Peak Chris Paul vs Peak Steve Nash

[LakerLegend]

Who's better?

[mademan]

Peak Chris Paul had arguably the best season of all time from the PG position. Only Magic can rival 08 Paul.

[mademan]

Peak Chris Paul had arguably the best season of all time from the PG position. Only Magic can rival 08 Paul.

[C-izMe]

Easy Paul. Best peak next to Magic for PG and maybe top ten ever. 22/5/12/3 with only 2.5topg on one of the slowest paced teams ever is beyond words.

[bigpoppa]

08 CP3 shoulda won MVP. It eventually became a lifetime achievement award for Bean Bryant.

[Rapcity_11]

Easy Paul. Best peak next to Magic for PG and maybe top ten ever. 22/5/12/3 with only 2.5topg on one of the slowest paced teams ever is beyond words.

The slow pace benefited Paul. He also likes to play at a slow pace. EVERYTHING ran through Paul that season. I highly doubt a quicker pace would have any impact on his scoring or assist numbers.

[WestSideChamp]

Chris Paul easily

[C-izMe]

Easy Paul. Best peak next to Magic for PG and maybe top ten ever. 22/5/12/3 with only 2.5topg on one of the slowest paced teams ever is beyond words.

The slow pace benefited Paul. He also likes to play at a slow pace. EVERYTHING ran through Paul that season. I highly doubt a quicker pace would have any impact on his scoring or assist numbers.

I can see him averaging 23/5/13/3 with higher turnovers and lower ts%. Still better than anything Nash managed

[SydneyDean726]

Paul easily.

Nash is one of the more overrated players in history.

[thamadkant]

Paul was more productive

But

Nash was no push over, I can guarantee if they faced each other I'm a playoff situation at their peaks Nash would have bigger game. Paul will get his 30-15, but Nash will have his 20-20 and even a 40-10 if they cut out his passing lane.

With that said Paul was more talented but Nash had better basketball skills (shooting, circus shots inside etc). I don't think Paul is a 15ppg 11apg in his late 30s as Nash was last season and this season.

But peak wise, Paul by a small margin.

[G35]

Easy Paul. Best peak next to Magic for PG and maybe top ten ever. 22/5/12/3 with only 2.5topg on one of the slowest paced teams ever is beyond words.

The slow pace benefited Paul. He also likes to play at a slow pace. EVERYTHING ran through Paul that season. I highly doubt a quicker pace would have any impact on his scoring or assist numbers.

Lol at that....he was being properly used.....

[Rapcity_11]

Easy Paul. Best peak next to Magic for PG and maybe top ten ever. 22/5/12/3 with only 2.5topg on one of the slowest paced teams ever is beyond words.

The slow pace benefited Paul. He also likes to play at a slow pace. EVERYTHING ran through Paul that season. I highly doubt a quicker pace would have any impact on his scoring or assist numbers.

Lol at that....he was being properly used.....

What's funny?

[gaoxinzhen]

Paul was more productive

But

Nash was no push over, I can guarantee if they faced each other I'm a playoff situation at their peaks Nash would have bigger game. Paul will get his 30-15, but Nash will have his 20-20 and even a 40-10 if they cut out his passing lane.

With that said Paul was more talented but Nash had better basketball skills (shooting, circus shots inside etc). I don't think Paul is a 15ppg 11apg in his late 30s as Nash was last season and this season.

But peak wise, Paul by a small margin.

My line up is very similar to the OP except that I have Howard + Milsap front court instead of Gortat + Aldridge + Milsap rotation. I have Durant instead of Lebron as SF because Lebron is not as good a 3pt shooter as Durant. The bench composes mostly of veterans with min wage. T-Mac and B-Diddy will be the facilitators off the bench. Kapono and West provide some outside shooting. Blair and Mahinmi will provide good defensive present for the bench

[therealbig3]

I lean towards Nash, because I think he was better offensively.

But Paul's defense makes it close. And before people jump on me for that (the "but I thought you said PG defense doesn't matter!" crowd), defense from PGs should be used as a tiebreaker really, when the offense is pretty close, which in this case it is. But I'd still take Nash, I think his advantages are bigger.

[RandomKnight]

Chris Paul had a top three all time point guard peak.

