Who is the Better Point Guard? Deron Williams or Chris Paul?

In 2005, the Utah Jazz had a decision to make with their 3^rd pick of the 2005 NBA Draft. They needed a point guard to fill the shoes of Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton and there were two highly regarded prospects on the board for them to choose from. One was Deron Williams, the big PG with a shot from National Championship Runner-up Illinois. The other was Chris Paul, the smaller yet more electrifying PG from Wake Forest and the best conference in college basketball, the ACC.

The Jazz selected Deron Williams, and thus the New Orleans Hornets selected Chris Paul with the next pick, thus stirring a debate that will link these two until the end of their playing careers.

So who is the better point guard? Obviously, the two will have many more games to stake their claim on that title before their days as NBA players are done. However, in analyzing who is coming out the gate faster and projecting just a little ways down the road, we could ultimately decipher the answer long before the results are in.

Deron Williams obviously has the size factor. At 6'3" and 205 pounds, he is a big boy, and has the ability to lower his shoulder and get to any point on the court that he wants. But don't let his size fool you, he is very swift off the dribble and can crossover anybody who underestimates his quickness and then get to the bucket and finish. He is also a great shooter and has true shooting percentage of 60% thus far in 2008! That is amazing, especially for a guard. And you can't neglect his ability to get his teammates involved. He is averaging 9.7 assists per game and he seems to have perfected the pick and roll with Carlos Boozer, much in the same way that Stockton did it with Malone. Going back to his size, that is an element that helps him out on the defensive end, where he has drawn comparisons to Jason Kidd.

Speaking of Jason Kidd, offensively, Chris Paul has been called "Jason Kidd with a shot!" And there probably is no better description of his game. Chris Paul is a pass first, shoot second kind of guy, and he always thinking about how to get the easiest shot for his teammates. That's why the Hornets have set up the perfect cast of characters around him. They literally have nobody in that offense that can create their own shot on the regular basis, except for maybe David West who really just came on this year. Thus, you have Paul penetrating and dishing just about every time down the court, finding shooters on the outside and finishers on the inside. Just about everyone on New Orleans is having a career year with Paul running the point and his 10.8 assists/game are evidence of that. But like I said, this man can shoot, and he has a true shooting percentage of 57% and averages 20.8 points per game. So when other teams are forced to take away his other options, Paul usually out duels his defensive counterpart.

So who is better? If you're asking me, there is no question that it is Paul. As good as Deron Williams is, there is nothing that he does that Paul can't do, and Paul usually does it a little bit better, just as his stats would indicate. Williams is a little bit better inside the paint because of his size. And Williams has more size to put forth on the defensive end, but Paul more than makes up for that with 2.6 steals per game, and a turnover rate that is only two-thirds that of Williams.

But just because Paul is in the lead right now, doesn't mean that it will stay that way. Williams has a chip on his shoulder from missing the All-Star game in favor of Paul. And Paul certainly has a desire to make up for being picked after Williams, as well as the $400K per year more that Williams makes a result of going 3^rd instead of 4^th!