But this season we've seen the 37-year-old James still show his dominance on the court, and when we see the 38-year-old Anthony shoot three-pointers again and again, it seems to forget that Chris Paul, the 36-year-old veteran, James, Anthony's banana boat brothers, has also played an efficient season this season. Paul is not like James and Anthony in such a big team as the Lakers, he is not as topical as James, as the leader of the Suns Paul low-key dedication of his everything, every issue of the MVP list has never been Paul's figure, even this season Paul has not received as much praise as Lamelo Ball, Morant, Klay Thompson and other players, but Paul's performance this season deserves more attention.
Paul averaged 14.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 1.9 steals in 32.8 minutes per game this season, averaging only 2.3 turnovers per game, shooting 48.8% from the field and 34.7% from three-point range, and Paul is currently ranked first in the league's assists list, and this season's assist-to-turnover ratio is also Paul's personal highest since the 2014-15 season, and he has achieved such data again in seven years. Considering Paul's age, Paul is getting older and more demon, it's hard to imagine that the 36-year-old can still maintain such efficiency, we have been lamenting James's ageless myth of 37 years old averaging 29 points per game, but paul is not? If Paul can maintain this form, he is likely to pick up the assist king again, and now it is Harden's 10.1 assists.
Although paul's scoring explosiveness at this stage is far less explosive than before, it has to be admitted that paul is a better team when paul is on the field, and the influence Paul brings to this team is no worse than that of strong competitors for MVP such as Alphabet Brother, Embiid and Jokic. This is Paul's 17th season, but he still leads the assists and steals list, Paul no matter what team he is on, no matter who his teammates are, he will inject his competitiveness into others, he will lead his teammates to become better, look at some NBA celebrities' evaluation of Paul's performance this season you will know how good he really is, smiling assassin Thomas said that Paul is the first point guard this season, Perkins said that Paul he should be included in the MVP selection.
The Suns are now in first place in the West with a record of 39 wins and 9 losses, and are currently the only team in the league to rank in the top five in terms of offensive and defensive efficiency, and the biggest contributor to all this is undoubtedly Paul. Of course, the Suns in addition to Paul and two new stars Booker and Ayton, but without Paul's arrival these two people have also cooperated, at that time the Suns have been working hard for a playoff ticket, Paul's arrival directly led the Suns back to the Finals, and fed Ayton into the league's first-tier stars, even if Ayton could not play because of ankle injury during this time, Paul still drove his teammates around him well. McGee, a veteran of the NBA for more than a decade, has played the most efficient performance of his career next to Paul this season, averaging 10 points and 7 rebounds in 16 minutes per game, shooting 65% of the career high, and various high-level statistics have also reached a new career high.
Even the Suns' ten-day temporary worker Biyongbo was fed a high-quality blue-collar worker by Paul, originally thought it was a mixed day, but did not expect to become a regular employee in the fight, in the past 6 games, Biyongbo averaged 14.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, shooting 67.9% from the field, and this next big contract looks like it is beckoning to him again. There are a lot of centers who have a second spring around Paul, from the Hornets to the current sun, the number of fingers, basically these centers with heads and faces have been paired with Paul, Tyson Chandler, Jordan Jr., Capela, Adams, Ayton, etc. are living examples, even Griffin has not been selected for the best team in his life, and Jordan Jr. has won this honor, and the little Jordan who was around Paul at that time has more scenery and scenery, and a center who has no independent offensive ability can get 12.7 points.
I think that Chandler was abandoned in the Bulls, only 5 points and 9 rebounds in the bulls' last season, but came to the Hornets to play 10+10 statistics next to Paul, so what else can be questioned about Paul's ability to lead the team? If Paul was almost anything, it must have been luck. Honestly, the teammates of Paul's partner in those years are indeed not bad, the empty city of that year has Griffin, Jordan Jr., Redick, Crawford and other lineups, but Paul has not been able to touch the Western Conference floor; to the Rockets, there are Harden, Capela, Anderson, Gordon such a configuration, but Paul's injury is always difficult to find time, that year's fire war if it is not Paul hamstring strain is likely to have a different ending. Even when paul reached the Suns, he struggled to fight in the finals, and there was a partial tear in the ligament of the right hand in G3, and finally the performance was not good.
We don't know exactly what the league's definition of MVP is, but Paul definitely deserves to be put into the MVP discussion, and isn't such a player who has changed qualitatively wherever he goes, worth an MVP trophy? But Paul doesn't seem to get the respect he deserves, even the All-Star starter doesn't have his place, and Paul's figure is not seen in the MVP selection, but as Booker said, the team is now in a completely different stage, these are not his goals for Paul, last season's Phoenix is regrettable, I believe Paul is not willing in his heart, compared with these, this year's solar energy can not lose the story of the comeback is their highlight.