The battle between the All-Time Detroit Pistons vs. All-Time Los Angeles Clippers features a point guard matchup for the ages. The historical rankings of these players are highly dependent on the factors that are valued by the ranker. One is a statistical marvel who hasn’t had the team success that other stars of his stature have earned. The other is a two-time champion who doesn’t have the (advanced) statistical profile of other legends. Who’s better? Let’s take a deeper look at our key matchup.
Key Matchups
Zeke vs. CP3: The battle between Isiah Thomas and Chris Paul is a fascinating one. ESPN’s recent All-Time #NBARank had them as the fifth and sixth best point guards of all time, respectively. What distinguishes these two legends?
Stats
As previously mentioned, Chris Paul may be the greatest statistical point guard in NBA history. Thomas’s value was not captured by advanced statistics (Kevin Pelton explained this well in his insider piece about Zeke). In fact, here’s a comparison of their statistics (as of 03-25-16), along with their all-time rank in several key categories:
Their surface statistics are very similar, although Paul’s numbers came in a league where less points per game were scored, on average, than when Isiah played (at the midpoint of Thomas’s career, 1987-88, the Pistons averaged 109.2 PPG with a pace of 98.3, while at the midpoint of Paul’s career, 2010-11, the Hornets averaged 94.9 PPG with a pace 88.7. While that’s not entirely fair, since the Hornets were one of the slowest-paced teams in the league, there were fewer possessions per game, and subsequently less scoring, on average, in the NBA at that time). The true difference lies in their shooting, protection of the ball, and overall efficiency. Thomas had a career true shooting percentage of .516, compared to Paul’s career .578 mark. Thomas committed an estimated 16.8 turnovers per 100 possessions, compared to Paul’s 13.0 turnover percentage. Paul’s career PER ranks 6th in basketball (NBA and ABA) history, in between Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit. Thomas’s career PER ranks 139th in basketball history, in between Antawn Jamison and Kyle Lowry. Paul is also third ever in win shares per 48 minutes, behind only Michael Jordan and David Robinson. Thomas doesn’t rank in the top 250 ever. While Paul still hasn’t entered his decline phase, he’ll still likely have an almost incomprehensible lead over Thomas in these measures by the time his career is finished.
Pressure Moments
Isiah is known as one of the greatest clutch players in NBA history, while Paul is infamous for never making a conference finals appearance (thus far) in his career. Paul still has a sizable advantage over Thomas in his playoff advanced statistics, though it is less pronounced than their difference in the regular season (Paul’s career advanced playoff numbers: .584 TS%, 25.2 PER, .200 WS/48; Thomas’s career advanced playoff numbers: .520 TS%, 19.8 PER, .143 WS/48). These two have both had several noteworthy playoff moments, both positive and negative.
Memorable playoff moments
Isiah had a flair for the dramatic like few others. One of his finest showings came in the deciding game of the first round of his first playoff appearance (1984), when he scored 16 points in the final 90 seconds to force the game into overtime (where Detroit wound up losing). His magnum opus came on the grandest stage of them all, in his first NBA Finals appearance in 1988. With Detroit on the verge of a series win, Thomas scored a Finals-record 25 third quarter points, despite spraining his ankle mid-way through the period. To this day, there hasn’t been a finer performance in NBA playoff history.
Paul had his signature playoff moment in Game 7 of the 2015 opening round series against the defending champion Spurs. Despite playing with a hamstring injury, he hit the go-ahead shot with one second left in the game. It appeared that he finally shed the baggage of his teams’ playoff failures, until…
Memorable playoff blunders
In the next round, the Clippers were about to advance past the Rockets and go the first Conference Finals in franchise history. They were up by 19 points in the final moments of the third quarter of Game 6, with a three to two series lead. Then all hell broke loose. This was a team collapse that is difficult to pin solely on Paul, but it’s alarming that his team had so little poise. A year earlier, he melted down in Game 5 of the semi-finals against the Thunder, costing L.A. a chance to go ahead in the series. In 2008, Jannero Pargo was confusingly the most aggressive Hornets player down the stretch of game 7 of the conference semi-finals against the Spurs, which they lost at home. Paul has been brilliant in his postseason career, and his shortcomings are mostly related to losing to superior teams. However, there are warts on his resume.
Thomas isn’t without fault in the playoffs either, with one of the most infamous gaffes in playoff history during Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. He must get credit for consistently performing above his regular season baseline in the playoffs, but his overall playoff statistics still pale in comparison to Paul’s.
Summary
Isiah Thomas played in an environment where efficiency wasn’t as well understood as it is today. Could he have adjusted his game if advanced statistics were more prevalent during his time? It’s entirely plausible. What we do know is that Chris Paul has mastered the art of efficient basketball, like no point guard before him. His lack of playoff success, while overblown, does impact his legacy. This would be a fantastic matchup, and even though the statistical evidence favors Paul, I believe that Thomas would be able to match him in a high-stakes series based on his amazing playoff resume.
Biggest Mismatches
Pistons’ bench vs. Clippers’ bench and Pistons’ wings vs. Clippers’ wings: Oh yes, there’s an actual matchup outside of Paul vs. Thomas. Detroit is a deeper team, with every player on their bench having made multiple all-star teams, compared to the Clippers’ bench, where only three of the seven players ever made one (during their time in L.A.). Detroit also has outstanding wing depth, with Grant Hill, George Yardley, and Joe Dumars holding a big advantage over L.A.’s lineup.
Results
Isiah answers the big-game challenge. He leads a balanced Detroit team over L.A. in five relatively easy games.
Detroit wins, four games to one.
Next Round
The Pistons face the All-Time Chicago Bulls.