Would love to see some of those quotes directly comparing Codi to Chris Paul. "Everyone" sounds like a bit many for that comparison.
Should be some fun things to read once you pull them off the boards!
I am late to this discussion, so maybe it haas already been delved into but I think what people are describing compared to what you are describing is a non-independent shooting success or play making probability. You've described that the probability of a good shooter making 10 shots in a row is pretty good when you look at 10000 successive shots. And you're right from a statistical stand point that it could very easily, from a random chance stand point when each shot is an independent Bernoulli trial. But others are arguing that there are Markovian properties to making shots (or making good plays), that is the probability of making a second successive shot is higher than the probability of making the first alone, and again the probability of making the third in a row is higher still. It sounds like some are even arguing that the success rate over the previous ~10 collective have an effect on the probability of making the next shot. There would have to be an upper limit on the cumulative probability. So it is merely a difference between a Binomial probability model vs. a Markovian probability model and the difference would be confidence, and the effect of confidence on shot success or team success probability. I would think that team play is more likely to have Markovian properties than an individuals shooting success. When teams are down near the end of a game they may as a group play more aggressively and that can affect the successive outcomes of a series of successive plays, leading to "momentum". It could go both ways though, aggressiveness could improve success or diminish it, depending on variables like officiating, and how does the other team respond, etc. There is also a shit-ton of residual stochasticities that affect whether or not "momentum" shifts, like the bounce of the ball, clock stoppage. That Duke - Maryland clip could have easily gone the other way if Williams stepped out of bounds or if the officials called a reaching foul on one or two of those steals. Seems like for every example of a momentum shift, you could present a few counter examples.