Kinda? But that’s only because they’re two of the worst franchises in league history lol. Like his competition for the pelicans is Zion and AD. His competition for the clippers is … I don’t even know? Blake Griffen? A perenially injured kawhi? 

Clippers, hornets? Yeah, I think so

The comments in this thread are insane I had no idea this sub hated chris paul so much.

That said, easily the greatest hornet and clipper ever. Good post OP.

Kinda sucks that this very interesting post got downvoted into oblivion. Nice try, OP.

This is a weird accomplishment because it’s far more impressive than it sounds. CP3 was on some dog shit franchises.

Best heat player all-time is definitely Wade. Best Cavs player all-time is definitely J.R. Smith

He’s way better than kawhi for the clips. Kawhis been injured virtually every postseason for them. The only season he was healthy in the playoffs they blew a 31 lead to the nuggets. The only season the clips made the conf finals was without him.

When did Giannis become the clear-cut greatest Buck?

In his 6 years in Milwaukee, Kareem won 3 MVPs and never placed lower than 3rd in voting. He won two scoring titles and made 3 All Defense teams. The Bucks averaged 57 wins per season (61 for the first 5 years before a terrible last season), won a championship and made it to Game 7 of the Finals another year.

Giannis beats him on longevity and obviously he plays in a much more skilled and competitive era, but Kareem had a significantly higher peak. His Bucks reached the conference finals more times in 6 seasons than Giannis’ Bucks have in 12 seasons.

people don’t want to hear it but LeBron’s the greatest Heat player ever. years 2 and 3 in particular might be his athletic prime, he was MVP both years running away, they don’t win either title without him. i get the longevity of Wade but when you having arguably the best player ever at the peak of his powers, that clears

I love Barkley, but I don’t think he’s the greatest ever player for the Suns.

Dr. J is absolutely the best 76er of all time

he actually won a title, won an MVP, and played both sides of the ball

he took the 76ers to 4 total Finals and the only Finals he averaged less than 25/7/5 was when they won the Finals in a 4-0 sweep

plus. Dr. J is the only dude who you can say was cooler and more culturally important than Iverson and be right

idk if people realize that Dr. J averaged nearly 2 blocks and 2 steals a game in the playoffs in his Philly career across 141 playoff games

on top of his 21/7/5 and being the most dynamic athlete in the league, i think Dr. J was clearly the best 76er and that Iverson is simply more recent

Iverson was so inefficient

Michael Jordan - Bulls and Wizards :P

As a New Orleans fan, Paul and AD aren’t close.

It’s Paul by far. Both from watching them play and the way the city views both of them.

We still respect and love Paul. We all hate AD.

No one in LA thinks Shaq has the best Lakers peak ever. I guess there’s an argument for it but ‘probably’ is way too strong.

Don’t forget CP3 mentored SGA in OKC and I think it made a huge difference.

I still think Dwight is the best magic player ever. Shaq felt like a loan. I’d arguably put Penny over him.

Dr. J’s gotta be the GOAT Sixer right? I know Iverson had the MVP but recency bias aside Doc had a ton more playoff success. Like you said in OP Wilt’s time as an actual Sixer was pretty short.

It’s not like the Nets have had monumental NBA success to just cast away their great ABA years. Had J. Kidd snatched an MVP to go alongside 2 Finals appearances I may give it to him. But 3 MVPs & 2 FMVPs in 3 years as a Net is enough for me.

I’d give Dr. J GOAT status for 2 franchises, too.

I saw his first ever NBA game live. Love that guy.

I’d argue Kawhi in his 1 year in Toronto became both the best and greatest player they’ve had. When you think of the greatest moments in their franchise it’s Kawhi and he was also their best player.  

Is Chris Paul is? Answer: Chris Paul are

76ers is almost undisputedly Wilt. He won a ring, and 3 MVPs, while no other Sixer has more than 1 MVP or 1 Title.

Clippers/Braves is Probably still McAdoo, but just Clippers it’s a toss up between Blake, CP3, Kawhi, and PG (2021 WCF carrying a lot of weight to argue that).

New Orleans is CP3

Warriors is undisputedly Steph

If you’re willing to have Kawhi, Moses, and Barkley as honorable mentions, I think Durant should be there too for the Thunder and Nets. His combination of peak and longevity with the thunder gives him a reasonable case relative to Shai and Westbrook. The Nets case is a little shakier, but he probably has the highest peak of any Nets player and the most impressive playoff run in the franchise’s NBA history (at least statistically).

