Archive 75: Chris Paul

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A master of pick-and-roll execution, an elite shooter off the dribble and a pest of a defender. A leader, a winner and one of the most clutch players of the last 25 years.

Chris Paul is, simply, one of the best point guards in NBA history. And at the age of 36, he’s still going strong.

Paul ranks fifth all-time in steals and third all-time in assists, with countless highlights among all those dimes.

A native of North Carolina, Paul gained national attention in 2002 when he scored 61 points in a game for West Forsyth High School, honoring his grandfather, who had been killed days earlier at the age of 61. As a senior, he was a First Team All-American and was named Mr. Basketball for the state of North Carolina.

After two years at Wake Forest University, Paul was selected with the fourth pick in the 2005 Draft. He joined the New Orleans Hornets, and his potential was on full display at the 2005 NBA Summer League.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005, the Hornets played in Oklahoma City for Paul’s first two seasons in the league. He was the ninth rookie in NBA history to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists, and he led the Hornets to a 38-44 record, 20 more wins than they had the season prior. Paul won Rookie of the Year honors for the 2005-06 season, coming one vote shy of being a unanimous winner.

After another season in Oklahoma City, the Hornets returned to New Orleans, and they were one of the league’s most improved teams in 2007-08, winning 56 games and earning the 2 seed in the Western Conference. Paul was named an All-Star for the first time and earned First Team All-NBA honors in just his third season in the league.

He also got his first taste of the playoffs. The Hornets defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, and Paul capped the series with a triple-double in Game 5.

The Hornets reached the playoffs in three of the next four seasons, with the only exception being the season (2009-10) in which Paul played only 45 games. Then just before the 2011-12 season, Paul was traded to the LA Clippers, where he quickly turned the Clippers into contenders. The Clippers reached the playoffs in all six of Paul’s seasons in Los Angeles, having done so just seven times in their 41 seasons prior to that.

One of Paul’s greatest playoff performances came in Game 7 of the first round against the defending champion Spurs in 2015. He scored 27 points (on 9-for-13 shooting) and hit the game-winner — an off-balance runner off the glass — with one second remaining.

Paul has earned the nickname “Point God” from hoop heads who appreciate his handles, his passing and his ability to manipulate defenses. His career is filled with memorable moments where his dribbling skills were on full display.

He’s a hoop head himself, known to watch multiple games on nights he isn’t playing and have accounts for stats and video sites usually reserved for the coaching staff. He’s seen and knows how to beat every kind of pick-and-roll coverage and has become one of the best mid-range shooters of the last 25 years. He knows that if he can get to his spot (around the right elbow), then he doesn’t need to even look at the basket.

Paul is a talker, whether it be to motivate his teammates, to offer some advice, to rattle opponents or to demand the ball.

Paul has two Olympic gold medals, 11 All-Star selections, 10 All-NBA selections, and nine All-Defense selections. In 16 full seasons in the league, he’s reached the playoffs 13 times. But trips deep into the postseason eluded him until he reached the conference finals with the No. 1 seed Houston Rockets in 2018. And as the Rockets were finishing off a Game 5 victory to take a 3-2 series lead over the Warriors, Paul suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out of Games 6 and 7, both won by Golden State.

After another season in Houston and one in Oklahoma City (with the Thunder this time), Paul was traded to Phoenix before the 2020-21 season. And in Year 16, he led a team that missed the playoffs the year before all the way to The Finals.

“He’s the greatest leader to play this game,” Devin Booker said after Paul led the Suns to a Game 1 victory with 32 points and nine assists. “He leads this team daily, and just having him in the locker room … I’m not even talking about anything he does on the court … it takes a team to that next level.”

Indeed, in his rookie season, Paul led the Hornets to a 20-win increase. Upon his move to L.A., the Clippers went from 32-50 to 40-26. When he was traded to Houston, the Rockets won 10 more games than they did the season before. And in his first season in Phoenix, the Suns saw a jump of 17 wins.

And in Year 17, Paul remains one of the best floor generals in the league.

The Point God is still doing work.

Chris Paul, Devin Booker lead Suns past shorthanded Jazz

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PHOENIX — The Phoenix Suns do not want to get into the habit of needing heroics from Devin Booker and Chris Paul to win them basketball games. They especially do not want it to happen in matchups like Monday’s when the Utah Jazz are down six of their seven leaders in minutes played.

As they say, though, it was what it was and it still got the Suns a win.

The Jazz’s bottom-half of the roster played with terrific energy and confidence throughout the night, and it required the Suns to chase down the game in the fourth quarter to win 115-109.

Utah had a combination of some new injuries and a few nagging issues they decided to sit guys with.

