Marty Mac: Paul has chance to be something special

[VF21]

http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/44393.html

Paul has chance to become special

Second-year Hornets point guard Chris Paul has more gifts than most of us ever will dream of possessing. He will turn 22 on May 6, and already he has been the starting point guard on the U.S. men's squad in the world championships. That likely would have changed had Detroit's Chauncey Billups been available, but it's not bad for a youngster who left Wake Forest following his sophomore year.

Paul looks, walks, runs, talks and plays like a man bent on winning. He has the ultimate confidence in his handle and often goes wherever he wants on the floor.

If he ever gets his 15- to 17-foot jump shot to become semiautomatic, defending him will become a sleep-robbing concept. Should Paul's jump-shooting range ever increase to beyond the three-point mark, he'll become one of the league's all-time best.

Even falling short of those improvements, Paul likely will become a perennial All-Star. What he needs to do, however, is find control of his inner fire that, in tandem with his skills, reminds observers of NBA Hall of Famer and New York Knicks head coach Isiah Thomas.

Paul, who is in town tonight with the Hornets, never has failed to use his elbow(s) aggressively in any of the 10 to 15 games I've seen him play. As a listed 6-footer, sometimes self-defense calls for that, but not all the time. Paul has way too much game to risk getting a dirty-player label on his résumé.

About the writer: The Bee's Martin McNeal can be reached at mmcneal@sacbee.com.

NOTE: This is an excerpt from Marty Mac's column of Oct. 24, 2006. I posted it here because it pertains to our ongoing discussions of Chris Paul.

 

[Gargamel]

They said the same ssss about Marbury and Francis.

 

[atxrocker]

chris paul is awesome. dudes a stud and one of my favorite players. hes gonna be amazing.

 

[Bricklayer]

Zeke is an appropriate comparison.

Zeke was a punk, but incredibly tough minded, a HOF, and a winner.

 

[VF21]

I think the main difference is that things have changed. The real Bad Boys are a thing of the past...

 

[kennadog]

Being a lttle hot-headed is not bad. The idea is to control your temper, not let your temper control you. I think Bibby is every bit as fiery. I just think Bibby gets ice-colder the madder he gets. He channels the temper.

 

[moradi420]

They said the same ssss about Marbury and Francis.

francis and starbury never took a team from the absolute bottom of the gutter, to the cusp of the playoffs, after one year of play i think the only thing i can say for sure is that paul is definitley a better leader than sf and sm

 

[VF21]

What Gargamel meant was that when Francis and Marbury entered the league, their first couple of years had some making the same kind of predictions that you're making about Paul, moradi...

 

[AriesMar27]

i loved all of the "ifs"... wouldnt that apply to any player? if martin improves his ballhandling, defense, rebounding and passing he could be just as good as jordan....

 

[Bricklayer]

i loved all of the "ifs"... wouldnt that apply to any player? if martin improves his ballhandling, defense, rebounding and passing he could be just as good as jordan....

The only "ifs" are regarding Paul's shooting. That's it. He's a stud right now. But if he learns how to shoot he's right there as maybe the best PG in the league.

 

[supamari0]

What Gargamel meant was that when Francis and Marbury entered the league, their first couple of years had some making the same kind of predictions that you're making about Paul, moradi...

Yea and both of those guys quickly proved that they weren't anywhere near the hype. (especially marbury)

After dealing with watching the eternal frustration that is Stevie Franchise and seeing Chris Paul, they're two completely different players. Francis is a shooting guard in a point guard's body. (except he doesn't actually shoot that well) He turns the ball over way too much and surprisingly he's terrible in the fast break.

Chris Paul has proven that he knows how to distribute the ball unlike the two above. Marbury's stats might be some of the most overinflated stats in nba history. Every team he's ever played for got better after he left. The Twolves got better when Cassell replaced him and they actually won a playoff series. New Jersey got better when Marbury got replaced with JKidd. Phoenix got better when they replaced Marbury with Nash and now the Knicks are stuck with Marbury and won't win jack until they get rid of him and his albatross contract.

Marbury and Francis never proved anything except the ability to score really well and do little else. Neither are particularly great on defense and both are just bad at getting teammates involved. Chris Paul on the otherhand has done a solid if not phenomenal job with that team and has proven that he can man the point guard spot and lead a team.

 

[Gargamel]

Yea and both of those guys quickly proved that they weren't anywhere near the hype. (especially marbury)

Paul's got only 78 gms under his belt. Iyo, did Francis and Marbury prove those negative things that quickly?

 

[Nikos]

Paul is about as good as Isiah was already. Just needs more experience, a good supporting cast and he will be seen in a similiar light. Isiah in reality was a PLAYOFF stud. In his prime (before the Pistons were elite, and before his playoff heroics, he put up much better numbers than the title years). He was excellent for many years, but hardly put up elite numbers during the title runs. But yeah, in his prime in the mid 80s, he was pretty darn good (certainly elite in his era).

