Re: Chris Paul is the Best Basketball Player in the NBA (No, Really) - Really?

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[Ed: This is in response to This post]

By Bobby Lull:

Chris Paul is an excellent basketball player. One of the best. But “the best”? I (and most, if not all sensible NBA fans) beg to differ. He’s an excellent player who can control a game and is certainly leading the Clippers to new heights. His presence on the Clippers will be an absolute boon to the development of Blake Griffin, and the potential for a truly captivating Lakers/Clippers rivalry is definitely exciting. 

He is the best point guard in the NBA, despite Derrick Rose’s immense skill set. But there’s another player in the league, one whom you are slightly too hasty to dismiss, who deserves the crown of “best.” “LeBron can’t control a game the way Paul does”? Come on, man! Let me steer your attention to something that happened before you began diligently watching the NBA, before this alleged era of Chris Paul and “Lob City” (a phrase whose sudden and violent death I fully support, by the way) came upon us:

Why Chris Paul is the Best Basketball Player in the NBA (No, Really)

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by Mike Hanus:

There is no one better at the game of basketball than Chris Paul. There are better scorers, better athletes, and better players at other positions, but no one understands and flows within the game like CP3. The guy is a master; there is no one I’ve ever seen who exerts his will on the game like this.

Including LeBron. He exerts his will on other players and other teams, but he can’t control the game like Paul does. If basketball is a flowing stream, Chris Paul is a minnow. He flows within the game. LeBron is a bear who sort of crashes into things and makes a lot of splashes. Yes, he diverts the stream, yes, his sheer brawny power exerts his will on it, but I’m much more impressed with someone whose very DNA is composed of the game and understands it at its highest level.