Donovan Mitchell (concussion) and Rudy Gobert (calf) were already out and could miss more time. Mike Conley (right knee injury maintenance), Bojan Bogdanovic (left finger avulsion fracture), Joe Ingles (right ankle sprain) and Royce O’Neale (right knee tendonitis) were all downgraded or new additions to the injury report after each playing at least 29 minutes in Sunday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors.

For Conley and O’Neale, those are both knees they’ve already missed some time for this year, while Ingles appeared to pick up the ankle issue in San Francisco. Bogdanovic, Ingles and O’Neale were all listed as questionable pregame.

To be fair, the Suns (37-9) were missing Deandre Ayton (ankle), Jae Crowder (wrist) and Cam Payne (wrist) as well, along with the long-term guys out like Frank Kaminsky (knee), Abdel Nader (knee) and Dario Saric (knee). But they still had four of their top six players, including their two All-Stars, and the Jazz had only Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson from their primary core.

Booker scored all 33 of his points in the first three quarters to keep the offense completely out of mud, where 13 turnovers for 16 Jazz points were the extra push Utah got to be within one possession for most of the game.

It was not like the Suns participated in this game without any juice, but once it was clear the Jazz (30-18) were not going away, they couldn’t grasp a firm handle on it like they are so good at doing.

“We always call them trap games or a letdown. I didn’t feel like that was the case,” head coach Monty Williams said. “I thought we played hard. We just didn’t execute defensively.”

Utah had a great level of shotmaking throughout from names like Trent Forrest, Jared Butler and Danuel House Jr.

Given Clarkson was the one prominent Jazz player featured, Utah was the best bet to be carried by a solo scoring performance. Instead, that proved to be the Suns, as the Jazz ended the night with seven players in double figures and Clarkson as the high man with 22.

Once the Jazz had an 8-0 spurt in the late second quarter to get back within two points, the Suns’ lead would only get as high as five before the Jazz took it away from them to go up two entering the final frame.

That’s where Paul did the Point God thing, recording 15 of his 27 points and three of his 14 assists in the fourth quarter. Cam Johnson had 11 of his 20 points to provide that extra bit of scoring that wasn’t there for the Suns most of the night, and the Suns turned it over only once across those 12 minutes.

At a 91-86 deficit less than 90 seconds into the fourth quarter, the Suns went on a 15-4 run over less than four minutes in which Paul assisted or scored 13 of those points. That put Phoenix up six and even Clarkson hitting a trio of 3s late in the quarter didn’t get the Jazz close enough to make it a one-possession game again.

Phoenix is rarely one to run the have one guy dribble while 2-3 other guys aren’t moving offense, as they want everyone involved and moving, but that’s what they went to through Paul and Booker most of the second half.

Williams saw the Suns’ 28 assists as a bit misleading, saying that a fair amount of those were probably from possessions with one pass and a shot as opposed to the fluid ball movement we’ve come to expect from his squad.

An example of this is someone like Booker averaging just 4.4 assists per game this year, a statistic that does not come close to adequately portraying how much he sets up his teammates off hockey assists and keeps the offense flowing.

Both guys have had to play bigger minutes with Payne’s injury and Landry Shamet’s continued struggles. Paul hit 40 minutes for the second straight game and it was the third consecutive outing Booker reached 38.

“I feel good,” Paul said of the high minutes. “I’m cool. I’ll hoop again tomorrow if you want to.”

Booker quipped in immediately after that with a “vegan,” a bit of banter targeted at Paul’s diet that he’s had since 2019.

Booker shot 14-of-35, with the 35 attempts marking the second-highest number of his career, per Stathead. The top number, of course, is the 21-of-40 for 70 points in 2017. He was very much playing like a guy who wanted to get over a 5-for-23 showing in Saturday’s win against the Indiana Pacers and had 29 of those shots in the opening three quarters.

Booker’s shot quality was there with the high volume and his point total easily could have reached the 40s had a few gone down that normally do.

“I just got it going early and tried to stick with it,” Booker said. “And late, they weren’t falling. I liked a lot of the looks I got, I think three wide-open corner 3s that I missed short.”

Paul had seven turnovers, quite the uncharacteristic development. That was only the 10th time in his career out of 1,136 games he’s done that, according to Stathead. Do not expect to see it again anytime soon.

Speaking of uncharacteristic developments, third option Bismack Biyombo continued his scoring tear with 16 points, plus 13 rebounds. That’s the fourth game in nine appearances that Biyombo has reached 15 points since being signed earlier in the month. He only hit that scoring mark four times in his last two seasons with the Charlotte Hornets.

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Suns’ Chris Paul: Dishes 16 dimes Saturday

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Paul closed with 18 points (8-11 FG, 0-2 3Pt, 2-2 FT), four rebounds, 16 assists and four steals in 41 minutes during Saturday’s 113-103 win over the Pacers.

