翻译：保罗——大个子制造工厂

Before last season, I was super excited about the potential of Chris Paul partnering with Deandre Ayton in Phoenix. He’s done so much for so many big men throughout his career, and it was easy to see this pairing working out quite well.

在上个赛季之前，我对克里斯·保罗在凤凰城与德安德烈·艾顿合作的潜力感到非常兴奋。在他的职业生涯中，他成就了这么多的大个子，这对搭档效果会很好。

In New Orleans, he partnered with David West and Tyson Chandler, helping turn the former into one of the league’s best pick-and-pop threats and the latter into one of its premier dive men. With the Clippers, Paul teamed with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to form Lob City, rocking rims all over the country. In Houston, he and Clint Capela became nearly as unstoppable a duo as Capela and James Harden. And last year in Oklahoma City, he formed beautiful partnerships with all of his bigs: Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari (admittedly more of a stretch big) and Nerlens Noel, for the most part, but even Mike Muscala and Darius Bazley got in on the fun every once in a while…

Paul’s pick-and-roll brilliance will aid Ayton in his pursuit of stardom. With all due respect to Booker, Rubio, Jerome, Lecque, Troy Daniels, Jared Harper, De’Anthony Melton, Jevon Carter, Jamal Crawford, Tyler Johnson, Elie Okobo, Isaiah Canaan, Jawun Evans and Jimmer Fredette, Paul is by far the best operator with whom Ayton will have played in his young career. There’s a reason they call him the Point God — he’s not just one of the best in the league, he’s one of the very best of all time…

在新奥尔良，他与大卫韦斯特和泰森钱德勒合作，帮助将前者变成联盟最好的挡拆切入威胁者之一，后者成为联盟进攻效率最高的球员之一。在快船队，保罗与布莱克·格里芬和德安德烈·乔丹合作，组建了空接之城，在全国各地表演。在休斯顿，他和克林特·卡佩拉几乎和卡佩拉和詹姆斯·哈登一样势不可挡。去年，在俄克拉荷马城，他与所有大个子都建立了化学反应：史蒂文·亚当斯、达尼洛·加里纳里（也算是个大个子）和内伦斯·诺埃尔，即使是迈克·穆斯卡拉和大流士·巴兹利偶尔也会玩得开心......

保罗在挡拆上的才华将有助于艾顿打出明星的身价。恕我直言，恕我直言，保罗之前的布克、卢比奥等等，都不能让艾顿打出身价，保罗是艾顿年轻职业生涯中迄今为止最好的指挥官。他们称他为控球上帝是有原因的——他不仅是联盟中最好的人之一，也是有史以来最好的人之一......

He’ll undoubtedly aid Ayton’s efforts to become a better defender, too. Ayton already made strides on that end during his second season — especially in the bubble — and now has the look of a player who should be average or better on defense for most of his career.

Paul is no longer the world-class defender he was in his prime, but he’s still a good one, and few players work consistently harder on that end than he does. The example he sets and the stinginess he provides at the point of attack should each help Ayton progress further.

他无疑也会帮助艾顿努力成为一名更好的中锋。艾顿在第二个赛季（特别是2020年在隔离区）已经成长了一大步，现在看来他的防守应该做的更好。

保罗不再是处于巅峰时期的世界级控卫，但他仍然是一个优秀的控卫，很少有球员能像他那样努力地工作。他树立的榜样和他在进攻端为艾顿创造的机会都有助于他更进一步。

Things worked out pretty much exactly as expected in Year 1. Ayton took a significant step forward on both ends of the floor. Paul and Devin Booker and Mikal Bridges and Jae Crowder and Cam Johnson all fit perfectly together and the Suns were one of the best teams in the league all year long, and made a run to the NBA Finals.

