Who Doesn’t Love Chris Paul?
Surely We All Do Now
Seriously how can you not? OK maybe if you’re a fan of a Wake Forest or New Orleans rival you may have a pardon, but for everyone else a love of basketball should involve some sort of affection for the Team USA point-guard.
Perhaps today is not the best time to put forth this view, Paul didn’t have a stellar game last night in a loss to the Blazers, but it’s something that needs to be said. This is the little-man’s fourth year in the League and even still he looks to be developing his game further in order to force his way up everybody’s player rankings. The most pressing fact of his play thus far this season is that he looks to have added greater rebounding ability to his already outstanding all-round play. Grabbing almost six rebounds per game, up almost two on last year, is not an easy feat for a point guard (Jason Kidd aside). Combining that with the 20 points, 11.6 assists and 2.8 steals that he averages a game and you have a player that other team’s can only look on at and admire.
Individual averages aside and the thing that makes the player even more special is that he makes those around him better. This is what an elite point-guard is supposed to do. Steve Nash does it, Jason Kidd does it. But what separates Paul from these other two established ball-handlers is that they are doing it while being surrounded by an abundance of talent. Paul is doing it with guys that would be role players on most other franchises. At power-forward the Hornets have David West, the Suns have Amare Stoudemire and the Mavericks have Dirk Nowitzki. Paul’s inside force ranks third there but he’s still able to put up close to 20 points per game because of what his running buddy can do.
It is often a thing that is overlooked, the ability to not only perform to a high standard personally, but also to make those around you better. In the culture of me first it is often the case that a player’s first thought is “How can I score?” rather than “How can we score?”. Paul is refreshing with his team mentality. After all it does not matter if you score 30 points a night if come the final buzzer the opposition have one point more than your team. Some need to go back and look at their approach to the game, but in doing so they will be even further behind the ex-Wake Forest player. For that reason Chris Paul is the point-guard every team would love to have.
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