Best NBA Point Guards of All Time? Don’t Forget Chris Paul!

Basketball history is littered with forgotten and underappreciated greats. Chris Paul mustn’t become one of them.

The greatest point guard of all time? It’s an age-old debate, one that will rage on for as long as basketball is played at a professional level. The average NBA fan will probably tell you the debate between Magic Johnson and Stephen Curry exists. That is reasonable. But, like any good race, a field exists beyond the top two. Who is 3rd? 4th? Those questions currently occupy my mind, and here’s another question: Where is Chris Paul?

Clutchpoints says 6th. Hoopshype agrees. So does ESPN. But Paul doesn’t crack Kendrick Perkins’ Top 5 or Mad Dog Russo’s top list. While you may have varying opinions about those sources, they all say the same thing: Chris Paul is nowhere near the top regarding the best PG of all-time debate.

Photo courtesy NBA.com

Do the stats confirm that opinion? Paul averaged 8.3 assists per game, and it would take you approximately 508 games to record 4,215 assists. As it turns out, Luka Doncic, a renowned playmaker seven years into his highly decorated NBA career, boasts an impressive average of 8.3 assists per game. If he retains that average, he would be 86 games short of Paul.

Of the 4,374 players to ever play in the NBA, only 110 have reached 4,215 assists. It is without a doubt a very significant chunk of passes leading to points. It also happens to be the gap between Chris Paul and the next player with fewer turnovers. Every single player with more than 7,987 assists has coughed the ball up more times than Paul’s 3,026 turnovers. How many assists does he have? Multiply that number by 4.04, the highest assist-to-turnover ratio for any player, averaging more than eight assists. Pau has produced the sixth-highest offensive rating of all time and the best of any point guard. His shooting splits are 47/37/87 with a 23.81 PER.

But wait! Individual statistics are cool, but what about Paul’s impact on winning games? He has .240 win shares per 48 minutes, the sixth highest of all time, 15 playoff births, and a career .638 winning percentage, which is higher than every NBA franchise since he was drafted.

Paul has suited up for seven teams now. Here’s how each team fared before him and then in their first season with him.

He doesn’t just do it on the offensive end, either. He steals the ball 2.04 times per game, which is tenth all-time. He has seven All-Defensive 1st Teams and two All-Defensive 2nd Teams. Despite his small stature, he grabs 4.5 boards a night, the highest by any player 6 ft or shorter.

LEBRON is an advanced metric that evaluates a player’s impact on the game through weighted box score statistics and advanced on/off calculations. D-LEBRON is the same metric, specifically for the defensive side of the ball. Since its inception in 2010, Chris Paul holds the title for the highest D-LEBRON in a single season by a point guard (2010-11).

Photo courtesy Orange County Register

Conclusion: Chris Paul has it all—he is the complete package. So why do sports media and fans alike undervalue him? The short answer is rings, i.e., Championships, the most valuable professional sports accolade. Chris Paul has zero NBA championships.

Every year that Paul’s incredibly long career passes, that fact stands in the way of Chris Paul getting the due he deserves. But should it be that way? Does a ring or two make him a better basketball player? A more accomplished one, no doubt, but a better one? I think it’s fair to propose that there is a not-so-distant reality where Paul wins one or two championships. But does that make him a different player? Is an entire career decided by the 20 or so critical minutes at the end of consequential playoff games?

Independent of my thinking, the greatest point guard debate will rage on, as it should. My contribution is to fight for Chris Paul’s name, whom I believe is one of the greatest point guards ever to touch a basketball.

Basketball history is littered with forgotten and underappreciated greats. Chris Paul mustn’t become one of them.

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All stats as of 1/11/25.