But Steve Nash is the all time best point guard by a healthy margin.

A tougher question would be between peak Magic and peak Paul. At least there is an argument there.

Nash is in a class by himself and is the highest impact player ever - for any position. It is a quantifiable fact. If people were capable of processing the available data they would know this.

It's fine with me that everyone parrots the popular school of thought. I've learned to control my expectations regarding people's objectivity and rationality - to maintain my peace and sanity. Even so, there are a handful of guys on this board that should realize it. Some even come close to saying it.

That's the nice thing about the truth... it's what is. And the fact that people's minds rarely correspond to it well, doesn't change it.

Just venting.

[Hemskyfanboy83]

Nash for me.

Paul had huge individual #'s in 07/08, but it didn't translate into a great offensive team. New Orleans ranked 9th in PTS/G and 8th in FG%.

Nash led teams were pretty much a lock to finish 1st in both those categories regardless of who he was playing with (ie the year Amare missed the whole season and the Suns still killed it offensively).

[BattleTested]

Chris Paul had a top three all time point guard peak.

But Steve Nash is the all time best point guard by a healthy margin.

A tougher question would be between peak Magic and peak Paul. At least there is an argument there.

Nash is in a class by himself and is the highest impact player ever - for any position. It is a quantifiable fact. If people were capable of processing the available data they would know this.

It's fine with me that everyone parrots the popular school of thought. I've learned to control my expectations regarding people's objectivity and rationality - to maintain my peace and sanity. Even so, there are a handful of guys on this board that should realize it. Some even come close to saying it.

That's the nice thing about the truth... it's what is. And the fact that people's minds rarely correspond to it well, doesn't change it.

Just venting.

In what world is Nash better than Magic Johnson? I'm curious to see the facts for that one. And no I don't think Magic is better because he has 5 rings and Nash has none. That's one of the examples of him being better but it is not the reason.

[Regulio]

lmao at Nash being better than Magic...

[RandomKnight]

Chris Paul had a top three all time point guard peak.

But Steve Nash is the all time best point guard by a healthy margin.

A tougher question would be between peak Magic and peak Paul. At least there is an argument there.

Nash is in a class by himself and is the highest impact player ever - for any position. It is a quantifiable fact. If people were capable of processing the available data they would know this.

It's fine with me that everyone parrots the popular school of thought. I've learned to control my expectations regarding people's objectivity and rationality - to maintain my peace and sanity. Even so, there are a handful of guys on this board that should realize it. Some even come close to saying it.

That's the nice thing about the truth... it's what is. And the fact that people's minds rarely correspond to it well, doesn't change it.

Just venting.

In what world is Nash better than Magic Johnson? I'm curious to see the facts for that one. And no I don't think Magic is better because he has 5 rings and Nash has none. That's one of the examples of him being better but it is not the reason.

Interestingly enough, I do value rings very highly in both goat and impact player rating. But there are several things about Nash that simply override that shortcomming in his resume. (If you are speaking of GOAT ranking Magic blows Nash away. But that is resume driven to a large extent. But in pure, on court impact, Nash blows Magic away.)

Nash impacts team offense to a degree that Magic just doesn't compare.

There are plenty of stats in other Nash threads or on stat sights for you to look it up your self. Perhaps the most telling stat is that Nash has run more of the top twenty offenses than the next five best players combined. No one comes close. And he did it with drastically different rosters.

Magic had the luxury of perhaps the best roster ever - including Kareem. (This has a lot to do with both his box score type stats and his ring count.) He still did not consistently run as potent an offense as Nash did with scrubs. Breaking down what Nash does on the court (along with some of the quantifiable reasons he is able to do it) is just mind blowing. APM and other advanced stats are helpful to an extent as well.

I'm not going to list the stats for you. But I will say this. Nash is the most extreme outlier in terms of quantifiable impact by any athlete in the history of team sport.

And by the way, I am not some huge Nash fan. That's not my deal. I don't even have the patience or interest to sit through a whole game. Nor am I a stat geek. I do stuff like formulate fundamental theorems for fun. This is just mind candy for me.

[baseline33]

Paul easily.

Nash is one of the more overrated players in history.

+1