Okay, I know that CP3 is by far the superior fantasy basketball player. He puts up better stats, simply put. He shoots at a high percentage, gets lots of boards for a small guard and is always near the top of the leader board in the assists category. He steals the ball a ton, too. (I think he broke a record last year for most consecutive games with at least one steal.)But Deron Williams is not that far behind, especially when he posts lines like these: 9-18 FG, 2 treys, 12-15 FT, 8 boards, 15 assists, a steal, 32 points, and only 1 turnover. That's extremely efficient. Not only are those stats amazing, but he also led his team to a comeback victory against the defending Eastern Conference Champs, the Orlando Magic.
(On a side note, I decided I'm going write a little piece on the player who performs the best on the particular day that I write. In this case, the player is one Deron Williams.)
I remember the 2005 draft, when the Jazz chose Deron over CP3. And I never doubted Utah's decision to do so. For you see, Williams is a better basketball player overall than Paul.
In the four years that the two elite point guards have been in the league, D-Will's team has had more success than Paul's. Sure, it's easy to point at William's superior supporting cast (including a better coach in Jerry Sloan [no disrespect to Byron Scott]), but it's not like Paul didn't have a good supporting cast himself. But let's forget about team success and look at the two players as individuals.
Williams is 6'3 and 207 pounds. Paul is 6'0 and 175 pounds. Williams is taller, bigger and stronger. And I know that height and strength do not necessarily make one player better than another, but I guarantee you this: it certainly helps. On offense, Williams is stronger and can power his way on a dribble drive. Paul, on the other hand, uses his quickness and sort of squeezes himself into the paint. Now who you rather have on your team for the long-term, health-wise? A strong body driving hard to the rim or a wispy frail one looking to avoid contact? Paul's smaller frame makes him more of a liability. Not just on offense, but on defense as well.
Chris Paul cannot guard big guards, especially guys like- oh, I don't know- Deron Williams. He's simply too small. Deron Williams, on the other hand, can guard practically every single point guard the league has to offer. So while Paul dazzles with his alley-oop highlights, Williams slowly methodically wins games, and at the end of the day, that's what matters: wins.
So you can point at Paul's stats and say that he is superior to Williams. But you can attribute Paul's superior stats to his usage rate. Chris Paul has the ball in his hands a lot more than Williams does. Paul is the focal point of his team's offense. Every Hornets bucket either comes from a CP3 shot or a CP3 pass. The Jazz offense (a motion offense), however, does not work that way. The Jazz's offense uses all five players. Every single player is either cutting, driving, setting a screen, or setting an off-the-ball pick. Everyone is involved; the ball is constantly moving as players pass and pass the ball, and so, Williams' stats suffer from the system, which ultimately helps the team. Therefore, Paul gets more assists than Williams does. (And not by that much, too.)
Paul also gets more steals as well. Ah, steals. The most over-rated defensive stat in the league. There are some legitimate steals that are due to a player's ability to defend very well against an offensive player. Then there are those steals which are complete gambles. They're the kinds of steals that players get when they jump out of their defensive zones to intercept a pass. Except, more times than not, they get burned. If they gamble on a pass and miss, then their team surrenders a 4 on 5 disadvantage on the defensive end, leading to an easier shot attempt for the offensive team. If they gamble on a pass and get the steal, then they are praised as good defenders. Now I'm not saying that Paul gambles on every single possession or that he doesn't care about defense. I'm just saying that the fact that Paul gets more steals does not necessarily make him a better player.
One final note. Chris Paul cares about his stats more than Deron Williams does. I remember one particular game when there was 3 seconds left in the half. Chris Paul got the rebound off an opponent's miss, and instead of launching for a potential three-pointer (though the chances are slim of it going in, the gain [3 points for his team] far outweighs the loss [a missed field goal attempt on the box score]), he simply dribbled it and let the time run out. Then, when the buzzer sounded, he launched it to the other side of the court, where the ball swished in. The broadcaster was completely baffled. He said something along the lines of: "Why in the world would Chris Paul not even attempt to shoot from half court? He could've given the New Orleans Hornets 3 points if he had shot it a second earlier! And he definitely had time to shoot it! Why would he do that?"
Then the other broadcaster chimed in, "It's for the stats... The stats!"
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