Who's better: Lillard or Paul?
— -- On Wednesday night, a Western Conference showdown will take place as the Los Angeles Clippers visit the Portland Trail Blazers. The marquee matchup features seven-time All-Star Chris Paul taking on the ever-surging Damian Lillard. Who has been better this season? ESPN Insiders Amin Elhassan and Tom Haberstroh hash it out.
Tom Haberstroh: OK, Amin. I'm just going to go ahead and get this out of the way so you can't use it against me with a #hatehard jab later: I'm a Wake Forest guy, so this might seem like I'm shamelessly caping up for my school. Transparency! But if we're at a bar (hypothetically!) and someone asks us which player has had the superior campaign in 2014-15, I'm going with the Point God, Paul.
That feels dirty because I don't want to slight Damian Lillard. The guy has been an absolute monster this season, especially late in games. But despite Dame's continuous growth, I'm not ready to anoint Lillard as the better player of the two just yet.
Paul has been more productive on both ends of the floor this season. He doesn't just give me efficient scoring (Lillard does that), but also elite playmaking for others. To me, that puts him over the top. This season, Paul has the better PER (25.5 vs. 23.2), slightly more win shares (7.2 vs. 6.5) and they're basically a wash in real plus-minus-based WAR (7.3 vs. 6.9). Paul has been better. Tell me why I'm wrong.
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