Chris Paul’s career can be described in one word: bad luck.
Untimely injuries kept him out of some key games, and his luck was one of the worst we’ve seen in the NBA.
Take the 2014-15 and 2017-18 seasons, two seasons in which his teams had a good chance of winning a championship.
In the 2014-15 season, Paul led the Los Angeles Clippers to a record of 56 wins and 26 losses, ranking third in the Western Conference.
They met the defending champion Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. Paul dragged an injured leg in Game 7 and hit a quasi-lore to help the team defeat their opponents.
Entering the second round, they first took a 3-1 lead against the Rockets, but eventually lost in Game 7.
Paul played well in this series, but the poor performances of JJ Redick and Jamal Crawford became the deciding factor in this series.
Turn your attention to the 2017-18 season, which is his first season with the Rockets.
At the time, it seemed like they were going to win a championship that year.
James Harden and his teammates had a fantastic season, and the Rockets entered the playoffs with the best record in the league.
They made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they met the Golden State Warriors.
This round of the series has been played until Game 7, and finally the Warriors won.
It was also in this Game 7 that things got crazy, and the Rockets started the third quarter with an unusually sluggish performance.
In this game, the Rockets made only 7 of 44 three-pointers.
And they missed 27 consecutive three-pointers at one point, and this terrible long-range shooting night became the decisive factor in this round of the series.
For all the ups and downs Paul has had in his career, he’s still a winner.
He has made the playoffs most of his 15-year career.
In this article, we look back at his illustrious career and see the impact he had on the 4 teams he played for.
New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans, 2005-2011 season)
Paul’s time with the Hornets was amazing, and it was here that he established himself as the league’s top point guard.
In six seasons with the Hornets, except for the first two seasons of his career, he only missed the playoffs once in the 2009-10 season.
In this season, he only played 45 games due to injuries, which is why the Hornets were not able to play as expected that year.
He was the MVP of the Hornets, and his best teammate at the time was David West, a two-time All-Star who contributed a lot to the team.
Still, the Hornets weren’t equipped to match the greats of the West at the time, which is why his team fell short in the playoffs.
Los Angeles Clippers (2011-17 season)
After Paul was traded to the Clippers, he quickly turned this team into a playoff team.
The combination of Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and him, plus some veterans, made them an ambitious team that was called “Lob City” at the time.
However, in the Clippers, we started to see Paul’s bad luck.
Although he made the playoffs every year while here, and he and his teammates played consistently, they never made it past the second round of the playoffs due to injuries.
Without the injuries, this team could have won a championship or more and be forever etched in history.
Rockets (2017-19 season)
Paul was the closest he came to a championship when he was in the Rockets, but bad luck kept him from winning the championship again.
His first season with the Rockets was his zenith there, and Paul and the Rockets might have won a title that year had it not been for the aforementioned bad “long shot night.”
After losing to the Warriors in the 2017-18 season, the Rockets failed to regain their form the next season, and Paul also struggled.
He helped the Rockets make the playoffs in each of his two seasons with the Rockets, and despite sharing the floor with a ball-heavy Harden, he still had a solid first season.
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Oklahoma City Thunder (2019 season so far)
After the Rockets’ first season, Paul signed a huge contract extension with the team.
Facts have proved that this is a terrible operation for the Rockets’ management.
One season after his extension, Paul was traded to the Thunder in exchange for Westbrook. At that time, many people believed that the Thunder would start to rebuild, and Paul would be traded again soon.
However, with Paul’s All-Star-level performance, the Thunder have established a new culture, and they are currently ranked No. 5 in the Western Conference.
This season has proved to us that even at his current age, Paul is still the top point guard in the NBA, and he can still perform at a high level.
Despite his bad luck, he was still a winner.
He’s already considered one of the best point guards in NBA history, and anything he does from here on out will add to his already stellar career.