Many consider Houston Rockets stud Chris Paul to be one of the best point guards in the game today, if not ever. According to Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo! Sports, the 33-year-old is set to overtake yet another great in former Detroit Pistons star Isiah Thomas in the all-time assists leaderboard.
At the moment, Paul sits at 8,708 career assists. Thomas, who himself played 13 seasons in the league (all with the Pistons), has a career assists tally of 9,061. This leaves Paul just 353-shy of Thomas’ record. Provided that Paul remains healthy this year, he should be able to easily smash this record before the season is over.
Last year, in an injury-plagued debut season with the Rockets, Paul was only able to suit up for a total of 58 regular season games. Moreover, the 6-foot point god played alongside season MVP James Harden who himself amassed 8.8 assists per ballgame or a total of 603 on the year. Nonetheless, Paul was still able to record a total of 457 assists. Merely equaling this tally should see him move to seventh all-time on the list, pushing himself above Thomas.
The 457 assists Paul recorded last season was the lowest output in his entire career. This total was even lower than his tally in the 2009-10 season (480 assists) with the New Orleans Hornets in which he was only able to play 45 regular season contests — 13 less games compared to last year.
Injuries, a beast of a backcourt partner, and Father Time all played a part in Paul’s reduced production the last term. Nonetheless, he is now in the best position to win an NBA title than he ever was in his 13 years in the association.
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