

I'm not sure about the conclusion that it has prevented him from pushing his team far. I'd be interested in the specific series' that highlight this reality. I'm not really convinced this has made an appreciable difference in his playoff success. Generally injuries to him and/or key teammates and simply not having strong enough teams, or as strong as people think from a surface view has been his hindrance.

[og15]

I didn't realize how much the Suns rely on him. I wonder what will happen to them in a few years when CP3 is done.

They'll find other players?

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

This is not accurate by any means, but you'd also be surprised how not so easy some of these "easy" passes actually are. Some of these weakly guarded people are also not just randomly weakly guarded. Some of these passing angles don't just come out of nowhere.

[SlovenianDragon]

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

Read on Twitter

[BoatsNZones]

Not that impressive , he always makes easy passes. Nothing fancy, or slick, he's a boring passer that always passes to open or weakly guarder people in direct line of sight.

Sounds like a real scoundrel.

[slicedbread2]

He passed Magic on the assist list tonight!!!

Yeah but I read in this thread that CP3 only throws easy passes so he didn’t really pass Magic. In fact his passes are so easy any NBA player could have those numbers. I’ll never understand why a guy who makes passes that lead to scores should even be mentioned honestly. Stockton really just had to pass to Malone and any of us could do that.

Well to be fair to Stockton, who else was he gonna pass the ball to? Mark Eaton? When you think about it, it's incredible that the dude had the career he had with the mailman and is the all time leader in assists+steals. No doubt if Magic didn't get HIV I think he would've had the assist record on lock down. It didn't help that Stockton&Malone played in a less than desirable small market making it difficult to attract FA. They did get Jeff Hornacek even though he retired after 2000.

CP3 though if it weren't for injuries which have caused him to miss over 180 games during his career combined with rotten luck whether it was a broke owner in NOLA, two young, talented but immature dudes in Griffin+DJ in which Griffin was injured with CP3 a lot ruining potentially great seasons and an inept coach/GM in Doc or in Houston where injuries wrecked him in 2018, dealing with a cheapskate owner in Fertitta and Harden throwing a hissy fit that resulted in CP3 being sent to OKC. If it all came together maybe he would've had a ring by now but oh well.

It'll be fun to see how things unwind in the valley and whether he breaks through or not. Either way when it's all said and done he'll be #3 in assists, maybe #2 if he plays a few more years and #3 in steals if he keeps it up. He's #5 in steals behind Gary Payton.

[JN61]

Very good work. He just needs to get out of his shooting slump.

[Saberestar]

In the win on the road against the Bucks he put 22 points, 13 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 TOs.

He is amazing. I did not understand how good he really is until having him on the Suns and watch him every single game.

And he plays great defense, on the ball and off the ball, he is always in the right place at the right time and knows when to be agressive going for the steal or the charge.

[HeartBreakKid]

lol at CP3 making only easy passes. It's not easy at all to get guys point blank shots in the paint. What kind of logic is that?

[JN61]

He passed Magic on the assist list tonight!!!

Yeah but I read in this thread that CP3 only throws easy passes so he didn’t really pass Magic. In fact his passes are so easy any NBA player could have those numbers. I’ll never understand why a guy who makes passes that lead to scores should even be mentioned honestly. Stockton really just had to pass to Malone and any of us could do that.

Well to be fair to Stockton, who else was he gonna pass the ball to? Mark Eaton? When you think about it, it's incredible that the dude had the career he had with the mailman and is the all time leader in assists+steals. No doubt if Magic didn't get HIV I think he would've had the assist record on lock down. It didn't help that Stockton&Malone played in a less than desirable small market making it difficult to attract FA. They did get Jeff Hornacek even though he retired after 2000.

CP3 though if it weren't for injuries which have caused him to miss over 180 games during his career combined with rotten luck whether it was a broke owner in NOLA, two young, talented but immature dudes in Griffin+DJ in which Griffin was injured with CP3 a lot ruining potentially great seasons and an inept coach/GM in Doc or in Houston where injuries wrecked him in 2018, dealing with a cheapskate owner in Fertitta and Harden throwing a hissy fit that resulted in CP3 being sent to OKC. If it all came together maybe he would've had a ring by now but oh well.

