Chris Paul’s Golden State swansong is pure box office. But will it work?
Sworn enemies team up for an epic final battle. It’s a movie trope older than Adam Silver.
This year it’s the NBA’s turn to write the same script, with Golden State going all-out in Hollywood, and Silver’s ongoing basketball soap opera getting another fantastic subplot: Chris Paul joins his former nemeses Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson , Draymond Green and co. final title quest, in what could be the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer’s last chance at a championship.
It’s easy to forget now, but way back in 2014, Paul himself played a role in inadvertently starting the Golden State dynasty… by beating them.
In just his third season in Los Angeles, the 6-foot-1 maestro led the Clippers past the then-upstart Warriors in a seven-game first-round epic – all against the backdrop of the now infamous Donald Sterling TMZ tape.
On May 3, Paul’s 22 points and 14 assists lifted the Clippers to a 126–121 Game 7 victory over Golden State. Three days later, the Warriors fired head coach Mark Jackson – despite the tremendous progress Splash Brother made under his watch – and the rest is basketball history.
The franchise hired Steve Kerr that summer, who brought his Zen Hoops-meets-Popovichian philosophy to the Bay Area, and now — nine years and four titles later — Paul plays for Kerr, clad in the blue and gold he brought to a solid decade in which four different teams try to overcome.
Outside of an elusive NBA title, Paul has little to prove in the NBA while possessing one of the most compelling resumes in recent league history.
He is a Top 75 player of all time. A surefire Hall of Famer. Arguably the best pure point guard and perhaps pound-for-pound player of all time in terms of pure efficiency and production. And of course, his mid-range jumper will likely live on in the dreams (or nightmares) of NBA fans for all eternity.
It’s a legacy that feels like an amalgam of Isiah Thomas, Jason Kidd and Gary Payton – the latter two of whom Paul would love to emulate, with their late-stage, career top titles for unknown new teams.
But perhaps no player has so many painful memories what if? moments like Paul. In the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals, Paul’s Clippers blew a 3–1 series lead against Houston. In the 2018 Western Conference Finals, Paul played for the Rockets, but was injured in Game 5 when Houston was up 3-2 in the series against the Warriors. He missed Games 6 and 7, which resulted in another appearance in the Golden State finals. And last but not least, Paul’s Phoenix Suns held a 2-0 lead over Milwaukee in the 2021 NBA Finals before the Bucks roared back to win the title.
The big what if? now it’s simple: what will it take for Paul to cross the championship line? And what are the prospects for the Warriors in 2023-2024, given an absolutely reloaded Western Conference field, led by last season’s finalists in Nikola Jokić’s Denver Nuggets and LeBron James’ Lakers who lurk ominously like Van Damme at the horizon, as well as the Suns’ Kevin Durant/Devin Booker-helmed and Bradley Beal-infused iteration (trading places with Paul himself) for perhaps the last true superteam?
In Golden State, Paul has certainly found the perfect match for his basketball IQ and supervillain-level intellect: an antagonist who has his match in Draymond Green, as well as a coach and system that values continuity, fluidity and balance. And despite his much-discussed ball dominance, Paul has still proven to be both adept and adaptable in nearly two decades in orchestrating a variety of offenses, most recently in Phoenix’s 2021 run to the NBA Finals and Houston’s No. 1 offense under Mike D’Antoni’s ‘little’ attack. ball or bust” scoring machine with five outs.
In fact, Paul’s greatest strength – his nearly four-to-one ratio of assists to turnovers, and precise and demanding leadership – plays into the Warriors’ recent Achilles heel: an occasional loose pass, a semi-inert offense in the half court without Curry on the floor, offering Kerr’s side an injection of efficient scoring and steady, smart playmaking.
Furthermore, Paul Poole also replaces in small ways, bringing grit, guile and defensive intensity to the margins, rather than his predecessor’s sometimes passive defensive tendencies on (and off) the ball. Those often made it untenable to play Poole in extended, high-leverage periods, as seen in last season’s Western Semifinal loss to the Lakers.
Of course, there won’t be much Paul can do to address the Warriors’ biggest additional need once this year’s playoffs actually happen: size and length next to Curry. (Don’t mention his unfortunate history of injuries in the playoffs in recent years.)
After all, former Golden State General Manager and dynasty architect Bob Myers spoke openly about the Warriors’ drive (and intention) to draft, sign, trade and surround Steph — and his play-bending center of offensive gravity — with height and highly switchable defenders. (Exhibit A: Iguodala, Andre.)
In that light, new General Manager Mike Dunleavy Jr deserves a lot of credit – not only for turning Poole’s $100 million albatross into Paul, but also for adding big potential rotation pieces in skilled modern “center” Dario Šarić and the rim- running rookie Trayce Jackson. Davis (amazingly another son of a former NBA star, center Dale Davis), while betting on the development of Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. The first returns look promising, and the current future is therefore bigger and brighter.
But it all still rises to the bigger question: Will Paul be able to help enough defensively to stay on the floor – alongside Curry – when the bigger tests come in 2024, where the hypothetical two-man plays Jamal Murray/Jokić and Austin Reeves /LeBron will inevitably and ruthlessly hunt for a defensive duo Paul/Curry, with fewer and fewer reliable hiding places for both in both rosters? (Lest we forget the KD-Booker-Beal triumvirate.)
So it goes: will Paul start? Will he prosper? And perhaps most importantly, will he ever make the final five, replacing Kevon Looney, or even Green, Thompson or Andrew Wiggins?
Only time will tell, of course. At worst, Paul’s presence provides premium regular-season protection and insurance in the event of Curry’s extended absence – and another consistent end-of-game closer who can create and orchestrate alone or alongside Steph in what is a fun and fast-paced twitch seems to be. their own two-man game, each in theory helping to keep each other fresh for 82 games and beyond.
Anyway, for today all those questions and more beg – and for now, the Warriors will just have to see how their new season, chemistry and turned protagonist play out, while at the same time heeding the all-too-fitting words of the aforementioned (and underrated) Van Damme film – and movie poster tagline – in the process:
Keep your friends close. And your enemies closer.