07-08 New Orleans Hornets: 56 wins
Chris Paul played 80 games this season and averaged 21.1/4.0/11.6 to go along with 2.7 steals/game. Chris Paul had a strong argument for MVP that year but was edged out by Kobe who had all the career accolades but no MVP up to that point.
The next winningest seasons for the Pelicans were 23-24 and 08-09 tied at 49 wins.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/pelicans-best-season-most-wins
13-14 Los Angeles Clippers: 57 wins
This was the height of the Lob City Clippers. Chris Paul and co. were the last WC team to defeat the GSW in the playoffs before their generational dynasty. I remember this playoff series going to 7 games and being a very fun watch. The next year, the Clippers had to play the defending champ Spurs in the first round where Chris Paul made the game winner in Game 7 with 1 second remaining on a bum hamstring over Tim Duncan and Danny Green. Probably my favorite play of all time.
The next winningest seasons for the Clippers were 14-15 and 12-13 with 56 wins each.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/la-clippers-most-regular-season-wins
2017-18 Houston Rockets: 65 wins
The greatest threat to the KD Warriors. While most teams blew it up to try and rebuild, Daryl Morey and his Rockets were one of the few teams willing to compete against them. Chris Paul, notorious for his elite mid-range game, adapted to MoreyBall along with Harden and Capela to go up 3-2 against the greatest basketball team ever assembled.
Chris Paul goes down with a hamstring injury at the end of game 5 and the rest is history. Chris Paul at times looked like the best player on a court he shared with prime Steph Curry, Harden, Luc Mbah a Moute, KD, Klay, and Draymond. Those first five games are some of the highest skilled basketball that's ever been played imo. Missing 27 straight 3s (with a little sprinkle of Scott Foster in game 7) was some of the lowest skilled basketball that's ever been played.
The next winningest season from the Rockets was 93-94 with 58 wins.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/what-is-the-most-wins-in-a-season-by-the-houston-rockets
21-22 Phoenix Suns: 64 wins
Magical season. Chris Paul was a veteran starting point guard on a team of mostly younger players (and superstar Devin Booker) who consistently closed out 4th quarters all year. Between this season and the OKC season, he built a reputation of being clutch in late game scenarios (something that plagued him early in his career). In game 6 against the Pelicans, he dropped 33 pts with 8 assists on a perfect 14/14 from the field to send his former team packing. He turned 37 about a week later and the Suns lost to the Mavs in an infamous series.
The next winningest seasons from the Suns were 04-05 and 92-93 with 62 wins.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/suns-best-regular-season-record
TL;DR
Chris Paul is 6' tall and is entering his 20th season in the NBA. He has 11 All-NBA seasons and 9 All-Defense teams. He's pretty good at basketball. I'm not sure anyone else has been a star player leading as many teams to their winningest seasons.
The only teams that Chris Paul has not led to their winningest seasons are the ones he spent only one season with (OKC, GSW).
San Antonio?
Edit: "lead" is a bit of hyperbole given how talented that Rockets team and that Suns team were. It's still impressive to be the PG and run some of the best offenses of all time that late in his career
by MJKoala
41 Comments
He didn’t lead the 2018 Rockets
I’d say he lead 3 of them
Harden was literally the MVP in 2018 lol
He aint squeezing 68 wins from the Spurs, just sayin
Which is why I dislike ring culture. Anybody who says CP3 isn’t a winning player is weird.
He should absolutely not be grouped in the same corrupt tier of greatness that Westbrook is in.
How many 3’s to cut the lead to 42?
>San Antonio?
Lol no….. the Spurs will not be winning 67+ games with Chris Paul on the team.
Chris Paul was so good for the Clippers people give his accomplishments to Blake Griffin when Blake always folded when the team needed him most.
I’ve always wondered how much more shit CP3 would’ve talked had the 2010 knee injury not robbed him of his ups. Dude used to dunk (kinda).
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Meanwhile Steph’s only done it for 1
I’m sorry, are we all just gonna ignore the reference to “prime” Luc Mbah A Moute?
> Chris Paul at times looked like the best player on a court he shared with prime Steph Curry, Harden, Luc Mbah a Moute, KD, Klay, and Draymond.
