Without question, one quick glance shows a stellar career for Chris Paul of the LA Clippers. He has accomplished some great numbers over his 9 year career, and has affected many with his great passing skills and his silky smooth jump shot over the years. But pressure is surely on the rise for Paul he is now one of the 3 top ended stars in the NBA without having won a championship, along with MVP, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony being the other 2.

How much pressure is now on CP3? He has had his shares of playoff struggles, and they seem to be pursuing him for years. The Clips have had put themselves in some deplorable positions, where rotten calls and blown defense has came back and haunted them like a bad burrito after a long night out. As a leader of a squad, you cannot let this happen to your team.

Chris Paul has made some great backbreaking plays vs opponents down the stretch of some games, and has crushed the Clippers as well with some boneheaded plays as well during these playoffs. But, if the team didn’t play so poorly along the way as well, he wouldn’t be put in that sticky position in the first place. Now, does this land directly on Paul's lap? Or the reality that none of his teammates could do anything, including no one being able to defend the ball or get an open shot? People tend to look at some of the plays and instantly drop it on Paul not getting the job done.

The Clips have a powerful leader on the sideline as well, in Doc Rivers, who just adds to a team that has the implements to be a great playoff team, they don’t want to be that team that wins 55+ games a season, and can never finish the job. But it at times, looks as if becoming an earnest playoff contender looks to be a long way off, when they cannot close the games they need to shut the door on.

With some of CP3's play in the playoffs, the bad ones do unfortunately go down in history as the types of moments that are remembered. It won't go back to "CP3 was a great shooter" or "CP3 was a great ball handler and great passer." It comes back to some of the bad plays that could end up defining a players career at times, in 25 years from now, will his playoff performances, and boneheaded plays be what's remembered from his career? To say he'll be remembered for that is unjust, in my eyes. But right now, some of the most memorable moments so far in his career, are exiting the playoffs before he should have been.

He has a team with some very good players now, this season, he has ranked 1st in steals, 6th in PER, top 20 in points per game, with 19, and 1st in assists. And is also still the unquestioning leader of a young hungry team with personalities like Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. Although, truthfully, Griffin is their guy, he is their number one scoring option on the team, no matter what people might want to conceive. They play through him night in and night out. And Griffin is a tough cover, with his athletic quality and his growing offensive skill set. But, just because he is their young stud on offense, it should never be lost with being a team’s leader.

CP3 is still the best, if not one of the best point guards in the league, easily. The guy does it all, there is no question about that. But what it does seem to be coming down to, is when does he lead a team to that title that all players are searching for, and the best and/or the most fortuitous find their names on the list of those who have succeeded in taking the trophy home with them.

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