After his last stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder, many thought Chris Paul’s career was starting to come to an end. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Suns ended last season with a perfect run in the bubble. However, that run was still not enough for this budding team to make a playoff appearance. It seemed like both Paul and the Suns had something to prove to the rest of the league.
To start this 2020-21 season, Chris Paul was traded to this budding Suns team. He adds veteran leadership and takes the pressure off young stud Devin Booker. It’s very similar to when the New Jersey Nets added veteran Jason Kidd to a very young team in the early 2000s and the Nets went to back-to-back Finals. This role is nothing new for Paul. He elevates every team he has played on throughout his career. He took a young Thunder team that was supposed to be in a “rebuild” and went to the playoffs as a fifth seed. With Phoenix, he made them one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
This is the first time the Suns have clinched a playoff spot in over a decade. The last time Phoenix reached the playoffs, Booker was still a teenager. On the night the team clinched a playoff spot Paul contributed 28 points, 25 of them coming in the second half. You can’t deny that impact. Does it get more clutch than that?
Phoenix head coach Monty Williams spoke to NBA.com about Paul,
“It speaks to the talent that he has, but it also speaks to the work and the experiences that he’s been in over the course of his long career. Our guys trust him. They just expect him to come through, and I’m happy with the results when he has the ball in his hands. When he and Book are closing out games, I can live with the results.”
Williams had previously coached Paul for one season in New Orleans.
Now they are title contenders, something that has alluded Paul his entire career. For once Paul should be recognized for his efforts. Injuries have hampered Paul, but he played in seventy games the last two seasons, both of which were shortened. When he arrived, the Suns were instantly seen as a viable threat. He is shooting better than his career averages and he doesn’t have to be the primary scorer on this team. However, he is still the most important player on the team and top ten in the league in steals, assists, free-throw percentage, and win shares.
The Case Against Chris Paul
There’s only one other player who has stayed healthy and competed at an elite level all season, Nikola Jocic. There’s no denying how well Jokic has played this season especially with the loss of PG Jamal Murray. He averaged almost 27 points a game, 11 rebounds, and shooting almost 40 percent from three. Paul has never put up flashy stat numbers. He has only averaged over twenty points per game when he was with the New Orleans Hornets, now Pelicans.
Other players including Steph Curry and Joel Embiid deserve honorable mention for their play this season. However, they missed significant portions of the season due to injury.
Without Paul, the Suns would likely still be in the playoffs. Booker is a top player in the league and he has continued to dazzle on the court. However, this is the first time in Booker’s career he’ll be in the postseason so maybe not. It seems like a long shot for Paul to actually take home the MVP award, but there is no question he does deserve high praise for everything he brings to Phoenix.
