Ask Charles Barkley...Top 3 Pg's list last night

[fanofgreen]

Did Anybody else see this last night?
Where Charles, blantantly disrespected Chris Paul to his face...hahaha...when he was listing his Top 3 Point Guards in the NBA & Why?

He picked Deron Williams, solely on the fact the Deron Williams is bigger.....he made it seem as if Deron Williams all of a sudden had a Growth Spurt over the course of the season. haha

http://my.nba.com/tmobile

[Mr October]

I think Barkley is right on about Williams vs Paul. Paul is great, but he is a ball dominator. Williams has the size, and doesn't need to dominate the ball in order to get his / feed his teammates.

After that.... Rose is great.... yet he's not #3 for me, not yet.

1. Williams
2. Paul
3. Nash
4. Rondo
5. Rose
6. Parker

[Evantime34]

Did Anybody else see this last night?
Where Charles, blantantly disrespected Chris Paul to his face...hahaha...when he was listing his Top 3 Point Guards in the NBA & Why?

He picked Deron Williams, solely on the fact the Deron Williams is bigger.....he made it seem as if Deron Williams all of a sudden had a Growth Spurt over the course of the season. haha

http://my.nba.com/tmobile

I saw it but I forget who the other two were Derek Rose and Thinking that Rose is better than Paul is outrageous. At least no one can accuse Charles of trying to be nice rather than giving his opinion. But then again no one has ever accused Charles of holding his tongue.

The point is, if Chris Paul had been healthy he's the best point guard in the league. His teammates are awful and he makes every single one of them better.

[fairweatherfan]

Did Anybody else see this last night?
Where Charles, blantantly disrespected Chris Paul to his face...hahaha...when he was listing his Top 3 Point Guards in the NBA & Why?

He picked Deron Williams, solely on the fact the Deron Williams is bigger.....he made it seem as if Deron Williams all of a sudden had a Growth Spurt over the course of the season. haha

http://my.nba.com/tmobile

I saw it but I forget who the other two were Derek Rose and Thinking that Rose is better than Paul is outrageous. At least no one can accuse Charles of trying to be nice rather than giving his opinion. But then again no one has ever accused Charles of holding his tongue.

The point is, if Chris Paul had been healthy he's the best point guard in the league. His teammates are awful and he makes every single one of them better.

He didn't say Rose was better than Paul - he picked Paul as #2 and Rose as #3. 

I think Williams is better than Paul right now, but a healthy Paul is probably the best PG in the league.  Hope he can get on a really good team before he gets old.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I always liked Williams more than CP3... except for that playoff run a couple of years ago where CP3 was just ridiculous. But teams have learned to play him better.

[Eddie20]

Paul dominates the ball a lot more than Williams. Williams doesn't need the ball in his hands to have an impact. He can spot up and play off teammates if called upon. He played a lot of 2 guard for Team USA and had great success playing off of Paul on that second unit.

[nickagneta]

I think Barkley is right on about Williams vs Paul. Paul is great, but he is a ball dominator. Williams has the size, and doesn't need to dominate the ball in order to get his / feed his teammates.

After that.... Rose is great.... yet he's not #3 for me, not yet.

1. Williams
2. Paul
3. Nash
4. Rondo
5. Rose
6. Parker

Hollinger has a list out today that looks similar to your's Mr O.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2010/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-100504

So right now, my list of the top point guards in the league looks like this:

1. Williams
2. Nash
3. (Keeping it warm for Paul)
4. Rondo
5. Billups

Honorable mention: Rose, Westbrook, Parker, Nelson.

That might not be your list, and that's part of the fun. Nash, Williams and Rondo have renewed the debate over the league's top point guard, a matter that had been settled as long as Paul was healthy. And we might find ourselves changing our minds several times in the next two weeks as we watch those three light up the second round. We might even get the occasional urge to move Parker and Nelson higher up the list, as well.

I like Hollinger's list and might even have Rondo above Paul because of Rondo's clutch playoff performances and statistics over the last three years. I think over the last three years he's been the league's best playoff PG.

I make my case for that statement here:

http://www.celticsblog.com/2010/5/4/1457270/rajon-rondo-playoff-monster

Some numbers to justify this:

- Rondo has more total assists(391) and total steals(94) than any other player in the league in the playoffs over the last 3 years.

- Rondo has the second best assist to turnover ratio amongst PGs in the playoffs over the last 3 years(3.56).

- Rondo leads all PGs in total rebounds(284) and rebounds per game(8.3)in the playoffs over the last three years.

- Rondo, while never being considered a big scorer, has the third most points(616) amongst PGs in the playoffs over the last 3 years

- Twice Rondo has dished out 19 assists in a playoff game, a Celtic record.

- Rondo has 12 double doubles and 3 triple doubles in 47 career playoff games, all over the last three years.

 

Over each of the last three years, Rajon has raised the level of his play from the regular season to the playoffs and yet also seems to get better from year to year in his playoff appearances. His first playoff season, Rondo was a bit inconsistent but always seemed to come up big just when the team needed him to. He had a very good defensive playoff season. Then last year, without Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe or any real viable back up option at PG, Rondo raised his game to a level for a point guard that hadn't been seen in NBA playoff basketball since possibly Magic Johnson, when he averaged 16.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG and 9.7 APG over a 14 game playoff run.

 

And now this year, he is leading the league in playoff minutes played, assists, minutes per game and assists per game. He has raised his free throw percentage to over 80%, over a 10 point increase from his career average. He is shooting three point shots at a rate of 55.7%, over double his career rate. He has a true shooting percentage of 56% and his PER is over 20. Rajon is averaging 16.3 PPG, 11.7 APG,  5.9 RPGand 2.0 STPG thus far this post season.