The reach of cable sports shows and social media can really change our perception of an athlete. This seems to be truer in the NBA than in any other sport. Highlights can quickly make a player a demigod amongst the uniformed fans. An embarrassing defeat or miscue can just as quickly define a guy’s career. The ensuing memes, jokes, and hashtags take on a life of their own, and can diminish a player’s reputation sooner than his play. In Change the Narrative, we’ll work to give overdue credit and clarify long-running misconceptions about the NBA’s elite. First up is CP3.

Contemporary point guard conversations should probably start and end with Chris Paul. Drafted in 2005 out of Wake Forest by the Hornets, he’s long been the golden standard for floor generals. In his prime, his game had no visible weaknesses. So even as guys like Rajon Rondo, John Wall, or Stephen Curry made verbal claims to the throne, nobody could match CP’s all-around game. Nobody else could maintain the efficiency Paul displayed, while handling strenuous ballhandling duties, and showing a real commitment to the defensive end. His run as the league’s top lead guard was sweet, but it never manifested itself in extended playoff success.

Check out this clip from the 2014 playoffs:

LA went on to lose that second-round series. That was the only year the Clippers were healthy in the playoffs during CP’s 6 seasons there. It was also the last time that the Warriors weren’t in the Finals.

His press conference after that game showed it all. He made one mistake, and that was enough to cost his team a series. Now multiply that moment by every Clippers possession during Paul’s tenure. That’s what his stay was like. Being the top dog is awesome until everyone on the other team knows you’re the only one that can consistently make and create shots for others. The regular season is a messy tour of road trips and long stretches with minimal walkthroughs and practices. When the playoffs arrive, coaches and scouts can identify every team deficiency and pounce on it relentlessly.

This still says nothing of the team’s health, namely Blake Griffin. The casual fan may see him in commercials and assume he’s a key piece, though his injury history has prevented him from participating in a large number of playoff situations. Even when he is there, the maladies have slowly nipped at his once all-world athleticism. Not to mention he isn’t a natural fit with defensive stalwart, Deandre Jordan.

Chris Paul and Blake Griffin; the duo that was supposed to bring the Clippers to prominence was rarely healthy enough to do so.

Jordan is a historically bad free throw shooter, meaning he’s really a liability in close games, where smart coaches will intentionally foul him to live with his sub-50% free throw percentage. At least CP had JJ Reddick right? Wrong. JJ is that deadly shooter who should never dribble the ball, meaning he requires about 1-2 screens to get the space he needs to release his shot. The setters of those screens are often called for fouls if they aren’t perfectly still. It’s a tough life for the immobile shooter, just ask Ray Allen about the end of his Celtics run. Ok, so if positions, 2, 4, and 5 are locked up, Chris Paul must be able to rely on his small forward. Not at all. In fact, that position was on more of a carousel than any other on the roster in Chris’ LA stint.

He went through Jared Dudley, Austin Rivers, Matt Barnes, Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce, and Luc Mbah A Moute to name a few. The list doesn’t look terrible, but they all came with glaring flaws. The best option, Jared Dudley, claims he was forced to play by Doc Rivers with a bum knee leading him to eventually be traded. Austin Rivers, more guard than forward, is Doc’s son, and was on the verge of playing overseas before Doc traded assets to acquire him. Matt Barnes was a solid wing, though his affinity for technical fouls mitigated the impact of his tenacity on defense. Lance Stephenson was mired in an awful shooting slump and got released. Paul Pierce finessed a 3-year deal out of Doc, as he was at the tail end of a long career. Luc was solid, but that was it. A nice defender, with an average outside shot, and little else.

CP3 encouraging another one of the many small forwards he played with in LA, Paul Pierce.

In an era that saw the rise of Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Paul George, etc. The Clippers marched out small forwards that were either undersized, past their prime, out of shape, or some combination of the three. Those were the kind of tools Chris Paul went to war with every year.

So, imagine that it’s crunch time, and the Clippers need a bucket. CP3 has the ball and looks up to see JJ Reddick, DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, and Luc Mbah Moute. It’s hard for me to blame him when those were his teammates during his prime years. All it took was one injury, one bad call, one suspension, or one more shortsighted roster decision to make the entire thing crumble in an ultra-competitive Western Conference. That culpability cannot be aimed at the player that works to keep the entire ship afloat.

It almost made me sad that CP3 headed to Houston, because it gave the critics more ammo to say that he couldn’t do it in LA. But LA was never about him and his shortcomings, it was primarily an organization and ownership that through bad luck and poor roster choices couldn’t shake its cursed history. Chris Paul belongs in any all-time point guard conversation, with no asterisks or disqualifiers attached.