Chris Paul: Best Floor Raiser of the Past 20 Years in the NBA

CP3 Earlier in his career with the Hornets (Garett Ellwood/NBA/Getty images)

As Chris Paul gets closer to 20k points and 10k assists - a milestone no other player in NBA history has reached, I am once again reminded by the lack of talent that has surrounded Paul throughout his career.

Through 10,004 total career assists, the list of players that have been on the receiving end of these doesn’t exactly make me swoon. In the top five, we have Blake Griffin, David West, JJ Reddick, DeAndre Jordan and Peja Stojakovic. These men, while talented, have COMBINED for only 12 total All-Star games. Compare that to Paul’s 11 career appearances, and it’s easy to see Paul has never had the best long-term help. 

While Paul has played with James Harden, a previous MVP, it was only for 2 seasons. Along with the limited time playing together, both players had play styles that were not complementary to each other.

But, as Paul’s career has gone on, he has proven his ability to be a leader, to consistently buy into a coach’s system, and to raise the floor of his team year in and year out better than anyone in the NBA in the past 20 years.

So where did this begin?

 After being drafted 4th overall in the 2005 NBA draft out of Wake Forest by the then New Orleans Hornets. Paul made his presence known on this team by averaging 16 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Very impressive stats for a six-foot point guard in a league that had been dominated by size to this point. He went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year, his only competition being Deron Williams, who would receive only one first-place vote. Paul showed his floor-raising potential that season, as the Hornets improved their win total by 18 wins from the previous season, finishing at 39 wins. 

His second season looked similar to his rookie season, besides the fact that he missed nearly 20 games. He averaged 17 points, almost 9 assists, 4 rebounds and almost 2 steals a game. The Hornets had their win total decrease by one, but the best was yet to come as Paul continued to lay the groundwork for his floor-raising ability.

In his third season, Paul exploded statistically, as he went on to average 21 points, 12 assists and nearly 3 steals a game. The last two would be lead leading averages on the year. His team went on to win 56 games because of Paul’s explosive season. The season eventually ended in heartbreak against the San Antonio Spurs in a back-and-forth seven-game series.

CP3 with teammate DeAndre Jordan on the Clippers. (Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Paul continued to play at this level and in his remaining time in New Orleans, he would only miss the playoffs once more in the next 3 seasons before being dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers in one of the most controversial trades in NBA history.

From this point on, Paul would never miss the playoffs, that streak continues to this very day, and barring a catastrophic collapse by his current team, the Phoenix Suns, he will carry it into next season. This is a feat that not even LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant can boast.

Following the trade to the Los Angeles Clippers, Paul immediately earned another All-Star nod along with teammate Blake Griffin. His presence helped improve the record of the Clippers to 40 wins in a lockout-shortened season in which only 66 games were played. They won their first playoff series since 2006 and their second playoff series win since 1976- when they existed as the Buffalo Braves.

Paul spent 6 seasons in Los Angeles heading to the playoffs every single year. He led the Clippers to 50 wins per season in each of the seasons following his first year (again, shortened by the lockout). He threw lob passes to Griffin and Jordan throughout his time here and if not for injuries both for Paul and Griffin, the likelihood of a championship in that part of Los Angeles would’ve gone up exponentially, but sadly, the team fell short each season.

Paul and Harden never seemed to gel enough to get over the hump and win a championship. (Cary Edmonson/USA TODAY Sports)

Following his time in Los Angeles Paul was dealt to the Houston Rockets to be paired with James Harden in their pursuit of a championship. While he wouldn’t put up the same numbers or be selected for an All-Star game. The two years he spent in Houston were the closest he has come to winning a championship in his career. His leadership and style of play didn’t mesh well with MVP James Harden. Paul’s play helped the Rockets push the Golden State Warriors to 7 games. This is even more impressive when one remembers that the Rockets missed what felt like 500 3 pointers during the deciding game, as well as the fact that Paul missed time due to a hamstring injury during the series.

The season ended in similar fashion with the Rockets falling to the Warriors, in six games this time. Though they didn’t win the same amount of games, they still provided a formidable challenge for the then NBA champions. This season would feel similarly disappointing due to the absence of Kevin Durant from the Warriors that appeared to pave an easier route for the Rockets, yet they still fell.

After this disappointing end, the Rockets felt that Paul’s time playing at a high level was over and they dealt him to the Oklahoma City Thunder in what was seen as a salary dump in exchange for Russell Westbrook and four first-round picks attached to Paul to push the trade through.

This trade caught Paul by surprise, but he was OK with playing in OKC because he just loves playing basketball. On a roster that was a far cry from the one in Houston, or the roster that had been in OKC for many years, many pundits tagged OKC as a team that would surely bottom out as there was only Paul surrounded by young players such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley.

Chris Paul spent 2019-2020 with the Oklahoma City Thunder. (USA TODAY Sports)

Paul truly put together his floor-raising ability on display with OKC and the younger players around him, as they went on to exceed expectations and win 44 games en route to claiming a five seed in the Western Conference amid a shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this younger team, Paul faced familiar faces from his old team, the Rockets. They pushed the Rockets to a seven-game series that came down to a wild final minute that ended with a blocked shot on Dort by Harden. 

The disappointing end to the fun OKC run then led general manager Sam Presti to deal Paul to the Phoenix Suns in pursuit of a true rebuild of his team that he desired since Kevin Durant departed following the 2016 season.

Chris Paul arrived on a Suns team that had not made the playoffs since 2010 when they still had Steve Nash. Young players Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson had never won more than 34 games in their time together. 

This season, Paul’s first with the club, he has AGAIN shown his talent as a floor raiser, leading the team to 29 current wins and placing them at second in the Western Conference. He has taken the pressure off of these young players while showing them the correct way to handle themselves and their bodies in order to win.

CP3 leading the young Suns team to a current 2nd seed in the crowded Western Conference. (NBA Getty Images )

Paul carries with him a winning mentality and a culture of winning that is infectious for his teammates. Wherever Paul has gone, he has been put in a situation where the franchise has needed a shot in the arm, and Paul has provided. Whether being marooned in OKC, asked to elevate Houston to championship contention, or to make franchise history in Clipper-land, he has answered the bell.