I don’t know how I like this move for Golden State. The Mike Dunleavy Jr. era as the GM of the Golden State Warriors has gotten off to an interesting start as he made a blockbuster trade to acquire Chris Paul from the Wizards for Jordan Poole and draft picks.
I get the logic behind the move, but there really couldn’t be a worse fit for Chris Paul than GS.
The Golden State Warriors have made a…strange decision (to say the least) as their new GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. capped off his first move in charge of the 7X NBA champions by bringing in Chris Paul from the Washington Wizards for Jordan Poole and draft capital. And, as you can probably guess, I’m not the biggest fan of this move.
As I said in the intro, there really isn’t a worse fit for a player like Chris Paul and a team like the Golden State Warriors. And its actually funny how badly these two playstyles contrast with one another.
However, before I get into that, let me recap the details of this trade. So, the Golden State Warriors traded away Jordan Poole, a player they gave a massive extension to literally one offseason ago, Ryan Rollins, their 2030 1st round pick, and their 2027 2nd round pick to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Chris Paul…who played a grand total of 0 seconds for the Wizards and probably never set foot in DC during his time with the team.
If this trade involved any other team than the Golden State Warriors, I’d say this is a great deal.
Not only are a potential contender in GS getting one of the greatest point guards of all-time who can still post 13.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 8.9 APG, and 1.5 SPG at 38 years old, but they’re also only giving up distant draft picks, bench players, and “troublemakers” in return.
Okay, maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Jordan Poole is a troublemaker when he was the one who got clocked in the face by Draymond Green, but its most certainly not a stretch to say that he checked out last season. Big time.
After getting his bell rung and a 4-year, $128M extension for helping the Warriors win the 2022 NBA title, Poole’s scoring actually went up as he averaged 20.4 PPG, 2.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 2022/23 after posting 18.5 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 4.0 APG in 2021/22. That’s not where he checked out.
It was his efficiency.
Poole had a bad drop in efficiency last season as he went from averaging 13.9 FGA/GM, 7.8 3PA/GM, 3.5 FT/GM and converting 6.2 FG/GM, 2.8 3P/GM, and 3.2 FT/GM to 15.6 FGA/GM, 7.8 3PA/GM, 5.1 FT/GM and converting just 6.7 FG/GM, 2.6 3P/GM, and 4.4 FT/GM.
Or, more simply, Poole went from averaging 45% FG shooting, 36% 3-point shooting, and 93% free throw shooting in 2021/22 to 43% free throw shooting, 33% 3-point shooting, and 87% free throw shooting in 2022/23. Now, that may not seem like a huge decline on the surface, but every Warriors fan will tell you how lackadaisical and reckless Poole was with his shooting and accuracy last season as the Warriors had 9 wins fewer this season (44) than last year (53).
So, with Draymond Green obviously being the priority signing over Poole, it makes sense why Dunleavy Jr. moved on from the young point guard in favor of a far more veteran, experienced, reliable, and successful point guard. Though, I have no idea why he chose that veteran PG to be Chris Paul.
Paul and the Warriors’, respective, playing styles simply don’t gel together in any shape or form.
I mean, Chris Paul has spent his 18-year career playing slow-tempo, methodical basketball that saw him pick apart defenses with his otherworldly passing skills, while the Warriors have run a blitzing pace, quick passing, pick-and-roll 3-point barrage offense for the last 15 years Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson have been on the team.
Slowing the Warriors offense down only serves to hurt them as their undersized players get closed down and overwhelmed, while quickening up Paul’s game would only open the gate for errors and injuries as he’s just too old to be sprinting back and down the court and jacking up 3s every possession.
Plus, Paul is not nearly efficient enough to be an out-and-out 3-point scoring guard as he’s only 32nd on the all-time 3-point scoring leader list, but he’s played the 10th most games of any player in the Top-50.
Meanwhile, both Thompson (11th all-time) and Curry (1st all-time) are in the Top-11, Klay Thompson has played the least number of games (716) of any player in the Top-28, and Curry has only played more games than Paul George (14th all-time), Damian Lillard (6th all-time), and Eric Gordon (20th all-time) in the Top-20.
Simply put, the Splash Brothers are two of the most efficient 3-point scorers in the history of the NBA, while Chris Paul only uses the 3-point shot from his arsenal when necessary.
Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, and this matchup works out great, but I feel like it’s a recipe for disaster sticking a 38-year-old Chris Paul on the Golden State Warriors.
Images Source: Featured Image:
