Poole thrived as Golden State’s sixth man in 2021-22 alongside Draymond Green, Gary Payton II, and Andre Iguodala, who are cagey playmakers and on-court generals. A general autopsy of their last season, which sputtered toward a disappointing second-round loss, suggests the supervision of a taskmaster like Paul could be just what the doctor ordered, particularly for the second unit. It would also be in the Warriors’ best interest to embrace Paul’s oversight. Going back to high school, there has never been any doubt that the father of the modern pick-and-roll, the most precise point guard of his generation, would be starting and finishing games.Īdjusting in Golden State will take time, tinkering, and willingness. Paul is a bona fide future Hall of Famer. But this, make no mistake, will be the greatest adaptation he has had to make. His experience dealing with those variabilities could help him adjust to a role that will likely require him to come off the bench some nights and watch crunch time from the sidelines on others. He’s been the MVP-level leading man in New Orleans and Los Angeles the old-head guide in Oklahoma City Harden’s and Devin Booker’s sidekick in Houston and Phoenix, respectively and, most recently, the third fiddle learning to spot up and play off the ball after KD arrived. At this stage in both of their timelines, the Warriors might be exactly what Paul needs, and vice versa.ĭespite the incorrigibility of Paul’s style, there are very few roles he hasn’t adapted to. It’s hard to imagine, in this context, that Paul could jell alongside the zippiest team in this era of basketball, but this sport has a way of rewarding the teams that can make their contradictions coalesce. He finished the season on the bench, nursing a groin injury, while the soon-to-be champs blew out the Suns in a Game 6 elimination. The Point God and his style were aging, archaic. This past season, a 37-year-old Paul looked slower than ever, and even after the Suns traded for Kevin Durant, no matter how precisely they nailed off-dribble 2s, they were pillaged on defense by the 3-pointer. Their last playoff matchup was over four years ago, before Paul was shipped to the Thunder and then the Suns, who nearly won a title built around the midrange chicanery and end-of-game manipulation that have defined his career. The Warriors won the philosophical battle and took home the rings, while Paul still searches for his. Will Portland finally give in and trade Dame Lillard? We’re keeping a close watch on all of the biggest free agents, trade targets, retirement bluffers, and more in our new offseason tracker. were light on their feet, heavy on unpredictable movements and off-ball screening, surrendering to the chaos of the game and cocreating a chart-busting offense alongside it. Paul, the Robin to James Harden’s Batman in Houston, dribbled holes into the hardwood and turned the game into a slugfest, manipulating pick-and-rolls with robotic precision in exchange for wide-open looks for his standstill teammates. He has landed in a mind-boggling, near-improbable situation: Chris Paul backing up Steph Curry? The notion is jarring for those of us who remember the days when they were on the opposing ends of a proxy war over the stylistic future of basketball. On Thursday, just hours before the 2023 NBA draft, the Golden State Warriors agreed to send Jordan Poole, Ryan Rollins, a top-20-protected 2030 first-round pick, and a future second-rounder to the Washington Wizards in exchange for the once-almighty Point God, who has spent the last week being flung from hypothetical scenario to hypothetical scenario with very little control over his fate. We won’t go over the lowlights today, except to say that many of them have been at the hands of the team he was just traded to. Until, as we’ve witnessed postseason after postseason, he clutches the basketball so hard that the pressure makes it slip out of his hands. Chris Paul’s 18-year career, spanning five-soon, six-teams, has been built and destroyed by his talent for organization, the way he can cull the tempo and exert control over an inherently unruly game. The pursuit of a ring has a strange way of forcing players to face their greatest inner conflicts.
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