A lot of people asking me about the CP3 trade.

A lot of people asking me about the CP3 trade.

Some things Houston knows: Chris Paul will be like Patrick Beverly on defense, but Chris Paul on offense.

Paul still rates as one of the two best high usage rate defenders at his position. If you want to say Avery Bradley is better I won’t disagree. But I also think Bradley and Marcus Smart could learn from Chris about denying their opponent position to their favorite spots. Although, at 32, Paul has seen his best years he is still among the best on ball defenders in the NBA.

Brains: Chris Paul is the thinking man’s point guard. He lost a whole step after injuries and was still the best point guard for several years because he operates at the top tier intellectually and executes with a precision that MVPs like westbrook and even tacticians like James Harden have yet to match. Chris can process and diagram what a genius like Draymond Green intuits from pattern recognition. Draymond is the more rare mind. But Chris is still in that top 2% of thinking basketball minds. He will make Harden more accountable and efficient because he will insist on it. Some of the careless “lost possessions” will no longer happen in Houston.

The Beauty and Tyranny of being Exact

People argued that Paul being controlling was harming chemistry in LA. The social dynamics of Paul in LA were getting more toxic the more apparent their inability to win became; imagine being forced to make your bed even though the bed was probably about to be thrown in the trash. Here is the thing though: Chris Paul made one of the best offenses in the NBA out of JJ Reddick, a cipher for a 3, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan. Deandre Jordan has 0 range. Blake was an average midrange shooter who quit driving to the rim and had a weak 3 point shot. JJ is great at what he does but limited. And yet Paul was able to make this offense hum through sheer precision and execution.

The one leak in Houston was close to midrange 2’s:

We are witnessing the greatest generation of basketball ever. Peak Basketball. Chris Paul and James Harden in a D’Antoni system is such a cool thing. In the playoffs opponents figured out how to guard Houston: making them good on offense, but below their regular season high. The spurs conceded midrange 2 point shots and didn’t abandon shooters on the perimeter, their bigs were fast enough to chase and recover or with giant long arms to simply jump straight up and contest the shots at rim. Add in Kawai being basically mismatch proof and there it was. Great teams can do this to Houston. COULD. Good luck conceding the mid range jumper when it’s Chris Paul instead of Patrick Beverly. He makes (at least) half of those. Conceding that shot means there is 0 threat of a turnover, and the bigs are in position to fight for a fair share of offensive rebounds.

The Underrated Shot:

If I had to run a team for 10 years, I am taking Lebron James. If I needed to score in a close game or hit a game winner, I am taking Michael Jordan. Lebron took the finals from San Antonio in his second title by nailing his 2’s and 3’s in the final minutes of the game. It was incredible to watch. And that was because he was shooting like how Jordan ALWAYS did. Jordan was so impossible to guard because the exact shot a defense wants to try to force, a contested 2 point midrange shot, was the shot he worked the hardest to perfect. And he could make it half the time. In close games when teams are all aware of each other’s moves, they are physical, they are playing for it all, the guy who can get a high percentage shot off is incredibly valuable. Chris Paul has run an offense that is amazing in these situations for years. Houston just got its “Clutch”, and the last gear it was missing on offense.

The underrated Defense through workload

Harden was a rugged defender in OKC. Is Harden a bad defender conceptually? He is fast, great footwork, and strong as hell. He has nice height and good (not great) arm length. He has large, fast hands. He has the tools. So if it is a mental thing, i.e. simply not understanding what their defense is trying to do, or losing track of his responsibilities, a vocal guy like Chris Paul, with an elite understanding, will help make the calls. Paul will help fix these mental lapses. More importantly, it seems, will be allowing Harden to conserve energy on offense so that he can actually afford to TRY and have effort on defense. It is exhausting to defend at 100% and go be a ball dominant offensive powerhouse. Just being that offensive monster is exhausting and Harden wore down in the Playoffs last year from it. If Paul helps save even 25% of Harden’s energy on offense, which seems very realistic, and Harden transfers 20 of that 25% to his defense, we are talking about a massive jump. Even if you think that is only worth 2 shots a game where harden went from a turnstyle to staying in front and contesting a shot (essentially turning a play with 95% conversion into 42%) you are looking at essentially adding 2 points worth of value. Doesn’t sound like a ton, but adding a 2 point PPG point differential is usually the difference between a 2 seed and a 5 seed in the playoffs.