Chris Paul’s career can be described with one word: Unlucky. Whether it be untimely injuries or big-time choke jobs, his luck is in the NBA has been some of the worst that we have ever seen.
Just look at the 2014-15 and 2017-18 seasons, for example, two years where his teams had a great shot at winning a championship. In the 2014-15 season, CP3 led the Los Angeles Clippers to a 56-26 record, which was good for the 3rd seed in the Western Conference. They would go on to face the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round and beat them in 7 games after an off one leg game-winner from Paul.
Moving on to the 2nd round, they faced the Rockets and would go up 3 games to 1 on them before blowing this lead and losing to them in 7 games. Chris Paul played well during this series but poor play from the Clippers’ key veteran players in JJ Redick and Jamal Crawford was the deciding factor in this series.
Moving on to the 2017-18 season and during his first year with the Rockets, it was looking as if this would be the year that CP3 would finally win a ring. After an amazing season from James Harden and company, the Rockets would go into the playoffs with the best record in the league. They would go all the way to the Western Conference Finals where they would meet up against the Golden State Warriors. This series would go all the way to seven games and the Warriors would come out of this series victorious. It was in that Game 7 where things got crazy and where the Rockets became historically cold from three.
In Game 7, the Rockets would shoot an abysmal 7-44 from three and missed an NBA-record 27 straight threes at one point in the game. This horrid shooting night would be the deciding factor of this series. Despite all of CP’s mishaps and blunders in his career, he is still a winner and in his 14-year career, he has only missed the playoffs once and that was due to injury. In this article, we are going to look back at his illustrious career and see the impact that he has had on all four of his teams.
New Orleans Hornets (2005-2011)
CP3’s time with the Hornets was an amazing one and it was here where he established himself as a top point guard in the league. During his time with the Hornets, he missed the playoffs once in his 6-year stint there and that was in the 2009-10 season. During this year, CP only played 45 games due to injury so it is clear as to why the Hornets weren’t as dominant as many people thought they would be.
He was a legit MVP candidate in New Orleans and his best player during his time there was David West, who was a 2x All-star and a great contributor to the team. Despite all of this, his Hornets teams never had the star power to contend with the other great teams in the West at that time and this would be the ultimate reason as to why his teams never performed as well as many people thought they would in the playoffs.
Los Angeles Clippers (2011-2017)
CP3 would be traded to the Clippers from the Hornets and immediately turned them into a perennial playoff team. The combination of him, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan, along with other vets would create a high-flying team that was referred to as “Lob City”. It was with the Clippers where we started to see just how unlucky Chris Paul was.
Despite making the playoffs every year during his time here and steady play from Chris Paul and company, they would never make it past the 2nd round due to untimely injuries. If not for injuries, this team could have won 1 or more championships and would have etched themselves into history forever.
Houston Rockets (2017-2019)
CP’s time with the Rockets would be the closest that he has ever come to winning a championship but, once again, poor luck would be the reason why he was not able to win a championship. His first season with them would be the pinnacle of his time there and if it was not for a historically awful shooting night, CP and the Rockets would have a ring right now.
After losing to the Warriors in the 2017-18 season, the Rockets just would not recover, and Paul would regress the following season. Again though, he was able to help his team make the playoffs during his two seasons there and played great in the first season despite sharing the court with a ball-dominant player in James Harden.
Oklahoma City Thunder (2019-Present)
After the first season with the Rockets, CP3 signed a mega-extension with them and it would prove to be a horrid move be the Rockets’ front office. Just a season into his extension, CP would be traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Russell Westbrook and many believed that the Thunder would bottom out and CP would immediately be traded once again.
Instead, OKC has built a new culture and backed by the all-star level play from Chris Paul, they currently sit as the 5th seed in the Western Conference. This season has proved to us the CP is still a top point guard in the NBA and even at his age, he can still produce at a high level.
Despite the stigma that may be on Chris Paul, he is still a winner and only missing the playoffs once in your career is an amazing feat. He is already looked at as one of the best point guards of all-time and anything he does from here on out would be adding to his already amazing career.
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