There is a fairly broad disparity between the notion and actuality of “clutch” basketball. We are inclined to imagine it is virtually genetic: some gamers and groups have a clutch intuition, whereas others do not. The reality is extra nuanced than that. Actually, clutch efficiency encompasses such a tiny pattern that it may look virtually random. Final yr’s Bulls had a better clutch internet score than final yr’s Celtics. The 2022-23 Mavericks who missed the playoffs went 26-29 within the clutch. The 2023-24 workforce that made the NBA Finals with a reasonably comparable group of gamers went 23-9. It is probably not absolutely random, however clutch efficiency is never constant.

Until, for the previous few a long time, you’ve got had Chris Paul. The 2016-17 Houston Rockets completed 18th in clutch internet score. Then they acquired Chris Paul and completed first within the 2017-18 season, outscoring opponents by 27.1 factors per 100 possessions in these minutes. The 2018-19 Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder completed eleventh in clutch internet score. Then they acquired Paul and completed first within the 2019-20 season, outscoring opponents by 24.4 factors per 100 possessions in these minutes. The 2019-20 Phoenix Suns completed Twenty first within the NBA in clutch internet score. In the event you’re sensing a development right here, you will be upset. It really took Paul two complete years to cause them to the NBA’s greatest clutch internet score, a staggering +33.4 within the 2021-22 season. All he managed in his first season in Phoenix was a meager journey to the NBA Finals. 

Between his first All-Star season in 2008 and his final in 2022, Paul received 65% of the NBA-defined clutch video games he performed in. Throughout that very same window, LeBron James received 64.2%. Apply the identical standards of first All-Star choice to final to different contemporaries like Kevin Durant (59.6%) and Stephen Curry (60.5%), Paul nonetheless comes out on high. Within the Twenty first-century NBA, there was no simpler path to successful shut, regular-season video games than having Paul in your workforce.

That dreaded, two-word qualifier is what’s going to follow Paul after he retires, which we now know will probably be on the finish of the 2025-26 season. You do not actually get credit score for doing it within the common season if you cannot match it within the playoffs. Paul has by no means received a championship. Barring both a exceptional turnaround by the Clippers or a commerce we do not foresee, he will retire and not using a ring. Even when he will get one this season, effectively, it is exhausting to see it that means all that a lot. Paul has been out and in of the rotation for the Clippers. The star he as soon as was is lengthy gone. He’s destined to affix that ignominious listing of the best gamers by no means to win a championship.

And he is an exceedingly irritating addition to it. He is not his former and present teammate, James Harden, with a prolonged monitor report of elimination recreation disappearing acts. His effort and conditioning by no means waxed and waned like Charles Barkley’s. There is no nice flaw right here, no defect that disadvantaged him of glory. Paul was nice at nearly all the things. He is tied for the seventh-most All-Protection picks in NBA historical past… as a guard listed at 6 ft tall (and doubtless an inch or two shorter). He is flirted with 50-40-90 taking pictures seasons, led the NBA in assists 5 instances whereas virtually by no means turning the ball over and even rebounded exceptionally for a guard. He is a basketball genius, so aggressive in searching for benefits that he as soon as satisfied an official to name a technical foul on an opponent as a result of his jersey wasn’t tucked in. He’s the very definition of a successful participant. He simply by no means really acquired to win.

He bears some duty for that, in fact. The 2014 collapse in opposition to Oklahoma Metropolis, for example, was an absolute debacle. Paul turned the ball over twice in 17 seconds and fouled Russell Westbrook on a 3-pointer whereas up by two, resulting in the worst lack of his playoff profession. However James has the 2011 Finals. Kobe Bryant had 2004. Each legend has a stain someplace on their resume. They have an inclination to wash it off with their victories. And the celebrities simply by no means fairly aligned for Paul, usually for causes exterior of his management.

What number of stars have had a commerce voided by the league? If David Stern hadn’t killed his commerce to the Lakers, he possible would have gotten a minimum of one ring in purple and gold as a result of, effectively, everybody does. It would’ve come alongside Bryant within the twilight of his profession, or it would’ve come within the subsequent iteration of the workforce. As an alternative, he was traded to the cursed Clippers. Blake Griffin could not keep wholesome and Donald Sterling was pressured to promote the workforce.

Even nonetheless, he had an actual likelihood on the 2015 title in Los Angeles. He’d simply slain the defending champion Spurs and led the Rockets by 19 close to the tip of the third quarter of an elimination recreation of the second spherical earlier than Josh Smith and Corey Brewer had one of the best taking pictures quarter of their lives to steal the sport and finally the collection. The Warriors had been susceptible at that time. The Grizzlies had simply pushed them to 6, and the Cavaliers would finally do the identical with out Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. However Paul, hobbled by an harm, could not forestall one of the notorious examples of dangerous taking pictures luck in playoff historical past.

Golden State ascended from there and would develop into essentially the most persistent thorn in Paul’s facet, together with accidents. Think about if the Warriors had received all of it in 2016. Would possibly Durant have chosen to play in Los Angeles with Paul, reasonably than with Curry and the Warriors? We’ll by no means know. Paul had his share of star teammates, however he by no means had what Curry and Durant did collectively, an unimpeachable and almost unstoppable title favourite.

“Practically” unstoppable as a result of Paul virtually stopped them alongside Harden. Houston led Golden State 3-2 after 5 video games within the 2018 Western Convention finals. However Paul injured his hamstring on the finish of Recreation 5. The Warriors took Recreation 6 simply on their house court docket. After which, in one more instance of depressing taking pictures variance, Houston infamously misplaced Recreation 7 at house due to a 0-for-27 taking pictures stretch from deep. A yr later, Paul’s relationship with Harden soured, and he acquired shipped to the Thunder.

No one will or ought to query what occurred subsequent. Sam Presti flipped Paul to Phoenix a yr later and now he has a budding dynasty on his fingers. However it’s exhausting to not surprise if issues might have been totally different had the Thunder elected to not tank. What might Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have been doing collectively for the subsequent few years? Might Presti have used his mountain of draft picks to construct a champion round him? We’ll by no means know. Paul went to Phoenix. He got here nearer than he ever had earlier than. After which Giannis Antetokounmpo had his superhero second. The workforce acquired COVID and collapsed in opposition to Dallas in 2022. And the Paul championship window seemingly closed. Perhaps he might have reopened it as a 2024 free agent. He elected to pursue an actual function with the Spurs over a backup job with a greater workforce. “I really like nothing greater than the chance to play and contribute and hoop,” Paul mentioned on the time.

He did it in addition to virtually anybody who’s ever performed the sport. He is known as the “Level God” for a motive, in spite of everything. However as we coated up high, there’s plenty of randomness inherent in clutch efficiency, and successful championships means successful within the clutch. Paul did as a lot as humanly doable to place himself in a scenario to do this, however even he could not management all the things. He wound up being among the many unluckier gamers in latest NBA reminiscence. Play his profession 100 instances and he is a champion in 90 of them. Tweak even a single issue — accidents, taking pictures variance, workforce circumstance — and he hoists a trophy in some unspecified time in the future.

As an alternative, he joins that irritating listing of all-time greats who by no means had the possibility.