The Jazz have a different system to the Hornets, and the Jazz are a REALLY quirky team. Sometimes they move Williams to shooting guard, whereas I’ve never seen the Hornets do that to Chris Paul.

Consequently, when I want to compare the two, I think back on when they were teammates for Team USA. In that case, they both played in the same system and with pretty much the same teammates, and I thought Williams was usually the better back up for Jason Kidd, although it was close.

In other words, I’m okay with Deron Williams being placed ahead of Chris Paul, but I’m not sure Tony Parker still isn’t ahead of them both.

Tony Parker is everything you want from a point guard in terms of leadership, decision making, and ball distribution. Parker’s range has steadily been expanding over time. However, just as I wouldn’t consider Steve Nash for the top spot because he tends to only play half the floor, Tony Parker isn’t above using his foot speed to stay in front of his man, whereas Williams and Paul are content to let themselves get beat and let the team help.

In short, Tony Parker is my number one, because he’s ideal on both ends of the court.

Good read though; I enjoyed it.

STAT put up monster numbers. But let’s not forget who created most of those scoring opportunities. You might remember him. He won MVP that season.

We’ve already covered this. I thought LeBron played great in Game’s 1 and 2. He played very well in Game’s 3-5 as well, although he shot erratically, and turned the ball over too much. All told, he had a good series.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/stoudam01/gamelog/2005/

And that team had said All-NBA defenders closer to their prime.

For the record, are you, like Erick, going to conclude that LeBron did not play with “excellence” against the Magic last year? Or how about the Pistons in 07? I know you love to point to the Boston series in 2008 as proof that LeBron can’t handle a good defense (even though the same defense throttled Kobe a week later) but his playoff resume aint too shabby.

Of course numbers matter, especially when they come against elite teams. Chris Paul, unlike LeBron James, has a track record of excellence against elite teams.

Case in point, I’ve never seen anyone dominate the Spurs like CP3 did in the 2008 Conference Semifinals. Matched up against one of the league’s elite defenses (SA finished third in defensive efficiency that season), and isolated against two All-NBA defenders (Bruce Bowen, Tim Duncan) throughout most of the series, Paul got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Subjectively speaking, I agree with most of Erick’s argument. I’d love to see what Deron Williams could do in a more free flowing offense. I also think Chris Paul’s defense is incredibly overrated. But CP3’s court vision, and basketball IQ are unmatched. He’s a great, great point guard.

Paul shot 63.1 percent in the immediate basket area last season. Williams converted “only” 59.9 percent of his attempts inside. Paul also has the edge in true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage. In addition to his advantage in assist to turnover ratio, and assist rate.

You can make the argument that Williams has dominated Paul head-to-head, but really, that’s about it.

Statistically speaking, there’s no comparison. Chris Paul is worlds better than Deron Williams.

Also, I think Denver’s success against Paul was aided in large part by CP3’s fatigue. He took on an inordinate amount of his team’s offense last season.

Nice list.