[CP3] would still be.
1) Overrated
2) Pouty team cancer
3) 5'10"ish
4) Playoff failure
5) Injury prone
6) Slow (see 5)
CP3 was still really good even 1-2 seasons ago... one could argue that Houston would've gone to the Finals that year had he not gone down with an injury in Game 5 of the WC Finals vs the Warriors (though should be added that Igoudala was out for GS for most of that series too).
He was an All-Star as recently as 2016 (9 times in total), was All-NBA Second Team in 2016, and All-NBA Defensive First Team in 2017. Ppl forget how good he was on the Clippers, which is why Houston threw SO MUCH money at him at the time.
BUT, now he's starting to wear down. Especially come playoff-time. But he still has that bloated supermax contract.
So now he looks like a boat-anchor. Okay, yeah, but no one twisted Daryl Morey's arm and MADE him throw a four-year supermax contract at a 33-year-old point guard (they'd already had Paul for a year at that point).
I'm sure Paul feels immense pressure to perform given the money and expectations on him, and of course that's making things worse. Also, D'Antoni's 'All-Harden all-the-time' offensive system must be frustrating to play in, and not just for Paul. It kind of anesthetizes EVERYONE on the Rockets, as they're just reduced to spectators much of the time.
So, CP3 is acting out, and some of it is him and some of him are the circumstances he finds himself in. What to do? Don't know. His contract makes him unshoppable, unless there's some way for Houston to pick up part of the tab, and I don't know if there is.
Morey's probably tearing his hair out. He's such a
Moneyball kind-of-guy that it must give him ulcers every day to be paying supermax to a guy who's no longer capable of earning it, especially in Houston's current system.
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