The Fans Speak: DWill > CP3

by Ryne Nelson

I’m not one of those people who hates Charley Rosen, and after yesterday’s column regarding Deron Williams and Chris Paul, it’s safe to say I won’t be joining the hater ranks anytime soon. Several months ago, Lang and I had a semi-heated email debate about who’s the better 1, and Rosen argues in Deron’s favor with much of the same points. Rosen presents no ground breaking information to support his stance, but his opinion is not why I’m bringing this up.

The Jazz are playing their best basketball since the days of the Mailman and Short Shorts. And this time they have a star who clearly has no trouble delivering on Sundays. Even without a fully healthy Boozer, Utah’s riding an NBA-best 11-game win streak into the upper half of the Western Conf. standings. Mark Jackson, who some would say knows a thing or three about good point guard play, even put Deron atop his list of best point guards this season (here’s MJax’s top-five, from left-to-right), despite cries of heresy from fantasy heads and prominent stat geeks of the same employ.

I’d say the debate is alive and well.

Yeah, it seems like the only debate more taboo than CP3/DWill is Kobe and LeBron, but right now, we actually have some clear evidence of a shift in the public’s perception. Today’s poll on the FoxSports.com asks which point guard How's this for truth in numbers?will have the better career. I dropped a quick vote for Deron, and to my surprise a solid majority of the 8,500 votes were on my side. How’s that for truth in numbers?

OK, it has to be said that the poll question is about who will have a better career and not necessarily who’s had the best career (or season) up to this point. But, even still, this is pretty astounding–that the majority of fans believe that when it’s all said and done, Deron Williams will achieve more in the League than Chris Paul. And isn’t that what you ultimately want when you’re building around your floor leader?