Reggie Miller Suggesting Chris Paul Deserves A Pass If The Suns Lose The Finals Is Insane

I'm sorry what? Look, I love Chris Paul. I think it would be awesome to see him win his first ring. But we don't get to do this. I could understand if Reggie Miller said Chris Paul deserves a pass if he has monster performances and the Suns still lose. That at least makes some sense. But to get a pass because of his age and how hard it was to make the Finals???

I'm sorry, but I don't think so. This is what made the Finals so intriguing in the first place. We finally got to see Paul/Giannis perform at the highest level with everything on the line. Nobody, and I mean nobody was talking about Paul getting a pass when he was carving the Bucks up in Games 1&2 and the Suns were up 2-0. But now that the tables have turned and they are on the brink of elimination he gets a pass? Fuck outta here with that. Surely not for the reasons Reggie suggested. Again, if he goes out tonight and has like 30/5/12 and makes huge plays down the stretch and the Suns still lose, that's one thing. But when you realize that two of the losses the Suns have in this series are somewhat due to Paul's turnovers/poor play then how could he get a pass? Does Reggie not remember his disaster Game 4 performance? The brutal turnovers down the stretch in huge moments? I'm sorry, but all that stuff matters. You don't get a pass from that just because you're 36 and it's been hard for you to make the Finals. CP3 is the Point God right? You don't just get to play that card when he plays well. 

If the Suns do lose these Finals you could argue they choked it away, and I can't help but think if we spent all year talking about CP3 carrying this team and being an MVP candidate, then you can't just say it was everyone else's fault when things mattered most. As the leader of this team, he gets the roses when things go well and the blame when things go south. That might not be fair, but that's how it goes. If he lays another egg tonight, does he still get a pass in Reggie's eyes? That's bullshit.

Overall Paul's numbers are pretty legit this series, a nice 21/2.8/8.8 on 53.8/48% splits. It's hard to argue that he hasn't shown up in these Finals, but at the same time if you've watched the games you know that the Suns are in this position partly because of his mistakes. If he gets criticized for that or dragged on Twitter, well that's how the cookie crumbles. If you don't like it, win.