Bob McDoo is a bad bad bad man. But yeah, you make a great argument

Bob McAdoo isn’t getting enough conversation as best Clipper. In 5 years he won an MVP and was runner up twice. Averaged over 31 in a 3 year period with a steal, 2.5 blocks, 3 assists, 10 rebounds. I would put that over Chris Paul as “best”

Giannis isn’t remotely better than Kareem. Wtf. My guess is that you’re young? Not a crime! But jfc. 

I think Blake is the greatest clipper

Such an achievement to dethrone Darius Miles, Corey Maggette, Chris Kaman and Sam Cassell to become the Clippers best

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It’s a semantic distinction between best and greatest. Still this is a fun topic for an online discussion forum.

Yes. He’s the only one.

Great player who played for two historically terrible franchises.

it’s easier when it’s two of the historically worst franchises.

If you ask a lot of suns fans today they will say Booker might be the greatest sun ever

Yes

Bron

Chuck is loved in Phoenix but he was only there for like 4 years. It’s Nash or booker as the franchise goat.

For now, Paul can claim to the best player in NOP’s franchise history (even though the defining Pelican is Jrue), but he may bot hold onto it much longer.

Absolutely not

Westbrook

greatest wizard of all time

He’s a tad bit better than Patrick Beverly lol

No, one of the biggest playoff chokers of all time. As well as being one of the all time NBA dirtiest players.

Strongly disagree with your Kareem take. Recency bias is really something in the NBA

You saying Wade not being the greatest or best Heat player ever makes this invalid.

Hornets yes clippers no

Greatest and best is a dumb distinction and I will forever hate it

Maybe!

CP3 is the only guy on that list with no rings. He has one Finals appearance outside his prime and a bunch of nothing spectacular in the post-season. If we do all this post-season means so much to All-Time legacies, why is Paul on the list?

BBREF lists the top 12 players from each franchise based on individual win shares. CP3 is in the #1 spot for both the Clippers and Pelicans, so that checks out. But his lead is very marginal in both.
That got me looking at which players have the biggest lead over the number two player for any current franchise, and that guy is Dirk. The top five is:

1. Dirk Nowitzki - Mavs (206.3 in 1522 games): +136 over Rolando Blackman (70.3 in 865 games) (+657 games)
   
2. Reggie Miller - Pacers (174.4 in 1389 games): +110.9 over Roger Brown (63.5 in 559 games) (+830 games)
   
3. Michael Jordan - Bulls (204.5 in 930 games): +104.8 over Scottie Pippen (99.7 in 856 games) (+74 games)
   
4. Lebron James - Cavs (154.1 in 849 games): +88.7 over Mark Price (65.4 in 582 games) (+267 games)
   
5. Oscar Robertson - Kings (154.2 in 752 games): +79.2 over Jack Twyman (75.0 in 679 games) (+73 games)
   

MJ and Oscar having such huge leads despite playing not that many more games is crazy. It took Reggie an additional 830 games to build a 111 point lead over his next best player. It took MJ another 74 to build a 105 point lead over Scottie.
If we break it down to per game numbers we can see how they better compare to the next guy in their franchise:

Dirk 0.136 vs Blackman 0.081 (+0.055 or +4.5 wins per season)
Reggie 0.126 vs Brown 0.114 (+0.012 or +1.0 wins per season)
Jordan 0.220 vs Pippen 0.116 (+0.104 or +8.5 wins per season)
Lebron 0.182 vs Price 0.112 (+0.070 or +5.7 wins per season)
Oscar 0.205 vs Twyman 0.110 (+0.095 or +7.8 wins per season)

Don’t forget Dr. J with the Squires.

Very interesting how his career would be if the Lakers trade was done.

Saying Shaqs peak is better than Magic is certified crazy btw

Kawhi?

Wade as the greatest heat player and having more impact than Bron is certainly an opinion

If you only count New Orleans and not the team in Charlotte before (following the NBA “official” history), then yeah he’s probably the best Pelican ever. But that’s arguably the lowest bar to cross in the entire league. Maybe the Hornets are the only bar lower?

And for the Clippers, there’s a few players that come to mind as better Clippers: Brand, Griffin, McAdoo, maybe even Randy Smith or Corey Maggette.

But somehow CP being the “worst best player” feels like it fits him, at least to me.

The point fraud will be done and forgotten pretty quickly. Let’s not waste a post on him

Giannis is over KAJ bc of how long at one place. Not overall career (yet?!). Bucks GOAT unquestionably

Can’t win with him . Chris Paul is right up there with Westbrook. Don’t matter what the stats say , don’t want him on your team .

Paul westphal is in the argument for best sun.