Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

Last Word on Pro Basketball’s Top 30 NBA Players: Chris Paul

Top 30 NBA Players - #22, Chris Paul

Last Word on Basketball has taken the difficult task of ranking the top 30 NBA players in the world right now. There were many candidates for the top 30 NBA players and many noticeable names did not make the list. One player who made this list was Chris Paul, a point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Top 30 NBA Players

Number 22 – Chris Paul

Paul was selected fourth by the New Orleans Hornets (now the New Orleans Pelicans) in the 2005 NBA Draft. He came into the NBA with high numbers. Paul led all rookies in points, assists, steals, and double-doubles.

He also became only the second rookie to lead the league in total steals. Paul led the team with the second-best record in the NBA Western Conference in the 2007-08 NBA season. In the following season, the 2008-09 NBA season, Paul averaged 22.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 11 assists, and 2.8 steals per game.

However, after a slow start in the 2009-10 NBA season, Byron Scott was fired by the Hornets according to NBA.com. Paul was not happy with this according to the Associated Press. It would then go downhill for both parties. Paul had several injuries and the Hornets ownership group was worried about losing Paul to free agency.

They traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers where he would team up with Blake Griffin. Unfortunately, neither Paul nor Griffin could take the Clippers past the NBA Western Conference Semifinals.

However, Paul was able to accomplish this feat in the 2017-18 NBA season. The Houston Rockets had a 65-17 record. They made it to the NBA Western Conference Finals and were one game away from the NBA Finals.

However, in-game five of the NBA Western Conference Finals, Paul suffered a hamstring strain. The Rockets would lose game six and seven and be eliminated by eventual NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors.

He is now with the Thunder, where he currently averages 17.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game.

Strengths

Chris Paul is a great passer, defender, and rebounder. He is also a fantastic free throw shooter, shooting 90 percent this year. Paul is also a particularly good rebounder for a point guard, averaging 4.9 rebounds per game in the 2019-20 NBA season.

Furthermore, Paul is also known for his defense. For example, in the 2019-20 NBA season, he averaged 1.6 steals per game. Also, he is a decent shooter as he is hitting 36.2 percent from three-point range and 48.9 percent in field goal percentage.

He is an incredible two-way player that can play defense and score points, assist, rebound, and steal. There are very few players in the NBA that can do that as Paul has done throughout his career.

However, one of his most extraordinary strengths is his leadership. Legendary San Antonio Spurs head coach and five-time NBA champion Greg Popovich said this about Paul according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman:

“If a young player can understand what Chris Paul can give them, then it’s a huge boon to his career,” Popovich said. “Chris is an alpha. He’s a natural leader. He takes no prisoners. He suffers no fools. He’s there to win.”

Current Thunders head coach Billy Donovan also had good things to say about Paul.

 

Part of Paul’s leadership is his extremely competitive nature. The NBA players also appreciate him and re-elected Paul as the President of NBA’s Players Association according to Alec Nathan of Bleacher Report. This shows that many NBA players respect and trust Paul’s leadership qualities to represent the needs of NBA players.

Lastly, Paul is known to be one of the greatest-two-way players the NBA has ever seen. According to ESPN, Paul is ninth in Real Plus-Minus ratings in the NBA’s 2019-20 season.

Weaknesses

Paul has a few weaknesses including his age. Paul is 34 years old, and his stats are dropping steadily. His best season was the 2008-09 season with the Pelicans, where Paul averaged 22.8 points, 11 assists, and 2.7 steals per game.

This was the most points and assists Paul averaged in his career. However, since the 2015-16 NBA season, his stats began taking a gradual but steady drop.

Since the 2015-16 NBA season, his points, assists, rebounds, and steals have steadily gone down. As a result, from 2017-19, Paul failed to make the NBA All-Star Game. This decline can even be seen in the 2019-20 NBA season, where he made the NBA All-Star Game.

In the 2019-20 NBA season, he is averaging 17.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.8 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. His points per game did increase from 15.6 last season.

However, it is still lower than the 19.5 points per game he averaged in the 2015-16 NBA season. Moreover, his assists and steals per game decreased in the 2019-20 NBA season compared to the previous season. His 8.2 assists became 6.8 assists per game and his steals went from 2.0 to 1.6 per game.

Furthermore, he only averaged over 20 points per game two times in his career. This is especially true when compared to other players in the LWOB list who can average more than 20 points per game. Lastly, he had trouble getting past the NBA Western Conference semifinals with the Clippers. An obstacle he overcame when he went to the Rockets. However, he still does not have an NBA title or made it to the NBA Finals.

Career Accolades

Paul has a lot of career accolades and is deserving to be ranked in the top 30 current NBA players.

For example, Paul is a six-time NBA steals leader, four-time NBA assists leader, seven-time NBA All-Defensive First Team, and two-time NBA All-Defensive Second Team. He is also a 10-time NBA All-Star including making the 2020 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago. Paul won the NBA All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player award in 2013 with 20 points and 15 assists.

He also made the All-NBA First Team four times, Second Team three times, and finally All-NBA Third Team one time in 2011. In fact, Paul came into the league in the 2005-06 NBA season as one of the best players in the league according to NBA.com.

He led all rookies in points, assists, steals, and double-doubles. Amazingly, he was also only the second player in the NBA to lead the league in steals in his rookie season. As a result, Paul was awarded the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2006. He also made the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2006.

As a result of all his accomplishments, Paul is one of only three active players (the other players are Kevin Durant and LeBron James) to be given a 100 percent chance to be in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame according to Basketball-Reference.

Last Word on Pro Basketball Top 30 NBA Players Ballots

We believe in full transparency in the top 30 NBA player rankings so we are going to disclose the ballots of our player rankings and where each contributor had each player ranked.

Tyler Marling – Site Manager – 19th
Chase Gage – Managing Editor – 22nd
David Knight – Marketing Manager – 25th
Zack Kircher – Associate Editor – 22nd
Matthew Waldman – Associate Editor – NR
David Ward – Author – 26th
Avinash Chauhan – Contributor – 28th
Adam Zigner – Contributor – 19th
Albert Dadson – Contributor – 22nd
Dylan Guest – Contributor – 28th
Raheem Bashir – Contributor – 11th
Nathan Levine – Contributor – 21st
Bill Huan – Contributor – 19th

Main Photo
Embed from Getty Images

Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir started blogging on a Gmail site called Blogger and has covered sporting events in rugby union/league and soccer. Since then he has become the Last Word on Sports writer for rugby, soccer, and previously basketball. He is also a member of the North American Soccer Reporters and The Rugby Union Writers’ Club. Raheem graduated from George Brown College with a Digital Media Marketing Post-Grad Certificate in 2019. From the same college, Raheem also did a post-grad certificate in Sport and Event Marketing in 2017. Lastly, he did an undergrad Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 2016.

Share:

More Posts