Paul has much better offensive players around him to offload the scoring. Your efficiency will go up if you get to pick and choose your shots.
While that is certainly true, I cant take much value from your premise when aside from Dames scoring volume, the numbers suggest Paul is the better player in practically every conceivable way. Add in the fact that neither you, I nor anybody else would even bother to suggest Dame is in the same class defensively. stepping aside from numbers, just watching the games is all the proof I need anyway. Paul is the prototype of what you want your point guard to be. Simply put, he's better than Dame. Now don't get me wrong, I'm A big Dame fan and feel we are fortunate to have him. He's talented, driven and a proven clutch player. I have no doubts that we can build a winner around him, but I'm not quite ready to take full leave of my senses and say he's better than Paul.
I don't buy that for a second. I would say they are about equal. Jordan & Moute can't shoot outside of 3 feet from the basket. Redick is a better version of Crabbe. Griffin & Crawford can score - but so can CJ.
Jordan can pretty much only dunk off passes from CP3. Plumlee could do the same...plus has the ability to pass, and has a decent little hook. He just doesn't get served up with lobs. CJ is shooting better percentages than Redick, and can do more with the ball. Harkless is shooting basically the same percentage as Griffin* (slightly more), and over 10% better from 3. Aminu sucks, but so does a Moute. *No, I'm not saying Harkless is equal to Griffin in scoring ability. But it's not quite as simple as "CP3 has teammates who can score, and Dame doesn't."
All that is fine and good but at the end of the day. DJ > Plumlee in terms of scoring ability. I think some of the unathletic 4th graders I'm supervising right now could throw lobs to DJ, due to how easy he'd make it on them. Can't say the same thing for Plumlee. His jumper/hook don't get used enough by him to really factor into Plumlee's scoring ability. Nor is a hookshot really setup by others. After the entry pass you're spreading the floor. JJ > CJ in terms of how much a player relies on someone else to set him up. When is the last time JJ reddick scored 20 points and didn't have 10-15 of those points set up by someone else. His primary role is to catch and shoot. Which is not CJ's primary role. Griffin > Aminu in terms of almost every offensive basketball skill. They play the same position so that's the better comparison. Even though the % don't say it. I'd say Crawford > Harkless in terms of catch & shoot, as well as scoring ability. Simply because Crawford takes some dumb ass shots that lower his shooting %. While Harkless plays within himself. CP3's teammates are better shooters than Lillard's teammates. Outside of CJ... Who doesn't really need Lillard to babysit him like most of CP3's teammates do.
