In honor of the on-going writer’s strike, today’s column is a re-run. Okay, it’s not word-for-word something posted before. But the Chris Paul and Deron Williams story has been told before in this forum. What I am doing in this column is updating this tale with data from the first half of the 2007-08 season. In the course of telling the story I am also going to note (and I think I have said this before also) that the Hornets are not quite the surprise this year that people seem to believe. Before I get to that p... lire la suite
In honor of the on-going writer’s strike, today’s column is a re-run. Okay, it’s not word-for-word something posted before. But the Chris Paul and Deron Williams story has been told before in this forum. What I am doing in this column is updating this tale with data from the first half of the 2007-08 season. In the course of telling the story I am also going to note (and I think I have said this before also) that the Hornets are not quite the surprise this year that people seem to believe. Before I get to that point, though, here is the Paul-Williams story (again). Updating the Chris Paul-Deron Williams Story Last year, though, Utah’s fans might have thought the Jazz had been vindicated. Williams and the Jazz advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Paul and the Hornets literally didn’t show up in the playoffs. After seeing Williams in the playoffs for three rounds, and not seeing Paul play at all, many observers began to believe that Utah had made the right choice. Table Two reports that Williams improved his sophomore year. Paul, meanwhile, was a bit worse. Despite such movements, though, Paul was still a much more productive player last year. So here is the story I have told about Chris Paul and Deron Williams: Chris Paul was the more productive player in college. Chris Paul was the more productive player during each player’s rookie season. Chris Paul was the more productive player in 2006-07. Deron Williams for MVP? Chris Paul vs. Deron Williams, Again When we look at where the Hornets and Jazz were at earlier this season, and if we consider the 2007 NBA playoffs, it seemed like the Jazz were the better team.  And consequently, for many people, Williams had to be the better player. Hence, many people read these columns and politely (or not so politely) offered an opposing viewpoint. But at the midpoint of the 2007-08 campaign, the Hornets have the best record in the Western Conference. And the Jazz are just barely in the playoff field. Suddenly, as the team results have changed, the perception of Paul and Williams has again shifted. Now Paul is being referred to as a possible MVP candidate. And Williams is now just a very good point guard. Now let me emphasize the story the numbers tell. Williams is most definitely an above average point guard. Paul, though, is currently the most productive point guard in the league. And one could argue, a good choice for league MVP. The Hornets Surprise? One of the reasons Paul is considered an MVP candidate is that few people believed the Hornets would be this good. After 41 games (yes, I know they have played 44 games but I am working off my mid-season data base), the Hornets had an efficiency differential - offensive efficiency minus defensive efficiency - of 6.2. This projects out to about 56 wins across an 82 game season. What if each player on the Hornets (except the rookies) played as well as they did in 2006-07? The answer is in Table Four.  Table Four: The Hornets at the midpoint of the 2007-08 season Table Four tells us that the Hornets, if each player did what he did last year, should expect to be on pace to win between 50 and 51 games in 2007-08. So New Orleans has improved, but only by about five games. In sum, the Hornets are not really much of a surprise. Given what Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler have done in the past, we should have expected this team to be competitive in the West.  Yes, the team is improved - primarily due to even more production from Paul - but we should not be surprised.
Chris Paul - the M2P (Most Productive Player) of 2007-08 - produced 25.4 wins this past season. Given the value of a win (which is probably overstated for New Orleans), Paul was worth more than $42 million. But he was only paid $3.6 million. These two values give us a gap of nearly $39 million. What do Paul and Howard have in common? Each was working in 2007-08 under their original rookie deal. Since this is set by the league — via collective bargaining with a union that is controlled by veteran players - it’s not surprising to see young stars be exploited. What might be surprising are the other names on the list. LeBron James, Chauncey Billups, and Steve Nash are all veteran stars earning more than $10 million per season. But each player is worth much more than the contract signed, so following our definition, each is exploited. 1. Young stars - like Paul, Howard, Deron Williams, David Lee, Al Jefferson, and Andre Iguodola - are exploited. So should we be concerned if a player like Chris Paul is exploited? No, but it does tell us why teams make such an effort to secure the services of the top young talent in the NBA draft. If you actually draft a young star, an NBA team can secure a small fortune. Of course, as has been noted before, most players drafted are not going to be NBA stars. Most of these players - if they survive - will morph into the non-star veterans who dominate the player’s union. And these players will continue to agree to limit the salaries of all the players who are not like them. Such limits will continue to cause players like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard (i.e. young stars), as well as LeBron James and Tim Duncan (old stars) to be exploited.
