What Can We Expect From The Sun’s Point Guard Next Season?
After 17 years of playing in the NBA, it is hard to deny that Chris Paul is one of the best point guards to ever play the game.
Paul was drafted by the Hornets in 2005 and has played for a handful of teams since then. Paul is currently playing for the Phoenix Suns. Paul has never won an NBA Finals title, but last year he took the Suns to the Finals.
You can find the best sports betting lines on this year’s Finals here.
Paul has, however, been invited to the All-Stars in 12 different seasons – 8 of which were consecutive. He was also named rookie of the year after his first season in the league.
Today, we will look at Paul’s career and what we can expect from him in the next year.
Early Years
Chris Paul was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he lived with his parents and his older brother.
He became known as CP3 because he, his father, and his brother all had the same initials.
Paul’s father was a former college athlete who coached both basketball and football. And Paul trained in both sports from an early age.
The brothers spend their summers with their grandfather, who Paul referred to as his best friend and who he claimed taught him his most important life lessons.
College Years
After a very successful high school basketball career, including leading his team to a National U-17 AAU title, Paul went to study at Wake Forest University.
While at Wake Forest, he was named ACC Rookie of the Year, helped them to qualify for the March Madness, and won them the no.1 ranking in the nation for the first time in the history of the club.
Paul was also instrumental in the team’s victory over their local rivals Duke in his second year.
In his second and final year, he was named on ESPN’s Academic All-America Team and the ACC’s All-First Team.
Team – Phoenix Suns
In 2020, Paul moved from the Thunder to the Phoenix Suns. He had previously played for the New Orleans Hornet, Los Angeles Clippers, the Houston Rockets, and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In the season before Paul joined (2019-20), the Suns came third in their division and 10th in the Western Conference overall. The last time they won their division was 2010, and the last time they won the conference title was in 1993.
Since Paul has joined the team they have topped the Western Conference twice. Their 2020-21 appearance was the first time they had made it to the Finals since 2010. This was the first time that Paul had played in the Finals during his career.
Since joining the Suns, Paul has become the 6th player to ever reach 10,000 career assists. He also received his first All-Star callup in 4 years.
This Season
This season was another incredible season for the Suns and Paul.
The team had the best win-loss record of the year, 64–18 – they won 78% of the matches they played.
Paul set a personal best for average blocks per game – at 0.3 and he led the league in average assists per game – 10.8 assists.
In a game against the Timberwolves, Paul racked up his 18th career triple, his match stats were 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 assists.
This Playoff
After an incredibly successful 2020-21 Playoff where they made it to the Finals, fans and bookies had high hopes for the Suns. They had also topped the league for the second year in a row.
However, the Suns only made it to the conference semifinals in this year’s playoffs, they were knocked out by the Mavericks in 7 games. They lost by 30+ points in their final match.
In three of these matches, including the final match, Paul was the Sun with the most assists.
Next Year?
In 2020, Paul signed a 4-year contract with the Phoenix Suns worth over $30 million. This year, Paul will be turning 38 and many people are wondering if he will be retiring before the next season.
However, Paul has been explicit about the fact that he will be returning for the 2022-23 season and maybe a few seasons beyond that.
The last two seasons have been two of the most successful of Paul’s career. We can’t see why he would want to hang up his boots just yet.