I agree with those saying playoff performance is important. What has lilliard or cp3 ever accomplished in the playoffs
I'm pretty sure CP3 is statistically one of the most clutch players of the past 10 years.
Chris Paul is unapologetically a pass-first PG, but if you watch the Clippers playoff games where Blake Griffin hasn't played...Chris Paul has almost always come up with 25 - 30 point scoring performances on those nights.
I think he's proven pretty consistently that he is capable of being an elite scorer in this league when he needs to be. Statistically his shooting numbers are up there with the best from everywhere on the court (from three, from midrange, in the paint, at the basket, from the foul line - you name it).
CP3 can and does score from anywhere, he is (IMHO) the best playmaker in the league, and is also consistently one of the best defensive PGs in the league - all this despite the fact that he's only 6'0" tall.
He's also consistently led the (constantly injury prone) Clippers up there among the top 4 teams in the hyper competitive Western Conference, pretty much since the day he landed there - the same Clippers franchise that was practically a laughing stock before Paul arrived.
Not sure if people recall, but the world laughed at the idea that the Clippers might actually be better then the Lakers for the first time in history. Yet they've been better than the Lakers pretty much every year since CP3 got there. He single handily turned that franchise around, and his elite passing ability was instrumental to creating the "lob city" that allowed allowing Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan to flourish in to max contract All-Stars.
So in fairness, I think Chris Paul has earned his place among the very best at his position.
Iirc from 07 to 14 Jeff Green was top 3 in that category, so there's that for clutchness.
Do you know what Chris Paul has averaged in the playoffs vs regular season the past three years?
Regular season:
2014/15: 19.1 pts, 10.2 ast, 4.6 reb, 1.9 stl, 49% FG
2015/16: 19.5 pts, 10.0 ast, 4.2 reb, 2.1 stl, 46% FG
2016/17: 18.1 pts, 9.2 ast, 5.0 reb, 2.0 stl, 48% FG
Playoffs:
2014/15: 22.1 pts, 8.8 ast, 4.4 reb, 1.8 stl, 50% FG
2015/16:23.8 pts, 7.3 ast, 4.0 reb, 2.3 stl, 49% FG
2016/17: 25.3 pts, 9.9 ast, 5.0 reb, 1.7 stl, 50% FG
That's +3 PPG / +4.3 PPG / +7.2 PPG in the playoffs versus the regular season over the past three seasons, all while consistently hovering around the 50% FG mark - which is phenomenal for a 6'0" PG.
If that isn't proof of a man who elevates his game on the big stage, then I don't know what is...
Chris Paul is an elite PG and is absolutely in the top tier of PGs right now. And with career playoff averages of 21 PPG / 9.4 APG / 4.7 RPG / 2.2 SPG he will also go down as one of the top tier all-time PGs. He ranks 3rd all time in assists, 6th all time in steals, 6th all time in PER, 2nd all time in Win Shares Per 48, 3rd all time in Box Plus/Minus...
He is quite probably the best PG this game has seen since John Stockton.
So when you combine all of the information I just noted above
in combination with his statistical excellence in clutch situations - I think it's safe to say that he gets a pass here, and that he is not comparable in any way to Jeff Green.
Unfortunately he has had difficulties with injuries in his career (both himself and those around him - David West, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin) and that has held him back in his pursuit of the ultimate goal. But that is not something he can control, and not something we can fault him for. He deserves to have his name at the top just like the other all time greats who didn't win a title (Malone, Stockton, Ewing, etc).