This summer there were two or three questions that made the rounds as the big NBA headlines. One of those questions came when the Golden State Warriors acquired 12-time All-Star Chris Paul. What should they do? In his career, Paul has started every game he has played. But, Golden State had the best five-man unit in the NBA last season and there is no reason to think that this season it will be substantially different. Well, the answer was obvious the second the trade was made and has not altered after an off-season, the preseason games and all the media hoopla: Paul should be and has to be Golden State’s sixth man if he and the team have any championship aspirations.
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Championship teams are built on setting aside pride, ego and image to win at the highest level. This is not a shot at Paul; he is one of the best point guards of his era and deserves to have the conversation about starting. A very brief conversation.
Look at all NBA championship teams. They all have a sixth man who likely would start for two-thirds of the league and makes the sacrifice. Those players also close more games than one of the five starters ahead of him in this marathon of a season. Bobby Portis did it for the Milwaukee Bucks, while Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo made the transition for the Los Angeles Lakers. Most notably, Andre Iguodala did this for years in Golden State. That is a major part of what made the team a dynasty and not a one-and-done champion like every other team since 2019. The blueprint has already been written and stained in championship champagne.
That is the logical, surface-level argument – Paul is joining the best starting five in the NBA and champions make sacrifices for the greater good of the team.
Then there is the basketball argument, which is as obvious, but for some reason does not seem to make it into any of the “take” driven sports talk. Paul is in every way just filling the void of Jordan Poole. It is that simple. He is filling it differently, but that is what Golden State did when they swapped the young, brash talent for the veteran, poised star.
Paul is like Lane Pryce from Mad Men. He comes into a company, organizes everything, works out the inefficiencies and makes them profitable. That is who Paul is today. He is not the “Point God.” He is a one-man efficiency machine that needs to be deployed in smaller doses.
Poole has All-Star talent, but plays an AAU style. Paul doesn’t have All-Star talent anymore, but plays a professional style of NBA basketball.
Last season Poole was the team’s sixth man and spot starter. He played 26.6 minutes a night as a reserve where he averaged 15.9 points and 4.6 assists per game on 42-34-84 splits in 39 games. Terrific sixth man stats. Great stuff. He came in like a bolt of lighting, ready to give opposing bench units his best Curry-Lite impression, making plays and hoisting up heat-check threes all game with the same volume as head-scratching turnovers and borderline non-existent defensive effort.
Now, hand those minutes over to Paul, a veteran who last year wore down while playing 32.0 minutes a night (just 59 games) where he averaged 13.9 points and 8.9 assists on 44-37-83 splits.
Do those numbers look familiar?
Paul was a professional, mature Poole last season. He was the player all of Golden State wanted Poole to be. While Poole is a more gifted scorer and is great for 10-second clip, he never made the players around him better. That is who Paul has been since he picked up a basketball.
Moving to a bench leader role, where Paul will undoubtedly close more games than he doesn’t, Golden State has the same level of production from the back-up guard position with more organization as well as a team-first mentality distributing the ball.
On this Golden State team those 20-26 minutes a night that Paul now takes over become high-quality minutes. It also allows him to teach the team how to play left-handed – slow it down, utilize more pick-and-rolls and with more efficiency on the offensive end that, in the playoffs, will make the team even more dangerous.
Yes, Paul is very likely a first-ballot Hall of Fame player. He is a 12-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA, nine-time All-Defense, a Rookie of the Year and an All-Star Game MVP. On two-thirds of NBA teams he starts, putting up 14 points and nine assists on a team that has no hope of winning at the highest level.
On this Golden State team, he can very well add Sixth Man of the Year to that list of accomplishments, potentially alongside the distinction of becoming an NBA Champion.
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