Bro threw The Prince in there and thought we wouldn’t notice
We have to figure out a better word than ‘winningest’, there’s got to be something out there
I saw you sneak in Bhah a Moute
Why the avatar look like Tyson chandler tho lol
I think my favorite CP3 fun fact is that he’s the only player in NBA history to be the total assist leader for two separate franchises.
That makes 68 the goal for the Spurs this year 🙂
I think as a teammate his edge has likely been reinforcing good habits, consistency and accountability. That disciplinarian structure works really well in the regular season when it comes to taking games off opponents who don’t have that same level of sustained focus (eg. back to backs, underdog games, away games in tough arenas)…
In the playoff setting though against other super stars and when players start to lock in, that edge dulls. And as a player he’s very rarely outshined his counter parts on the floor – and arguably the victim of making mental errors himself (ie. 4th quarter turnovers with the Clippers) in these pivotal playoff games (games 5, 6 and 7, etc)
In the words of Draymond Green: some guys are 82 game players, and some are 16. CP3 is the former IMO. He might genuinely be one of the best floor-raisers in history along w/ Westbrook in his prime. But neither are ceiling guys, which is what you want in the playoffs
Also: the season he was on OKC and completely destroyed the over-under w a team of young upstarts. I know that doesn’t fit the criteria of most winningest season but that was a remarkable job of raising the floor. Arguably more impressive than some of the seasons OP listed – listen to this:
2018-19: 49W team. This was when OKC went all in to try to win: PG13, RW and Jerami Grant.
2019-20: 44W team (-5). Clear tank/rebuild year going into the season. All 3 players mentioned above gone during the summer. Finished 5th in regular season in the west; CP3 magic.
2020-21: 22W team (-22). No CP3.
That is insane. Legit GOAT stuff. For instance, if you put 35 y/o Lebron on the Pistons, do you think LeBron could add beyond 25 wins just by himself?
If he does it this year, that would probably put him in the GOAT convo.
Gotta put some respect on that man’s name.
OKC was his most impressive stint imo. That team had absolutely zero business winning as many games as they did
I can’t say I’m a Chris Paul fan in the LEAST but how can you not be excited to see what this Spurs team does.
The penultimate winner. Wish he would’ve been paired with another championship level player
Yea idk if 39 year old Chris Paul is getting San Antonio to 68 wins. If they hit .500 or, hell, make the playoffs, it’ll be good enough
“Chris Paul at times looked like the best player on a court he shared with prime Steph Curry, Harden, Luc Mbah a Moute, KD, Klay, and Draymond.”
Uhhh, one of these is not like the other lol
I like how you put Mbah a Moute in there in that Warriors series on Houston.
that scrub didn’t lead us to 74-8 he’s garbo
He didn’t do it for Washington smh
So sad George Shinn was such a shitty owner
Once you have a nut shot compilation video made about you, you should be banned from the nba. Dude just went around punching people on the nuts. I’ll never understand how anyone can like this guy.
He did not “lead” the Suns or Rockets 😂
CP3 has been him for most of his career and I assumed that was common knowledge.
Chris Paul made the rockets good because he could command the bench unit. In his minutes next to harden he was essentially a role player. Mike Dan toe knee learned pretty quick that it was best to stagger their minutes to always get elite guard play. The rest of that team was just role players that could defend and make open shots that cp3 and harden created for them. Eric Gordon could create a shot for himself. Almost no one else on the team could. And no one but Chris and harden could create a shot for others. So when CP3 went down in game 5, you can double harden to get the ball out of his hands and no one else on the team could make the right pass or create in time before the defense shifts back, leading to a neutered offense. That combined with losing luc mbah amoute & coach Dan toe knee’s famously short rotations left our team gassed in the final games of playoffs series that went 6-7 games.
I know Chris Paul has his dirty tendencies but Clipper fans should be grateful for Chris Paul and Blake griffin. Did they win a chip? No, but they brought huge success to the franchise
And MFS are trying to say he shouldn’t be rated as high as he was 🤚🏿😒
Still no rang
I remember when I was on the deron Williams side of the argument
yet he is still a failure in the playoffs.
CP will always have my respect and as a suns fan I wish he could get a ring
People have been watching too much first take. Chris Paul is/was a winning player.
All-time great regular season player