Patrick Beverley Left Stephen A. Smith Speechless As He Roasted Chris Paul: ‘He Can’t Guard Nobody’

The Phoenix Suns played their worst game of the season on Sunday night, which was a bad time to do so considering it was Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. They now will head into their offseason trying to figure out what could’ve been and what needs to happen for them to get back to the NBA Finals next year.

Their biggest decision has to do with Deandre Ayton, who is a restricted free agent after they would not give him a max extension this offseason, and Ayton’s benching after 17 minutes of play in Game 7 only raised questions about his future in Phoenix. However, not retaining Ayton would leave a massive hole in the middle, so barring a sign-and-trade, it’s hard to imagine the Suns would just let him walk. Of bigger concern is how old Chris Paul suddenly looked after turning 37 after Game 2 of the series, as the combination of Mavs ball pressure with the work the Pelicans made him do in the first round appeared to catch up with him quickly.

The team is built around the idea that they have two elite shot creators with he and Booker, but Paul was not able to find that same gear in the series — with it being reported after Game 7 he had a nagging quad injury. Paul will turn 38 next postseason, and it’s fair to wonder how much he has left in the tank. If you ask some around the league, like longtime foe Patrick Beverley, he’s already cooked, as Beverley went to New York on Monday for ESPN’s Get Up! and went scorched earth on Paul, yelling about how he can’t guard and is a “cone” on defense, to the dismay of Stephen A. Smith.

Any time someone can leave Stephen A. speechless, it’s an impressive television performance, and Beverley very clearly enjoyed the opportunity to get these Chris Paul takes off his chest.

He doubled down on that take later in the show when opposite JJ Redick, saying Paul should’ve been benched instead of Ayton since he was getting attacked over and over, with Redick noting that if Beverley had a point, particularly if Paul was going to be as passive as he was on offense.

Beverley isn’t exactly an objective voice when it comes to Chris Paul, so I’m not sure you can quite take him as the unquestioned voice of other NBA players here, but his critiques, while presented with an added flair here, are valid and he’s certainly not alone in believing this. Paul’s defense has certainly waned and, particularly for Luka Doncic and the Mavs, he was the target on that end of the floor and their willingness to go at him over and over seemed to wear him down over the course of the series to where he was unable to hold up.

However, Beverley wasn’t done with his performance, as he, Smith, and Redick took it over to the First Take studio across the hall and he had more material in the bag, this time bringing Paul George into the fold by saying they were talking last night about how no one was scared of the Suns.

It’s good to know that Beverley is as much of an instigator in the TV studio as he is on the court. However, it’s objectively funny that he and Paul George, two players eliminated from the playoffs currently, were commiserating over how they wanted to play the Phoenix Suns in a playoff series that they never got to because they were, again, eliminated before having that opportunity.