When healthy, New Orleans’ stand-out point guard Chris Paul is arguably the NBA’s best floor general. While some may argue that Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Deron Williams, or even Tony Parker are on par with Paul, I contend that CP3 belongs on the top of the heap when it comes to the Association’s best dime droppers.
He has the perfect combination of handles, court vision, scoring ability, late game heroics, in addition to annually ranking in the Top 5 in steals. Sure Rondo and Parker are a half a step quicker, Rose is a better scorer and is more athletic, and Williams is a bit more physical but pound for pound Paul has to rank out on top.
This season, CP3 is having a bounce-back year after a disastrous, injury filled campaign last season. His outstanding all-around play(16.4 ppg, 9.7 ast, 4 reb, 2.6 stl, .462 3PT%) had helped the Hornets rattle off 10 consecutive wins before their current 2 game slide and has him near the top of everyone’s 2010 NBA MVP Rankings. Paul is the unquestioned straw that stirs the Hornets drink and it’s no coincidence that with Chris’ return to dominance falls in line with the Hornets resurgence towards the top of the Western Conference standings.
In a recent game against the team with the NBA’s best record, the San Antonio Spurs, Paul was engaged with one of the better individual point guard match-ups with Tony Parker. Although the epic match-up never really materialized as we had hoped with Paul chipping in a pedestrian 11 points, 6 dimes, and 6 rebounds to Parkers 10 points and zero assists , the Hornets routed the Spurs 96-72.
Never was Paul’s amazing handles on display more than during the last 2+ minutes of the first half with the game’s outcome still hanging in the balance when CP3 decided to absolutely shred the former Mr. Longoria’s ankles and drain an uncontested 20 footer……….
I could hear the snap of his ankles from here.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
