Paul led the league in steals per game six times in seven seasons between 20, and yet in all but one of those years, he had a DBPM of at least 2.0 (he was at 1.6 in a 2009 season in which he played in only 45 games.) League stats from the aughts are littered with guys who got a ton of steals but weren’t actually great or even particularly good defenders they’d gamble for steals, fail to come up with the ball, and watch as their man drove to the basket or splashed a wide-open shot, the hoop equivalent of an NFL defensive back jumping the passing lane, not getting the interception, and having to turn and watch his man take the ball to the house. Stretching the AST% list out to the top 12, the list includes Stockton (7 times in 7 consecutive seasons from 1989 to 1995), Paul (twice), Steve Nash (twice), and Westbrook (once.)ĬP3 also has another talent that was rare for a player during the tail end of the NBA’s Dark Ages. John Stockton did it three times, and Russell Westbrook did it during his insane 2016-17 season that broke advanced stats. Only two players in NBA history have put up a higher AST% than that. That is, frankly, insane in today’s NBA, and it speaks to just how good CP3 is that he can collapse a defense, making it easier for his teammates to make those longer shots.Īlso, when Paul was with New Orleans, he put up a 54.5 assist rate in 2008-09. Once again: Chris Paul is so good at 2-point shots that he justifies taking them instead of threes. It takes fewer possessions to “break even” when the variance in a shot’s effectiveness is lower lower risk, but slightly lower reward is an entirely valid way to play basketball. 548 eFG%) was better than even that stellar, almost Jordan-like touch from midrange, showing once again what a terrible shot the midrange jumper is that even the best guy in the league at shooting them was still more efficient shooting barely league-average beyond the arc, but at the same time, for nearly the same average points per shot, CP3 hit half of his 2-point shots rather than just over a third of his 3-point shots. Granted, his 36.5 percent 3-point shooting (a. In Oklahoma City in 2019-20, Paul hit 55.4 percent of his 2-point shots, including over half of his shots between 3 feet and the arc, a rate of efficiency he kept up from all three midrange zones on the floor. He also has a better touch from the midrange than anyone in today’s NBA should even practice trying to approach he’s hit 48.5 percent between 3 and 10 feet, 48.1 percent between 10 and 16, and 46.8 percent of two-point shots beyond 16 feet. Let me just plant that idea in your head so it can be allowed to cook for awhile and be ready to come out of the oven in time for the stat drop.Ĭhris Paul is a career 47.1 percent shooter who has made 37 percent of his 3-point shots. Oh yeah, about that whole playoffs thing? Spoiler alert: Any narrative you may have in your head about Chris Paul, Playoff Choker is about to be blasted out of the solar system by the time this article’s done. Had Houston won that game, CP3 may have at last gotten his ring against an atrocious Cavaliers team that by rights should’ve lost to the Pacers in the first round that year. Indeed, the only reason more people don’t recognize Paul’s legacy is because he spent the vast majority of his career on teams that never went anywhere in the playoffs-the only time he’s even been as far as the conference finals was on the ill-fated 2018 Houston Rockets who missed 27 straight 3-pointers in a do-or-die Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals. In terms of advanced stats, Chris Paul is not only a top-5 or top-10 all-time player, he outclasses Magic himself. And for VORP/2500MP, the four guys ahead of him are Bron, Jordan, Charles Barkley, and David Robinson. He’s got a higher career WS/48 than LeBron. He ranks ahead of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in BPM. The weird thing, though, was that while combing through the data, one name kept coming up as one of the top ten if not top-five guys of all time, and it wasn’t who you’d expect.Ĭhris Paul is fourth all-time in Win Shares per 48 minutes, fifth in Box Plus-Minus, 10th in Value Over Replacement Player, and fifth in VORP per 2500 minutes played. Michael Jordan argument, as any good GOAT discussion ought to. Way back when I was writing my “Which Advanced Stats Make the Best GOAT Lists?” article in April of 2019, most of the results produced some version of the LeBron James vs.
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