Paul was the only player on either side to finish with more than four assists, and he notched double-digit dimes for the third straight game. The spurt has helped him regain his spot atop the league leaderboard at 10.1 assists per contest, though James Harden (10.0) remains close behind. Paul also ranks second in the NBA with 2.0 steals per game and has racked up multiple thefts in five of his past six contests.

Devin Booker And Chris Paul’s Pregame Outfits

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The Phoenix Suns are in Texas to play the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, and before the game they shared clips of Chris Paul and Devin Booker’s pregame outfits.

Their pregame outfits can be seen in the tweets that are embedded below from the team.

The Suns come into the game as the best team in the NBA with a 34-9 record in 43 games and are the top seed in the Western Conference.

After making the NBA Finals last season, they appear to be a serious contender to win the NBA title this season led by Booker and Paul.

The Mavs come into the game with a 26-19 record in 45 games, and are the fifth seed in the Western Conference.

They lost in the first round of the playoffs last season.

Chris Paul NFL Draft 2022: Scouting Report for Tulsa IOL

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James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

HEIGHT: 6'4"

WEIGHT: 324

POSITIVES

— Solid contact balance and core strength to strain and steer defenders once latched inside.

— Does a nice job keeping his head out of blocks and defenders at his fingertips in the run game on angle-drive blocks, creating leverage and sustaining at a high level.

— Shows some craftiness with his hands and works under defenders who utilize the long-arm as rushers and in the run game, using an effective Hamilton technique to take away leverage.

— Is at his best in pass protection on jump sets when he’s the aggressor and can get his hands on rushers early.

— Stays light on his hands to reset and refit when his hands get knocked off of blocks.

NEGATIVES

— High cut frame and below-average lateral quickness that results in middling ability to redirect to cut-off defenders crossing his face.

— Plays with a soft edge at tackle with limited range to protect the corner against most speed-rushers attacking from wide rush angles.

— Has a habit of oversetting and opening his hips early when rushers use stutters and hesitations to set up their moves, opening the door for quick wins inside.

— Laborious movement up to the second level off of combo blocks. Vulnerable to quick-trigger backers scraping and getting around him.

2021 STATISTICS

10 starts at right tackle.

NOTES

— Former 2-star offensive tackle prospect out of Jersey Village High School in Houston, Texas.

— Team captain and president of his high school class in 2016.

— Graduated with his bachelor’s degree in computer information systems in 2021 and is working on his MBA.

— Has two brothers who are both playing football; one at Northeastern State and another at Houston.

— 38 career starts; 18 at right tackle, 12 at left guard, eight at right guard and saw time at left tackle.

Got rolled up on against Tulane in 2021 on play three, causing him to miss the rest of the season (three total games).

— Invited and accepted an invite to the 2022 Senior Bowl.

OVERALL

Paul is a four-year starter with 38 career starts spread across right tackle (18), left guard (12) and right guard (8), including playing time at left tackle. Paul has played in the same system for the entirety of his career in head coach Philip Montgomery’s spread, multiple run scheme. He has a high cut frame with good arm length, a broad waist and chest.

Paul is an adequate pass-protector at tackle who excels setting aggressively on rushers to initiate first meaningful contact so he can work his hands inside and eliminate space. Paul does a solid job staying light on his hands to reset and refit on defenders from there, and he has the discipline to keep his head out of blocks, his eyes up and a to maintain a flat back. He shows a nice Hamilton technique to defeat the long-arm and will work in a flash or bait technique to switch things up. Paul’s aggressive nature leads to oversetting rushers, and he lacks the lateral quickness to redirect quickly enough to cut off inside counters. He also struggles protecting his edge when rushers attack the corner from wide rush angles, showing marginal range on an island that will necessitate a move inside as a pro.

He excels as a run-blocker using size, solid balance and use of hands to create leverage and gain control at the point of attack on kick out blocks and wash down defensive tackles on down blocks. Paul doesn’t show much power on contact, but he keeps defenders at his fingertips with his length and understands how to maintain leverage, strain and fight to stay attached to blocks through the whistle.

Overall, Paul has marginal athletic ability for a tackle and is clearly a guard at the next level, with a good understanding of how to create and maintain leverage on blocks thanks to solid core strength, balance and crafty use of hands. His middling burst, quickness and power will likely make him a career backup, but he has proven versatility across the line to offer an O-line room that should give him a chance of sticking on a roster.

GRADE: 5.9 (Backup/draftable - 6th-7th round)

PRO COMPARISON: Larry Borom

Written by B/R NFL Scout Brandon Thorn