Earlier, the Suns beat the Pelicans 123-110, ushering in a wave of two consecutive wins in the recent past, the entire game suns center Chris Paul started 35 minutes, had 11 points, 5 rebounds and 15 assists, +23 plus-minus is also the second highest on the team. After the game, Suns coach Monty Williams also praised Paul: "I felt his leadership, he obviously wanted to use his performance to lead the team, so the whole game with him can basically be said to be a pair of coaching duo. Although he is 36 years old, Paul led the previously deceitful Sun to the finals last season, just two wins away from the first championship in the history of the team.
It is also Paul's spring performance, but also makes the Suns in the offseason without hesitation to offer him a 4-year 120 million maximum salary contract, to retain this backcourt main bone, Paul did not disappoint the management, as of now, Paul averaged 14.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and 10.1 assists per game, shooting 47.9%, especially the assist, the only player in the league to assist double, if he can maintain such a strong momentum, It's not without a chance to take the league assists throne again this season.
It goes back to the 14-15 season when Paul last won the assist king, when he played for the Clippers, he averaged 10.2 assists per game, and before that, Paul had also won the title of league assist king in the 13-14 season (10.7 times) and the 08-09 season (11 times), it is worth mentioning that the current Suns coach Monty Williams also happened to be in 10 years to be called the New Orleans Hornets as the head coach, and had a brief cooperation with Paul. After the end of the 10-11 season, Paul was traded by the team to the Clippers, and the two can reunite in Phoenix this time, which is also a kind of fate!
As a debut point guard, Paul has been in the league for 16 years since joining the NBA in 2005, averaging 9.4 assists per game throughout his career, and the total number of assists in 10633 is also among the top three in league history, the most active one, nearly 800 more than James in second place. Unlike the current Curry and Lillard, who are more like scoring-based two-way guards, Paul seems to be a pure backcourt organizer born for passing, and this season the Suns can temporarily rank second in the West with a record of 29 wins and 8 losses, and only 0.5 wins away from the first Warriors.
Under his organizational tandem, the Suns' assists have reached 26.3th in the league, while the number of turnovers is only 13.8 in the league's 18th. As of now, the whole team has a total of 9 players to score in double figures, the most scored is only Booker's 23.9 points, under Paul's selfless tandem, plus the sun has just experienced the baptism of last season's finals, this season has also played more and more mature, every player on the field can easily get points through Paul's feeding cake, have to make people sigh, this is the charm of São Paulo.
Currently ranked second in the league assist list is James Harden (9.9 times), the old comrade who used to partner paul with the Rockets, but given that Irving is about to return, Harden's assists in the future may also suffer a certain decline, if you can seize this opportunity to make assists double become his "regular operation", Paul really has a good chance to usher in the title of the fourth assist king of his career after a gap of 7 years.