Chris Paul Is Showing The Entire World Why He's The Point God
Bart Young. Getty Images.I'm sorry if you think we're getting too many Suns blogs right now but at the same time I don't really care. Suns stoolies deserve this moment in the spotlight. We can't have enough Suns blogs as far as I'm concerned. Whether it's about how they play, Deande Ayton going nuts with fans after a sweep, or what Chris Paul is currently doing on the basketball court, they deserve it all.
So let's talk for a second about Chris Paul. What a story.
Featured on Barstool
Watching Chris Paul play in this postseason has been basketball poetry. The way he carved up the Nuggets defense last night was about as flawless as you can possibly be on a basketball court. He did it his way too, killing the Nuggets through a billion midrange jumpers
Now at pretty much 100%, it really makes you think about that HOU/GS series from a few years ago. They win that shit and most likely the title if he never gets hurt. I think his postseason injury history is partly what makes this run so awesome. It finally looks like everything is breaking for Paul, and his play is a huge reason why. Just a couple years ago the narrative around CP3 was that he was a washed up point guard with the worst contract in the league. Turns out, he was never anywhere close to being washed, he was just hurt. Now healthy(ish), this is the best we've seen Paul play in a long time.
There's a reason he's the Point God. There's a reason professional trolls like Skip Bayless are saying he's not even a top 15 point guard all time just got the hate clicks/watching. Because he's that dude. While I don't think I'd go as high as what Michael Malone said last night
the point remains that Chris Paul is putting on a basketball clinic right now. From a leadership standpoint and a basketball production standpoint. What's been so awesome about Paul's run is how legit he's been during the game's biggest moments. Look at that fourth quarter tweet again. If you expand it to the fourth quarter in the entire playoffs, he's averaging 5.9 points on 61.8% shooting. The man has 87 assists and just 14 turnovers so far in his 10 postseason games (8-2). That assist number leads the entire playoff field. He's averaging 50/40/91 splits….at age 36. How about his on/off splits? This look decent to you?
What made his performance last night (and really all playoffs) so awesome to watch is when Paul knows you can't stop him from doing what he wants to do, he goes for the kill. It didn't matter what the Nuggets tried last night, the second Paul knew he could get to his spot and get into his midrange, it was over. These playoffs Paul is shooting 53.7% from the midrange on 5.4 attempts a game. This last series he shot an INSANE 64.7% on 8.5 attempts a game. Let me put this in perspective for you. Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant, two of the most automatic midrange shooters the league has are currently doing this in the 2nd round
Kawhi: 64.3% on 4.7 attempts
Durant: 50% on 9.5 attempts
That's pretty insane. Basically the same efficiency as Kawhi on almost double the volume, and a much better percentage than Durant despite not being 7ft.
The midrange game is not for everyone, but the select few that are this automatic when going to it have made it pretty clear it's a legit weapon. Chris Paul is one of those select few.
I'm looking forward to the next series because no matter who the Suns play, there won't be such a disparity on guard play like we saw in this second round series. What I am interested in seeing is Paul going up against that Gobert drop coverage. He's going to eat that shit alive in the P&R. If they were to face the Clippers, you're looking at the worst team in the league at defending the P&R ball handler. Something tells me Paul can feast against that too. The Nuggets ranked in the 100th percentile this season defending the P&R ball handler and look what happened.
We're just at the point with Paul where all you can really do is appreciate what we're watching. This shouldn't be happening with a 36 year old point guard who has played a total of 42,130 minutes in his career (including playoffs). But here he is, playing the best basketball of his life for a team that looks as good as any when it comes to a legit title run. If you can't enjoy that, well then you just have a giant dump in your pants.