What CP3 is doing this year, though, is even more impressive. Ayton has played in only 28 of Phoenix’s 45 games. And they’ve kept right on rolling with JaVale McGee, Jalen Smith, and more recently, Bismack Biyombo occupying the center spot. (Biyombo had one 20-10 game in his career prior to last night, when he got another one. He already has two 15-10 games with the Suns, despite previously having had five in his entire career. And it’s not like he’s playing huge minutes.) Phoenix being 36-9 despite playing nearly 40 percent of the season without its starting center is just terrific stuff.

事情进展得几乎和去年的预期完全一样。艾顿在球场两端的表现都向前迈出了重要的一步。保罗和布克、布里奇斯、克劳德和约翰逊都完美契合，太阳队是联盟去年最好的球队之一，并打进了NBA总决赛。

然而，CP3今年正在做的事情甚至更令人印象深刻。艾顿在凤凰城的45场比赛中只打了28场比赛。他们一直与麦基、杰伦·史密斯以及最近的比永博占据中锋位置。（比永博在昨晚之前的比赛中有一场20+10的比赛，有两场15+10的比赛，而且他只打了五场比赛。）尽管凤凰城本赛季近40%的比赛没有首发中锋，但还是打出了36-9的战绩，这太棒了。

Let’s look at the per-36-minutes averages of he Suns’ four center options this season. Can you tell which is which?

• A: 20.2 pts, 12.7 reb, 1.8 ast, 0.9 stl, 1.0 blk
• B: 18.1 pts, 12.3 reb, 2.5 ast, 1.6 stl, 2.2 blk
• C: 22.4 pts, 15.6 reb, 1.4 ast, 0.7 stl, 1.9 blk
• D: 17.1 pts, 14.2 reb, 0.6 ast, 0.6 stl, 1.7 blk

(For clarity’s sake: A is Ayton, B is Biyombo, C is McGee, and D is Smith.)

让我们看看太阳队本赛季四位中锋的数据变成平均每36分钟。你能分辨哪个是哪个吗？

A：20.2分 12.7篮板 1.8助攻 0.9抢断 1.0盖帽

B：18.1分 12.3篮板 2.5助攻 1.6抢断 2.2盖帽

C：22.4分 15.6篮板 1.4助攻 0.7盖帽 1.9盖帽

D：17.6分 14.2篮板 0.6助攻 0.6抢断 1.7盖帽

（答案：A是艾顿，B是比永博，C是麦基，D是史密斯。）

It’s worth noting, as well, that Paul pick and rolls with each of Biyombo, McGee, and Smith (as well as Frank Kaminsky) have actually been more efficient for the Suns this season than Paul-Ayton pick and rolls. The sample size is obviously smaller, but group the four other bigs together and the Suns have totaled 571 points on 522 possessions including a screen set by one of those four players (1.09 per possession) and 645 points on 620 possessions including an Ayton-set screen (1.04 per possession). That’s not a slight to Ayton, by the way: 1.04 is pretty good! To get even better with the backup bigs is just really impressive.

This is obviously not all due to CP3’s brilliance, but it’s also probably not a coincidence that he has had such a dramatic effect on center/big man performance throughout his career and the Suns have kept humming without their star center, while using in his place a pair of journeyman backups and a second-year player whose third-year option wasn’t even picked up. He has a history of doing this, and it’s helping them in a time of need.

同样值得注意的是，保罗本赛季与比姆博、麦基和史密斯（以及弗兰克·卡明斯基）的挡拆比保罗与艾顿的挡拆更有效率。只是挡拆数量明显较少，但将所有中锋的数据组合在一起，太阳队在522次控球中总共得了571分，平均每次控球得1.09分，其中艾顿每次控球得1.04分。顺便说一句，这对艾顿来说一点也不少：1.04很好！但替补中锋做得这么好真的令人印象深刻。

这显然不是全部归功于CP3的才华，但他在整个职业生涯中对个子的影响都很大，太阳队在没有明星中锋的情况下出现了一些不稳定，但有保罗的兜底，替补中锋也发挥出了不俗的实力。就像他过去做的那样。