Paul like Isiah could rebound well, pass well, actually is less turnover prone. But of course Isiah had a better outside shot, and actually proved he could be a playoff stud. Unless Paul plays the same way every year and doesn't improve much, he should be a superior PG (even if he doesn't win a title like Isiah).

 

[supamari0]

Paul's got only 78 gms under his belt. Iyo, did Francis and Marbury prove those negative things that quickly?

I never really saw Marbury during his first season but I saw Francis a ton and he was nowhere near what Paul was in his first season.

Francis was an athletic and gifted scorer who did little else. He couldn't rebound like Paul, definitely couldn't pass like Paul, and there was no way he could effictively run that team.

His overinflated ego and sense of himself (declaring himself as Stevie Franchise) was way ahead of his actual game. Don't get me wrong, the guy's an all star and a great player but he just doesn't have those certain intangibles that elite point guards have.

 

[Gargamel]

Paul is about as good as Isiah was already. Just needs more experience, a good supporting cast and he will be seen in a similiar light.

Guh...

Isiah had:

1. testes
2. Jordanesque command of his supporting cast (EG: Dantley to Dallas)
3a. array of thugs, rebounders, and scorers backing him up
3b. array of thugs in the home crowd
4. coach just below the Jackson, Riley, Auerbach level
5. toughness right out of college (Bobby Knight School Of Pressure)
6. urgency right out of high school (crap neighborhood)
7. not to mention premier ball handling skills, scoring, assist stats -- best short player in league history, imo

I think Isiah was a tad more prepared than Chris Paul in his first year to deserve "gonna be the unmitigated man" accolades.

 

[Gargamel]

I never really saw Marbury during his first season but I saw Francis a ton and he was nowhere near what Paul was in his first season.

Francis was an athletic and gifted scorer who did little else. He couldn't rebound like Paul, definitely couldn't pass like Paul, and there was no way he could effictively run that team.

His overinflated ego and sense of himself (declaring himself as Stevie Franchise) was way ahead of his actual game. Don't get me wrong, the guy's an all star and a great player but he just doesn't have those certain intangibles that elite point guards have.

You're cutting Francis way short statwise. He's 19/6/6 career. He averaged 18.0, 5.3, 6.6 in his rookie season. He started off as a better rebounder than Jason Kidd in his first 7 seasons. Saying that his stats are inflated because they don't seem to impact a game is another thing. That's something I'd agree on. I think the same basic thing about Odom.

I'm just saying that it took a long time for most of us to figure out that guys like Marbury and Francis weren't the wizards we thought they were gonna be as rookies. Marbury got tons of ink when he started in Minnesota. He started to show his true colors when he basically forced the Wolves to trade him because he thought KG was making too much money compared to himself. Sure I could be wrong about Paul, but I think it's too early to tell what he's going to become in that environment. Comparing him to the situation Isiah was in absolutely can't be done tho. It's like, Peja vs Dumars..... I can go on all day shooting that comparison down.

 

[Nikos]

7. not to mention premier ball handling skills, scoring, assist stats -- best short player in league history, imo

How exactly is Isiah better than John Stockton? Actually how is he really any better than Allen Iverson?

True Stockton never had scoring outbursts in the playoff like Isiah, but was better at everything else except rebounding. But still what attributes really make Isiah the superior player over an Iverson or a Stockton? Being in the right place, at the right time? Playing over his head and happening to be the best player on 2 championship teams? What if you replaced Isiah with the 2006 version of Chauncey Billups? Couldn't he also hit big shots, generate assists, and not turn the ball over?

 

[Gargamel]

How exactly is Isiah better than John Stockton? Actually how is he really any better than Allen Iverson?

Isiah went to a team that was practically the Clippers of the East and carved them into a champion over years of toil. Isiah had more impact in the lockeroom than Stockton. Isiah had more impact on the court than Iverson. Isiah made his teammates rise to the occasion by doing more than making transition passes. Isiah had infinitely more ability than Iverson to include all of his teammates into wins. Isiah had infinitely more knowledge about what's important in this game than Iverson. Isiah had a more demonstrable will to win titles than either of them.

Beyond that, Isiah wins in a landslide over Iverson in terms of attitude and professionalism. Isiah probably thinks Iverson is an idiot behind closed doors.

What if you replaced Isiah with the 2006 version of Chauncey Billups? Couldn't he also hit big shots, generate assists, and not turn the ball over?

Replace Isiah with today's Billups back in 1981? Pistons never get to where they got. Assuming you wanna replace Isiah w/ Billups right up to the point to where Isiah led the Pistons to the Finals, I think Magic takes 1988, Magic takes 1989 (w/o Magic hamstring injury) or Jordan takes 1989 (w/ Magic hamstring injury), and Jordan takes 1990.