Chris Paul Trade: Where Chris Paul Will Rank Among Best Los Angeles Guards

Los Angeles has a long, rich and illustrious history at the guard position. Unfortunately if you're a Clippers fan, they all played for Los Angeles' other team. 

The Clippers' list of "great" guards isn't long enough to justify a top 10 list, so I have to settle for five guards with a better than mediocre history.  

Eric Gordon

That Eric Gordon makes the list after just three years says something about both Gordon and the history of the Clippers' guards. 

Gordon is sixth all time among Clippers guards in Win Shares. Only one, Ron Harper, has played more games and has a higher scoring average that Gordon's 18.4.

On top of his offensive abilities, Gordon is an underrated defensive player who yielded just .85 points per play on defense last year, one of the best averages among all starting shooting guards. 

Ron Harper

Ron Harper is more famous for his history with other teams. He won championships with both Phil Jackson's Bulls and Phil Jackson's Lakers, but he is also one of the best Clippers in the franchise's history. 

While with the Clippers he averaged 19.3 points, 5.5 boards and 4.8 dimes. The Clippers also made two of their seven trips to the postseason when he was on the team.

Chris Paul

No, Paul has not even lace up his shoes with the Hornets yet, but he's already galvanized the franchise by just agreeing to go there. His being paired with Blake Griffin make the Clippers, actual, honest to goodness contenders in the Western Conference. 

By the end of the year, he might even move up to the top spot on this list, depending on how far he brings the Clippers in the postseason. The team has never, I repeat, never been past the second round. If they manage that for the first time, Paul will be at the top of this list. 

Randy Smith

Many would put Randy Smith at the top of the list. He is the all-time leader among guards in most categories when you're looking at accrued numbers. 

What's most interesting about Smith is that he once held the record for consecutive games played, 906. Smith's placement is more a product of how long he played than how well. 

In his 12 years with the Clippers, he scored 17.8 points per game and averaged 4.2 boards and 4.9 assists. He made two All-Star games in 1976 and 1978. 

World B. Free

The reason I put World B Free ahead of Randy Smith is two-fold. First, he has a really cool name and you just can't argue with that. The other is what Free did in just his two years with the San Diego Clippers; he had the two highest scoring seasons by a guard in team history. 

He averaged 29.4 points per game while with the club, highest of any player regardless of position. While he wasn't able to bring the Clippers to the postseason, he was able to lead them to a winning record in 1979 and even managed to finish sixth in MVP voting, the closest a Clipper guard has ever come to winning the award.