Over the past couple of weeks, I have had multiple conversations with Warriors fans that have gone something like this:
Warrior fan: “Chris Paul coming off the bench will be great for us.”
Me: “What makes you think Paul is coming off the bench? He has never done that in his career and is not going to be good with that idea.”
Warriors fan: “But it’s the best basketball play, the starting five is set with Curry and Klay in the backcourt. Paul is smart enough to know that.”
Me: “Have you ever met Chris Paul? Knowing and accepting are different things. He is not going to go quietly to the bench. He’ll start. Personality politics demand it.”
Meeting with the media after being officially introduced as a Warrior Sunday in Las Vegas, a member of the media brought up the idea of him playing with the second unit and Paul’s response:
“You coaching?”
Chris Paul responds to potentially coming off the Warriors’ bench: pic.twitter.com/FbDd0SGqLm
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) July 10, 2023
“You coaching? I don’t know what the situation gonna be yet. So I think that’ll be for us to figure out once we get going... [Paul is asked about his openness to coming off the bench] Like I said, it would be a conversation for us when camp starts. Yes, Steve and I have talked and whatnot, and that ain’t something that you’d be like, ‘you’re starting or coming off the bench,’ and we’ll figure all that stuff out.”
You can spin CP3’s words as him saying, “Nothing has been decided,” but that’s not the tone of what was said. He did not sound like someone eager to become a sixth man at age 38.
The Warriors starting five last season — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney — was one of the best five-man units in the league with a +22.1 net rating (via Cleaning the Glass, garbage time was filtered out). That’s nearly 10 points per 100 possessions better than the Denver Nuggets starting five that hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy in June. It’s understandable why Warriors fans don’t want to mess with that and think CP3 should accept a bench role.
But Steve Kerr’s job is more about managing egos than Xs and Os, and he must find a balance. Don’t be surprised at the start of the season if Paul starts and four minutes into the first quarter Looney comes in off the bench, reuniting last year’s starting five while giving Paul some rest — they want to keep his minutes below the 27 a game he played last season — before he comes in to play pick-and-roll ball with the second unit. There will be lineup shifts throughout the season as the Warriors figure out what works and what doesn’t, and Paul and the Warriors get used to their different styles, but it will take time.
Don’t expect Paul to come off the bench to start the season. It’s just not happening.
