Paul, 36, signed a four-year, $120 million contract with the Suns this summer, and this season he's on $30.8 million a year. The answer is obvious, compared to Westbrook's $44.21 million salary, Paul can simply be described as "good quality and low price".
In the Suns and the Lone Ranger game, Paul showed the true color of the point guard, his shooting feel was not good in this game, only 2 shots were shot in 12 shots, and outside the three-point line was 6 shots, only 7 points were scored, but he gave 14 assists, and there was no 1 mistake, under his tandem, the Suns had 6 people score in double figures, knocking out the Lone Rangers at 105-98, becoming the only team to win 10 consecutive games so far this season, because of Paul, the Suns became a strong team in the West. Only in the playoffs are more likely.
Despite being a 36-year-old veteran, Paul has performed well this season — so far this season, he's played 14 games, averaged 32.2 minutes per game, averaged 14.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 10.5 assists, 2.4 steals, 0.4 blocks, and shot 46.4 percent from the field, helping the Suns to an 11-3 record, second in the West and second in the league.
Paul is currently the player with the most assists per game, averaging 1.3 more assists per game than second-placed Trae Young, he is really getting older and more demon, some time ago his total assists surpassed Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to rise to the third place in history, in front of him are Kidd and Stockton, these two predecessors at the age of 36 average several assists per game, is Paul strong?
Kidd: Averaging 9.1 assists per game
Kidd played for the Lone Rangers at the age of 36 in 2009-2010, when he played 80 games and averaged 36 minutes per game, averaging 10.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 9.1 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.4 blocks, shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 42.5 percent from three-point range, and he ranked fourth in the league in assists per game.
At that time, the Lone Rangers had five scorers, Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Caron Butler, Josh, Howard, and Sean Marion, and Kidd's task was to string them together to make the team a better whole, and finally the Lone Rangers achieved a record of 55 wins and 27 losses, ranking second in the West.
By the playoffs, Kidd averaged just 8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2.3 steals per game, shooting just 30.4 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from three-point range, and the Lone Ranger was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
Stockton: Averaging 7.5 assists per game
Stockton played for the Jazz at the age of 36, when stockton played 50 games (a shrinking season) in 1998-1999, averaging 28.2 minutes per game, averaging 11.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.3 blocks, shooting 38.8% from the field and 32% from three-point range, and he averaged only eighth in the league in assists per game.
At that time, Stockton's teammates included Carl Malone, Brian Russell, Jeff Hornasek and others, all of whom averaged higher points per game than Stockton, and Stockton was at ease with organizing to help the Jazz achieve second place in the West and second in the league.
Jordan, who beat them twice in the Finals that season, has retired, and the Jazz have a very good record and have a chance to realize their championship dreams, they beat the Kings 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs, but they were eliminated by the Blazers in the second round 2-4, and in the playoffs that year, Stockton averaged 11.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 8.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 40% from the field and 33.3% from three-point range.
Comparison can be found that the 36-year-old Paul's average score per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, average steals per game and many other data are higher than 36-year-old Kidd and 36-year-old Stockton, but he has only played 14 games so far, the entire season data has not yet come out, at the end of the season, his data may rise, may also fall.
From Kidd and Stockton, we see the negative impact of the years on them, their performance in the regular season is far less than the peak, and in the playoffs, they are even worse, unable to bring more help to the team, I hope that the 36-year-old Paul can stand up and show a performance that is worth a high salary, otherwise they will become one of the "high salary and low ability" players, and may be late!