Decidement, Tony Parker a du mal a rivalise avec Chris Paul cette saison. Les deux meneurs de jeu terminent avec le meme nombre de points (24 points et 26 points), mais l'influence du meneur de jeu des Hornets sur son equipe a ete enorme avec 17 passes decisives (seulement 4 pour Parker). Du coup, les Spurs s'inclinent de 25 points (100-75). N'oublions tout de meme pas que Parker revient de blessure. Â pos min fgm-a 3pm-a ftm-a +/- off def tot ast pf st to bs ba pts T.Parker G 33:54 10-16 2-3 2-8 -18 0 2 2 4 2 0 1 0 0 24
Playing in small market New Orleans, rarely on national TV, fighting and eventually losing an uphill battle in the MVP race with an established and prickly superstar, Chris Paul is an absolute darling of the NBA right now. And certainly with good reason. He's the most dominant small player certainly since Kevin Johnson, and you may have to go back further to the likes of Isiah Thomas and Tiny Archibald. It doesn't hurt that he's got a fair amount of star quality on camera, and that he's playing in a city that everyone is pulling for. The absence of sustained media coverage during the regular season has had the effect of highlighting a lot of positives (his stats, the New Orleans angle, the underdog) without the scrutiny that some over-exposed players get ('Kobe is selfish!', 'Duncan is boring!', 'Nash can't play defense!', 'LeBron is a crybaby!', 'Ginobili is a flopper!') In fact, unless you developed a distaste for him in the ACC, perhaps owing to a loyalty to a rival Carolina basketball school, it's hard to imagine how anyone wouldn't love Chris Paul right now. My appreciation for Chris Paul the basketball player has increased significantly during the playoffs. But let's face it - eight games on national TV in three weeks is probably more than I've seen him in three years of regular season basketball. (The Hornets are often one of the teams the Clippers broadcasters don't happen to show, and this season there was a strange series of coincidences that had me out of town, unable to watch, for a couple of Clippers-Hornets games.) At any rate, the guy is amazing. He's obviously a gym rat who has developed every single junk shot around the basket - floaters, runners, scoops, pushes, spins, flips - and knows how to get them off around much bigger people. But what makes him different from a thousand other guys who do that sort of thing, is that his shots tend to go in. That, and the fact that he's the quickest player in the NBA, and no one can keep him out of the lane. But for anyone whose been paying attention, we know that Chris Paul is no angel. Intentionally punching Julius Hodge below the belt during the ACC tournament three years ago was one of the uglier on court incidents involving a top player in awhile. And let's face it - that's the one the cameras caught. Based on the situation - dead ball, Hodge unsuspecting, Paul surreptitious - it's pretty clear that he had every intention of getting away with his low blow. He sucker punched little Julius, not because he was mad, not because he was in a fight, but because he thought he could. Which I find disquieting. I included Manu Ginobili on the list of superstars who are scrutinized and in some circles disliked for a reason. Manu is a flopper, a grand tradition in soccer, the most popular sport in the world, and one elevated to an art form by his countrymen in Argentina. But I'm becoming convinced that Chris Paul is a practitioner of a much more insidious form of the flop - the dead-ball flop. I'm not starting the "Chris Paul is a dirty player" club. I'm not calling for any rule changes. (Although the NBA does need to seriously consider fines for clear cut cases of dead-ball flops.) I'm just saying. The more exposure Chris Paul gets, the more people will really love his game. And there will also be a few who grow to dislike him - a lot - and for good reason.
Chris Paul a prolonge son contrat de quatre ans en faveur des Hornets de la Nouvelle-Orleans.
Dwight Howard et Chris Paul ont respectivement ete elus joueurs du mois de decembre pour le compte de la conference Est et Ouest.
Deron Williams a remporte, samedi a la Nouvelle-Orleans, le Skills Challenge du All-Star Game 2008.
Do you even need to attach any superlatives to Chris Paul’s name? Do any mere words do him justice?