Paul's Play Proves How Tough He Is
Nov. 15 -- Chris Paul has been listening to the doubters for years now, the people who refused to be impressed with his Hall of Fame-worthy body of work because it doesn't include a championship or even a trip to the conference finals.
TNT's Charles Barkley has already crossed Paul and the Clippers off his list this season, declaring that there's no way they'll win a championship this year, doing so after the Clippers lost to the Heat in Miami last week.
"The Clippers are softer than tissue paper."
"They've got the toughness of a flea and the toughest guy on their team is 5-7 (Paul is actually 6 feet). They are soft and they're only going to go as far as Blake [Griffin] and DeAndre [Jordan] take them."
"The Clippers can't win a championship. I know that already after [six] games. They don't have a half-court game. Miami took the ball out of Chris Paul's hands and [the Clippers] had no idea how to get a basket."
With all due respect to The Chuckster, Paul is the main reason the Clippers do have a chance to chase a title this season. They've reeled off three straight wins since that Miami loss with victories over Minnesota, Houston and Oklahoma City, the latter two teams harboring legitimate championship dreams of their own this season.
Paul's work during this stretch is what fueled his rise up the Kia Race To The MVP Ladder this week, taking over the top spot from his good friend (and reigning two-time MVP), LeBron James.
Paul is off to an historic start to his ninth NBA season, joining Magic Johnson and John Stockton as the only players to have 10-plus points and 10-plus assists in the first nine games of a season. Stockton's run lasted 10 games and Johnson's was 11. Paul has an excellent chance of surpassing both of them with the way he's playing these days.
That "toughest player" Barkley mentioned has been exactly that for the Clippers this season. Paul knows that winning. specifically at the playoff level will define his legacy NBA legacy. He also recognizes that until he guides the Los Angeles Clippers to that championship level, there will be something missing in his career.
There's a reason why Paul has always been the toughest and most dynamic force on his teams. There's a reason he's that same warrior every night on the court when the Clippers are battling for pole position in the West standings.
But it's not toughness in the traditional sense we're used to. Paul isn't focused on swinging elbows and scrapping with anyone to try and reach his goals. He's talking about the intestinal fortitude it takes to resist those urges, the mettle it takes to shake off that loss to Miami and bounce back the way he did against the Rockets (14 points, 13 assists and five rebounds), Timberwolves (21, 11, four rebounds and four steals) and Thunder (14, 16, 7 and 3).
"I think at times, toughness can be mistaken in the form of being ready to fight and stuff like that," Paul told reporters after that win over the Thunder that saw tempers flare and tough-guy antics get both Matt Barnes and Serge Ibaka tossed from the action. "But toughness comes down to basketball. Ain't nobody in the NBA holding the world championship belt."
Someone's going to get that Larry O'Brien trophy, though, and maybe even the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as well.
So why not that "5-7" guy who happens to be both the toughest pound-for-pound player on his team and in the league?
-- Sekou Smith
Editor's note on player stats: Instead of going with points, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals to measure each MVP candidate's numbers, we are instead going with PIE.
What is PIE? It stands for Player Impact Estimate, and its a new NBA-developed stat that measures a player's (or team's) overall impact on the games they have played in.
PIE represents a single metric which eliminates league, season or style of play bias -- enabling comparison of player's and team's across different eras. The PIE formula was also tested and adjusted to produce a high correlation to winning -- the ultimate measure of success.
We feel this is a more accurate depiction of a player's value, stats-wise. But if you're looking for the traditional (and advanced numbers), they're just a click away on each player as well, too.
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