#4 Chris Paul – Phoenix Suns
2020-21 Stats: 16.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 8.9 APG, 1.4 STL, 49.9 FG%, 39.5 3P%
Finishing fifth in this past year’s MVP voting, Chris Paul made his first-ever NBA Finals appearance with the Phoenix Suns, as they finished with the second-best record during the regular season.
Paul proved to be one of the league’s best leaders last season, as he took a Suns team that had not been to the postseason in 10 seasons all the way to the NBA Finals, where they came up short of winning a title after they beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the first two games of the series.
At 36-years-old, many players in the NBA are beginning to start figuring out their life after basketball and when they will retire, but this does not seem to be the case with Chris Paul. The “Point God” himself put together yet another impressive season to add to his Hall-of-Fame resume and CP3 is not going to quit until he wins a title, especially after he came so close to doing so this past year.
There is no better leader in the NBA right now than Chris Paul and that is very apparent after seeing how he took a very young and inexperienced team deep into the playoffs.
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In fact, the only other player on their roster who actually played last season with playoff experiences was Jae Crowder, making the Phoenix Suns one of the most inexperienced teams to ever make the NBA Finals.
Coming off a season in which he recorded a near 4:1 assist to turnover ratio, Paul is not slowing down yet and he still has a lot left in the tank. He has continued to prove that he is one of the better passers in the entire league and still having the ability to score in the mid-range, Chris Paul finds himself as one of the top-tier point guards entering the new season in Year 17.
#3 Damian Lillard – Portland Trail Blazers
2020-21 Stats: 28.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 7.5 APG, 0.9 STL, 45.1 FG%, 39.1 3P%
There was a lot of talk about whether or not Damian Lillard was on the trade block this offseason, but the potential MVP candidate himself has made his intentions to stay in Portland very clear.
Lillard wants to win a title with the Trail Blazers and while that may not ever be possible, he is still willing to stick with them and do all he can to make his dreams a reality.
Whether or not Dame requests a trade next offseason is yet to be determined and that is a completely different story for another day, but the 2021-22 season has a chance to be Lillard’s best statistical season of his career.
Damian Lillard wants to win now and he is going to do everything he can do to make this happen, which is why he is going to average 30+ PPG during the regular season and potentially win the scoring race in the league.
They may have lost in the first round of the playoffs last season, but against the Denver Nuggets, Lillard averaged 34.3 points per game while shooting 44.9% from three-point range, including an amazing Game 5 performance in which Damian Lillard scored 55 points on 12-17 shooting from three-point range, breaking Klay Thompson’s record for Most Three-Pointers Made in a Single Playoff Game.
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Lillard is one of the best shooters and scorers at the point guard position in the entire NBA and we are about to see a whole new level of “Dame Time” this upcoming year.
The 31-year-old guard is out to prove all of his haters wrong and if there is one thing we know about Damian Lillard, it is that he does not back down from anyone.
