5 rebuttals to use on your friends with bad Chris Paul takes

Stop listening to your friends about Chris Paul. He’s one of the greatest point guards ever.

Chris Paul exits early in the playoffs again. This time, he loses in the first round. For his entire career, Paul has yet to play in a Conference Finals game. Is it his fault? Maybe a little. But at the end of the day, basketball is a team sport, and Paul cannot carry the burden of the random failures of his teammates and his team’s management. Here are arguments you can use on your knuckle-headed friends arguing that he “he’s not a winner.”

5. His individual numbers are impeccable

Here we go. Paul has seen the playoffs in nine of his 12 seasons, and every season that he has played with the Los Angeles Clippers. In his 76 playoff appearances, Paul has averaged 21.4 points, 9.4 assists, 2.2 steals, and 4.7 rebounds per game with only 2.7 turnovers. He has shot 48 percent from the field, 38 percent on 3-pointers, and 85 percent from the charity stripe. If you look at the advanced stats, Paul has averaged a 25.8 PER in the playoffs with a 46 assist percentage and +8.5 Box Plus-Minus (an estimate that he’s worth 8.5 more points per 100 possessions than an average point guard guard).

As a comparison, Russell Westbrook, with seven playoff appearances, has averaged 25/8/6 with 42/29/84 shooting percentages and almost four turnovers per game. His PER is 23.9 with a 40%= percent assist percentage and a 7.2 BPM. Not a good comparison? Steven Nash went to twelve playoffs, averaging 17/9/4 with 3.2 turnovers on 47/41/90 shooting. His advanced numbers were 19.8 PER and a 2.5 BPM.

By any metric Paul has been great in the playoffs. He consistently puts the team on his shoulders when necessary, and he does that without Westbrooking (that’s a new verb), and without doing a lot of ISO ball. He can take over a game by being a facilitator. Looking back on his overall body of work will be more impressive as time continues.