Chris Paul has started every single one of his 1,214 regular season games and 149 playoff games in 18 seasons as an NBA player. His best-suited role with the Golden State Warriors, though, will have him coming off the bench.
Strip ego and history away and the logic is simple. The 38-year-old Paul was swapped in for 24-year-old Jordan Poole largely because he can transform the role Poole played over the last two years into something that will make the Warriors more competitive and mistake-free next season.
Poole moved from the starting lineup — a stretch in which the Warriors went 18-2 last season — to the bench after Klay Thompson’s return from his Achilles injury in mid-2022 and largely struggled with the second-unit point guard job. Last season, it became clear Poole didn’t fit the role of a second-unit decision-maker and felt more comfortable as a microwave scorer. He often turned the ball over and the second unit made plenty of mistakes throughout the season that would bury them.
