Chris Paul is playing the best basketball of his career
By Daniel Lewis
Chris Paul was one of the biggest names to change teams during the NBA offseason in a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Houston Rockets.
The veteran guard exercised his player option to stay with the Rockets, giving Houston one of the best players in the league to play in the backcourt alongside the MVP runner-up in James Harden. “I will have a Hall of Fame point guard on the floor at all times, I promise you that,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said during the offseason, verbalizing the plan to have elite guard play be the engine behind the team’s success during the 2017-18 season.
After 26 games, it seems like the plan is working for the Rockets, who have the best record in the NBA with at 22-4. Paul missed time at the beginning of the season with a knee injury, but has appeared in 12 games for the Rockets so far. While it’s still a relatively small sample size, Paul is having what could be argued is the best season of his career.
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The Rockets haven’t lost a single game Paul has played so far as they are 12-0 in those contests. The 12-year veteran is averaging the fewest minutes per game of his career, with D’Antoni able to stagger the All-Star guard on the court with Harden to keep both guards fresh down the stretch.
Despite his diminished minutes, Paul is still averaging 9.6 assists per game, according to NBA Stats. While he lead the league in assists per game during the 2007-08 season with 11.6 dimes per game, he’s averaging more assists per minute 10 years since achieving that feat. The Rockets have an offensive rating of 119.3 with Paul on the court this season, with a defensive rating of 103.4, a ridiculous difference sending opposing teams into a frenzy as they try to solve the Rockets’ dominance.
The Rockets seem like a perfect fit for the talented point guard. While the Rockets have bought into the Moreyball system of shooting 3-pointers and driving to the rim, Paul adds a new flavor to their offense by being able to operate in the mid-range, an area of the court where he is capable of eviscerating an opposing defense. Lose track of him after he navigates off a screen, and he’ll dash to the rim for an easy layup. If an extra defender falls for the bait of a hesitation dribble or a feint, he’ll flick an alley-oop to Clint Capela, who has thrived with another lob threat creating plays for him in the paint. If a defender shifts their focus from a shooter on the perimeter, Paul is able to flit the ball into the hands of Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Trevor Ariza or P.J. Tucker, all of whom are capable threats from the perimeter.
So far defenses don’t have a clue how to guard Paul when he’s on the court with Harden, Ariza, Anderson and Capela. That group has only played together for 116 minutes this season, but they’re averaging 121.1 points per 100 possessions. Swap in Mbah a Moute and Tucker for Ariza and Anderson, and the defense improves by 11.8 points per 100 possessions while the offense still operates at a high level.
Paul and Harden’s potency was on full display during the Rockets-Pelicans game on Monday, Dec. 11. In a game where the two teams combined for over 250 points, the duo finished with 46 points, 23 assists, 10 rebounds, nine steals and five turnovers. They carved up the Pelicans defense in the fourth quarter, helping their team outscore the road team by 14 to win the game by seven points. It’s only been 12 games, and Paul already looks like he’s been playing with this roster for half a decade.
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The more time Paul is able to spend on the court with his teammates, the more lethal they are going to become. Paul has only played 369 minutes this season, and has played a pace each season that easily would put him over 2,000 total minutes for a full season. The Rockets are able to pace him for the postseason, and it’s not too early to begin discussing if the Rockets are poised to return to the Western Conference Finals and perhaps compete against the Golden State Warriors in a seven-game series.