It'll be fun to see how things unwind in the valley and whether he breaks through or not. Either way when it's all said and done he'll be #3 in assists, maybe #2 if he plays a few more years and #3 in steals if he keeps it up. He's #5 in steals behind Gary Payton.

To me it's highly unlikely Magic would have had in the end the passing record. Sure few years before Stockton catched him up but Stockton still would be the all time leader.

In 12 proper years Magic played on average ~73 games per season and in the last 5 years ~77 games per season. In the last 5 years (excluding his the very last season from these calculations) of career he averaged 944 assists per season, so I think it's safe to assume he would have averaged over 900 assists per season 3 more times or so, but after that his production would have dropped most likely down to on average ~800 for the next 3 years, netting him 37 year old and +/- 5100 extra assists.

He would sit around 15,000 assists at that point and Lakers for years being not so good. What motivation would Magic have to continue trying to push and keep on playing? Another 2 seasons and he would pass Stockton's current passing record. And mind you I gave Magic huge amount of assists and next to no injuries in this scenario. I think Stockton's passing record is next to unbeatable. Mind you Stockton regularly averaged more assists per game than Magic, while also playing more games. Only saving factor Magic has is he started younger so he had small lead age wise.



And about Chris Paul's rankings. It will be very interesting to see how many years he will play. He will for sure play 1 more season after this after which he is 37 year old by time the season ends. I think it's safe to assume he will take another 2-3 years of contract since he is still playing on very high level. 3 more years would be enough to pass Kidd as 2nd all time on the passing list, if he stays healthy as 40 year old and that's career to me. Question is does he go bandwagon for a ring and does his production drop off significantly with reduced role.

What will follow will be very interesting as well. Lebron is <500 assists behind Paul while being good 120 days older than Paul. I think it's safe to say Lebron plays next year then takes 2 more years of contract with Lakers and then saves last year to see where he is at and possibly play against his son or with him. Maybe 2 but injuries are slowly catching on him and I don't see him playing as 41 year old.
However that would be 4 more years of Lebron and with some injury luck he would be pushing very close to 12000 assists as well. Probably enough juice to catch up Kidd but not enough for 2nd spot if Paul plays those years with good health and productivity.

And last we have Westbrook, who not only collected the most total assists on the last decade but when this season ends he has the most assists in the last 2 years out of 3 of these players. He is sitting almost at 7900 career assists and leading the league with 11 APG, something Paul haven't done for a decade. Westbrook has 4 more years to hit same age as Lebron and Paul (essentially), which would leave him very close to 10,000 assists by time he he as old as Paul is currently, even more if he continues to rack 10 apg and actually get full length seasons. At that point it's anyones guess where Westbrook is at in terms of productivity and does he have any over 8 apg/starter seasons in him. Does he have 4 more seasons in him to play to his 40s or not?

After that there is nobody playing currently in NBA who I see coming close to these 3 active players in career assists, other players are too fragile or scoring focused. Considering injury history of Paul, it's really remarkable that he has managed to stay so productive for so long. He is also in my opinion without a doubt the most secure point guard in terms of handling the ball and not turning it over. You won't ever see risky passes or overly high APG numbers but you know you going to get that solid production. He is the ultimate floor general in that regard.

[Dupp]

some real debbie downers itt

[Phreak50]

I've never liked him but have so much respect for how he has gone about his business these last couple years.

Most other high profile players would have sat out or sulked when traded to OKC, yet Paul dug in, toughed it out and showed great leadership.

He's doing the same in Phoenix, another team many ageing stars would have threatened to not play for.

Despite his contract, he could have forced his way to a loaded team, but to his credit he did the opposite.

[Mavrelous]

He should be in the conversation for MVP with Joker and Embiid.

[SnoopDub]

He passed Magic on the assist list tonight!!!

Damn right. Looks like he will be taking over Mark Jackson and Nash. Dont think he will pass Kidd tho.

I hope he will be the first to reach the 20k pt, 10k assist club.