Chris Paul nears 10,000 career assists milestone
Chris Paul is averaging 8.7 assists per game in his 16th NBA season and first with the Phoenix Suns.
Chris Paul enters Friday night needing 18 assists to become just the sixth player in NBA history to reach 10,000 career assists. With games against the Timberwolves on Friday (10 ET, NBA League Pass) and the Lakers on Sunday (10 ET, NBA TV), he could join the elite company of John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Mark Jackson and Magic Johnson very soon.
In his 16th NBA season, Paul ranks fifth in the NBA with 8.7 assists per game. If he maintains his spot, this would be Paul’s 13th season ranking in the top five in assists per game. He owns four assist titles — 2007-08 and 2008-09 with New Orleans; 2013-14 and 2014-15 with LA Clippers — and has just one season where he finished lower than seventh place in his career.
That consistency has fueled Paul’s steady climb up the all-time assist leaderboard. Coaches have changed, teammates have changed, uniforms have changed, but no matter the situation, Paul has delivered as the consummate point guard.
He has all the tools in the playmaking bag — outstanding court vision and savvy, a high basketball IQ and the ability to make smart decisions on the fly, poise and leadership to control a game, the ability to break down defenses and get to his spots on the floor to create shots for himself or his teammates, knowing exactly when and where a teammate needs a pass in order to be successful, and the creativity to squeeze passes into any open window.
While Paul was never overly flashy with his passes, he had them all in his arsenal and could break them out whenever he needed to. There were plenty of lobs to the rim for alley-oops, drive-and-kicks to an open shooter on the perimeter, look-ahead passes to push the pace on a fast break, wrap-around passes to find an open teammate after collapsing the defense, but he would also break out the no-look passes, behind-the-back passes and has even nutmegged a few defenders over the years.
Over 1,058 career regular season games, Paul has averaged 18.4 points and 9.4 assists per game. When we look at career totals, Paul has scored 19,434 points himself and created another 22,959 for his teammates from his 9,982 career assists.
In total, 136 different players have received an assist from Chris Paul over the course of his career. With six seasons spent in both New Orleans and Los Angeles, the bulk of Paul’s assists went to those teammates.
| Player | Team | Assists |
| Blake Griffin | LAC | 1,157 |
| David West | NOH | 1,120 |
| JJ Redick | LAC | 634 |
| DeAndre Jordan | LAC | 574 |
| Peja Stojakovic | NOH | 429 |
| Rasual Butler | NOH | 320 |
| Tyson Chandler | NOH | 299 |
| Jamal Crawford | LAC | 260 |
| Matt Barnes | LAC | 226 |
| Caron Butler | LAC | 217 |
While his current Suns teammates don’t come close to cracking that top 10, the impact that Paul has had on the young Suns in just 39 games so far this season has been remarkable. Phoenix was already on the upswing after going a perfect 8-0 in the bubble to close out last season, but the addition of Paul in the offseason helped elevate them toward the top of the Western Conference. Heading into Friday’s game, the Suns sit third in the West at 26-13 behind Utah and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
In addition to joining the 10K assist club, Paul is also on pace to pass Magic Johnson for fifth place on the all-time assist list before the 2020-21 season is over. He needs 160 assists to pass Magic and based on his current average (8.7 per game), Paul would need 19 games to enter the top five.
With 33 games left on the regular season schedule, Paul should not only pass Magic but begin to close the gap on Mark Jackson (10,334) and Steve Nash (10,335) to enter the top three. Using his current average, Paul would need 41 games to pass Jackson and Nash, so the top three will have to wait until next season.
But that leads us to the ultimate question — how long can CP3 keep up this level of production this late in his career and continue to climb the all-time leaderboard? Paul’s 8.7 assists per game in his 16th season or later has only been matched by Nash, Kidd and LeBron James. LeBron is the only player to do it after his 16th season, when he won his first assist title in 2019-20 in his 17th year.
This is Paul’s highest assist average since the 2016-17 season, but when we look at his consistency — he’s had just three seasons out of 16 with an assist average below 8.0 per game (rookie season 7.8; first season in Houston 7.9; only season in OKC career-low 6.7) — there’s no reason to believe that his production is just going to drop off a cliff. If anything, another season in Phoenix will allow him to develop even greater chemistry with the likes of Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges, his top three assist recipients this season.
While we can’t predict the future, we can appreciate the present and welcome Chris Paul to the 10K assist club, which will most likely happen on Sunday against the Lakers. That game features another player in the top 10 in career assists that will likely become the seventh member of the 10K assist club next season. LeBron James enters the weekend at 9,665 career assists.
