29. Chris Paul - Chris Paul's Advanced Stat numbers are simply silly. Ridiculous. Whatever term you want to use and say, "I cannot believe how good they are." Net Rating - plus 17 (122/105). PER - 25. Win Shares - 187 and counting. WS/48 - .241. BPM - 7.4. VORP - 88.4. I mean, the WORST placement he has in these stats is 11th (Win Shares) all of the way up to 4th (WS/48).
He is the Karl Malone of guards in that his advanced stats in the regular season place him in a strata of players that rank WAY higher on the list (Jerry West, Magic, Kobe, Oscar).
But ooooh, that playoff resume is pretty bad. AND his All-NBA and MVP placements are not what you think they would be. (4x First Team, 2-3-4-5-6-6-7-7). Probably should have been 2008 MVP, and his 2009 numbers were second only to one of LeBron's best seasons.
28. John Stockton - There may come a time when I move CP3 above him. That time will have to be 2024, because it isn't today. Stockton is a wildly underappreciated player, as is evidenced by his 2x first-team All-NBA and his MVP placements of 7-8-9-10-11-12. I mean, come on. His team won 55 games a year and made the NBA Finals twice. It was him and Malone, and he certainly has a lot better argument to be Malone's equal than Pippen had to be Jordan's. All-time steals and assists leader and it isn't close. Excellent defender. 208 Win Shares. Top 10 in BPM, VORP, top 20 in WS/48.
Net Rating plus 17, adjusted shooting +2,500, 13 seasons with 10+ Win Shares (only Karl, LeBron and Kareem have more such seasons). If there is a tiebreaker - I kind of like John Stockton, and I really despise Chris Paul.
27. Rick Barry -- I will concede that Barry is a personal favorite. 9x All-NBA or All-ABA. He lost a season and a half due to fighting antitrust rules. MVP placements - 2-4-4--5-5-5. He was almost always regarded as a top 5 players AND PEOPLE DESPISED HIM. I mean, think James Harden level of annoyance plus even more of an asshole. The all-time leader in Finals PPG. His 1974-75 season where he led his team to a sweep of the heavily favored Bullets in the Finals is just a slight level below the top 10 overall seasons of all-time (3rd in WS and BPM, won Finals MVP). His advanced numbers are not great, more befitting someone in the 30-50 range of players. But Rick Barry was insanely good. Everyone knew it. He was always all-league (9x) and regularly top 5 MVP. You could argue for lower, so go ahead and make your own list.
26. Elgin Baylor -- if you look really hard at Elgin Baylor's career, there are two time periods - the first 5 years where he just was insanely good (3-5-3-4-2 in MVP placement) and then the rest where he was still 1st team All-NBA 5 more times. His Advanced Stats are about like guys who I considered and rejected back in the 50-60 range. From 1960 to 1963 he led the playoffs in scoring every year and averaged around 35-15-4 in the playoffs. He lost games due to military service, and he had substantial injuries. But he was 10X All-NBA and the next guy you will see on the list at 10X is MUCH higher than Elgin. Only Cousy and Barry behind him are comparable.
So, we see that we have reached the Top 25 and we do not yet have Harden or Curry. Will they be ##1 and 2 overall? Is it over for Jordan at the top?
We shall see. There is a long time left in April.
Hoops Maven
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