Chris Paul - Superb Separation 19/20 (Midrange Mastery)

Chris Paul. 10x NBA-All Star. 2013’s All-Star Game Most Valuable Player. 4x All-NBA First Team. 3x All-NBA Second Team. 2011 All-NBA Third Team. 7x All-Defensive First Team. 2x All-Defensive Second Team. 2006’s Rookie of the Year. 4x NBA Assist Leader. 6x NBA Steals Leader. 2x Olympic Gold Medalist. Chris Paul is a man of a million moves and he manuevers through the defense every which way imaginable. He dominates defenders with his seemingly effortless effectiveness from virtually everywhere on the court.

CP3 returning to Oklahoma City, the place where he played most of his rookie season (due to Hurricane Katrina), was supposed to be a feel good story where a player past his prime goes to finish out his career or plays well enough that they trade him to a contender. The Thunder were not favorites to make the playoffs, but Chris Paul’s obsessive nature and uncontainable competitiveness, coupled with the emergence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as a solid complimentary core of Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams, Dennis Schröder, laughs in the face of expectations. The Thunder likely overachieved and they remain a team dangerous enough that you don’t really want to see him in the first round of the playoffs.

Chris’ mastery of the midrange is the most obvious thing about his game, as well as his hunger to hunt out mismatches and make absolute fools of switching bigs, but it’s every little thing he does that makes it so effective: the look off, watching how the defender is leaning, the proficiency with which he pivots, his pauses, his pacing…everything put together is art. This season, by the time of the hiatus, he finished in the top 20 in steals, top 15 in assists, top 10 in offensive win shares and in the Value Over Replacement Player stats. Add to those things the fact that he is still probably a top 3 player in the pick and roll, a scrappy defender, and someone who has been able to read every single situation on a basketball court for the better part of 15 years, Chris Paul is very much still the Point God.

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