A Bored Chris Paul (Gross Speculation On a Player's Attitude and Motivation)

I think CP is just not 100%. He had to wear the knee brace and now that he’s taken it off, he may not be completely sure of himself. It’s somewhat understandable if that is the case.

That’s why others have to try to step it up.

we’ve seen Paul hesitate on more shots than most players do for an entire career. Reason I don’t feel it’s boredom (or anything resembling it) is because you can see the angst on his face when things don’t work out – especially him missing shots, etc. Also, I’ve read enough excerpts by beat writers to know he’s taking it very personally when they’ve seen him sit at his locker for lengthy periods or just not appear as positive as he once was.

I’m almost certain it’s the knee. CP3 still moves around relatively well but you can tell he’s not as “bouncey” as he used to be. I remember when the kid dunked on Dwight Howard but now he doesn’t even dunk it when he’s alone on a breakaway. He’s always looking all around when he’s on the perimeter and if a guy makes a move towards him when he gets into shooting position (even if he’s 5 feet away), CP3 refuses to put it up.

MY THEORY: Seems semi-apparent to me CP3 dealing with physical limitations for such a long time now that it’s also affected his confidence and thus his once impenetrable decision-making. My thinking is that Monty saw this in preseason (or CP3 came up to him) and they decided to have him play off the ball more. I’m sure they figured they would have had the ability to go to CP3 god-mode at some point in the season. The fact CP3 is still having problems coming through with more regularity of late is apparent he’s not any better than he was at the start of the year. Hope it does fall into place sometime before the playoffs, but my guess is CP3 of old won’t be back until next season or if at all. His knee has probably deteriorated so much that his only option is now to re-invent himself.

Going into the season, I felt this argument would be prevalent and, not only that, it would affect the Hornets for the majority of the regular season. But after I watched the start of the season and saw how well Chris Paul played, I’m not sure if I fully agree. Paul came into this season playing fantastic basketball and only tailed off about a month or so ago. I think the pace and his knee injury have really affected his play and I still think those are the big problems.

When I mention his knee injury, I don’t mean it in the sense that he’s crippled and can’t do anything. I mean it in the sense that he’s having to adapt his game to accomodate for that and not take as many chances, therefore risking further injury. He’s played in every game this year but it’s obvious that he hasn’t played at a high level in all of them. I’m still that idiot who thinks that Paul’s pacing himself for the postseason and that he’ll eventually play better when the playoffs ask him to. But Paul’s lack in production happened when Okafor wasn’t able to attract attention in the paint for him. I don’t think that’s coincidence.

Just like West has played more outside-in than inside-out after the back injuries, I think Paul is just altering his game to accomodate for the knee injuries. I don’t think it has anything to do with him not caring.

I think it is partially injured knee and worrying about not hurting it again and having to miss a lot of time. I also think that monty might have taken a little bit of the control out of paul’s hands witht his slow paced game. Yes it paul can control the time but it takes a little bit of the play making away because he has to create through set plays instead of creating through fastbreaks and runouts. By having those fast breaks secondary players get easier baskets which makes it easier on paul. Instead paul has to walk it up the defense gets set which means paul has to create the missmatches instead of the offense creating missmatches putting even more pressure on paul and givien those secondary guys a harder shot.

But let’s think back to 07-08. Was the team really more talented then? West is playing better basketball this season in my opinion. Tyson Chandler is playing great with Dallas, but in New Orleans he couldn’t stay on the floor. Pargo = Jack. Peja was the same story as Tyson, and Beli has been hot lately. Butler had a much better shot than Ariza has, but Ariza is money on defense.

But the credit I give to you for the post is: what if Chris feels like he needs a fresh start? I really think CP is better and smarter than Melo and Lebron, who think they own the world. CP won’t hold the league hostage (ESPN may make it seem that way, though). I’m just worried if his play doesn’t improve, he may feel that he needs a fresh start. And low and behold, 2 seasons from now, the knee will be fully healed, and coincedence will kick in and make his play better no matter where he ends up.

For right now and hopefully for the future, CP says “We have the best coaching staff in the league.” I think he feels challenged and not bored. But physical limitations are playing an issue.