Chris Paul's arrival in Golden State makes it a bit contradictory for the Warriors who have long owned Curry, a quasi-Hall of Faunciation point guard, but in fact, this seemingly novel combination has a chance to have a viable blueprint.
There are many ways to pursue the championship, some are very natural, others are very contrarian, and players have to face the biggest contradictions in their hearts. Chris Paul has spent five teams in his 18-year career, each built by his talent and talent, but somehow collapsed because of him.
Chris Paul is a top point guard who few players in the league can match in controlling tempo. However, in the playoffs, as we have witnessed history, Chris Paul could not control the tempo until the last minute.
In the first hours of the 2023 draft, the Warriors traded Jordan Poole, Ryan Rollins, a protected first-round pick with the top 20 picks in 2023, and a future second-round pick to the Wizards for Chris Paul. Over the past week, Chris Paul has been unable to control his own destiny, moving from one hypothetical plot to another, arranged by fate to the seemingly most unlikely warrior.
Chris Paul as Curry's backup? This idea has been crazy in the past scenes where the two have played against each other, since Chris Paul was still in the Rockets many times against Curry's Warriors, one is to deliver the ball to teammates with open blocks with artificial intelligence precision, and the other is a dynamic attack full of no-ball, cover, evolving into one wonderful gorgeous offensive battle after another.
The Warriors won four championships under Curry, and Chris Paul is still looking for his first career championship ring, and the last time Chris Paul and Curry faced each other was back 4 years, when Chris Paul was still with the Rockets, after which he was sent to the Thunder and then to the Suns. The Suns were once one step away from a championship in Chris Paul's mid-range and possession.
In the 2022-23 season, the Suns traded for Durant, but Chris Paul seemed to be affected by age, and his speed and skill on the court were reduced, and in the playoffs, Chris Paul was once again absent from key games due to injury.
In this case, Chris Paul came to the Warriors very counterintuitively, it is difficult to imagine how they will be combined, but basketball is a varied sport, and there are opportunities to integrate in contradictory states, and the Warriors may just be missing Chris Paul, and vice versa.
Chris Paul's style can't be changed at this stage, but that doesn't mean he can't adapt to other characters. Chris Paul is an MVP-level player at both the Hornets and the Clippers; In Thunder is both a master general and a spiritual leader; When it comes to the Rockets and Suns, he is the second in command of the team, and even became the third number after Durant's joining, learning to wait for the ball and not to play, and he can make corresponding adjustments to adapt to the role at every step.
The biggest adjustment Chris Paul needs will be less playing time in key moments and maybe even more time to lead the second team, but Chris Paul is a quasi-Hall of Fame star and a leader in blocking in league history, whether he starts or finishes.
From a Warriors perspective, Chris Paul will need a little time to adjust and integrate into the Warriors, but Chris Paul's experience will be an asset for the Warriors looking to integrate quickly, and the loss in the 2022-23 playoffs showed the lack of a second team, and the addition of Chris Paul coincidentally made up for that.
The core of the Warriors' second roster last season was the young Jordan Poole, who was always comfortable doing what he was good at when he played with veteran players such as Draymond Green, Gary Payton II and Andre Iguodala, but the Warriors decided to let the young players play a little more playing time, Jordan Poole as the main ball carrier and decision-maker of the second team did not perform as expected, he was more like a bench microwave good at scoring than an engine that could hold the ball and create opportunities.
The Warriors' biggest problem going from the regular season to the playoffs last season was turnovers. In the Warriors' dynamic offensive system, if you don't have ball intelligence, experience and sensitivity, it's easy to get stuck in a cycle of mistakes, including Curry.
Most role players need a capable and talented veteran to lead, which is what the Warriors lacked the most last season, and the young players can't master the rhythm and mess up on their own. Chris Paul's presence with the Thunder's leadership of young players, including potential future MVP candidate Shay Giljes-Alexander, to the playoffs as a dark horse proves his value in integrating players.
The Warriors can borrow from another veteran of the past: Sean Livingston. Shaun Livingston also joined the Warriors after a tortuous experience, he has a solid and reliable skill, and when the Warriors' outside line fails or makes a lot of mistakes, his stable mid-range can give the team a sense of stability on offense.
Sean Livingston joined the Warriors in 2014, mostly from the bench. When Shaun Livingston comes on the pitch, he brings out a very different rhythm from the main lineup, and the otherwise fast pace will become very slow on his play, especially with other veterans such as Andre Iguodala, Maris Spates and Leondro Barbosa, with Shaun Livingston controlling the tempo and blending the style of play of each veteran.
Chris Paul's organization and mid-range temperament are much higher than Shaun Livingston's, and although the Warriors' second roster is dominated by young players, there is no lack of talent, including Jonathan Kuminga, who can run and jump, or Moses Moody, who has the accuracy of his projection. Chris Paul has also been very good at matching big men in the past, and one can't help but imagine what kind of spark James Wiseman could have had if he hadn't been traded.
The addition of Chris Paul can also share the pressure and burden of Curry, or rather share it with each other. Curry's average minutes per game in 2022-23 are at a new high under Steve Kerr's coach, and the addition of Chris Paul can also ease Curry's pressure. From another point of view, Chris Paul has a rich history of injuries in the past, and Curry can also reduce the risk of Chris Paul's injury.
When Chris Paul and Curry play together, Chris Paul's ball can allow Curry to run off the ball to his heart's content, and the most difficult part of this pair will be what Chris Paul should do when Curry is holding the ball. Chris Paul went to the outside more to wait for the ball after Durant joined last season, but he only shot 31.3% from the outside after receiving it, so this will be the part that will take time to grind.
Driven by some reasons, the Warriors had to trade Jordan Poole, a 24-year-old future potential star signed a year ago with 4 years and 140 million, and last year's training camp Draymond Green punched Jordan Poole, which ruined the team's atmosphere, and Jordan Poole's unstable performance from the regular season to the playoffs, coupled with his counselful shooting, made Curry also move directly on the court to lose braces, invisibly exacerbating the contradiction between young players and senior players. Steve Cole also signaled that he was ready to make a trade-off when he praised the young players of the Nuggets for sacrificing their personal data to win.
The Warriors also have salary space problems, former general manager Joe Jacob seems to be bored by huge salary pressure, the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement is also less favorable to the big teams, and the expiration date of clearing Jordan Poole's contract for Chris Paul gives the Warriors more space.
The Warriors and Chris Paul are very contradictory combinations, but it seems that the current basketball style has been an outlier in the past, depending on how the two sides integrate to create a new style of play.