New Orleans Pelicans: 15 greatest scorers of all-time

Whereas most everyone knows him for his prowess in running an NBA offense and dishing the rock, Chris Paul has always had the ability to score at a high level, with physical traits and basketball skills defenses never hoped to see.

At a generous six-feet tall, Paul has never proven capable of simply overpowering opponents on his way to the bucket, but he has made some of them look incredibly silly in trying to slow him down with a terrific blend of handles and IQ.

In isolation sets, CP3 is as dangerous as there is. Not only is he able to break down an opponent with a dizzying array of crossovers and in-and-outs, but he’s always had a tremendous sense of awareness with his moves in that he’s able to time them perfectly in order to get the best results, mixing in a number of hesitations and head-fakes to bend defenses to his will.

It’s rarely mattered who may have been tasked with stopping Paul on a given possession. He’s worked extremely hard over the years to be able to get his jumper off under the tightest of defenses. Whether it’s coming off screens or creating space off the dribble, CP could always fall back on his lethal mid-range jumper to bail him out with the shot clock winding down.

Over the course of his 13-plus year career, Paul only crossed the 20-points-per-game threshold twice, in back to back seasons early in his tenure with the Hornets, but upon looking back, there are plenty of games in which the future Hall-of-Famer was called upon to take on more of the scoring burden, and more often than not, he answered the call.