The Golden State Warriors are expected to open games super small with Chris Paul in the starting five.
The Golden State Warriors turned heads with their decision to swap Jordan Poole for Chris Paul. The future Hall of Fame point guard now joins a former rival in pursuit of his first NBA title. There has been widespread speculation about how exactly the Warriors will incorporate Paul into a lineup that already features two established guards in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Well, according to Marc J. Spears on the KNBR Radio Show, Paul is expected to start for Golden State — a mildly surprising development when one considers the exact dynamics that entails. Spears suggested that Kevon Looney would be the odd man out assuming, as many are, that Draymond Green returns.
The starting five would be Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green. That's super small, with no shortage of defensive concerns. Can Steve Kerr make it work?
Golden State Warriors expected to start Chris Paul next to Stephen Curry in small-ball lineup
The short answer is yes, Steve Kerr can make it work. The Warriors are true pioneers of small-ball. Assuming Green is back, he's one of the few genuine five-position defenders who can battle in the post and deter drives to the cup despite his 6-foot-7 stature. Green is the world's best defensive communicator and Wiggins can handle the high-leverage matchups on the wing.
For Golden State, the real concern here would be guarding twitchier ball-handling guards. Curry can compete at the point of attack and he's a whip-smart team defender, but he's exploitable in space — especially against superior strength and physicality. So is Chris Paul at this stage of his career. Klay Thompson was once an elite on-ball defender, but he was nowhere near that level last season and it's hard to express any real optimism about him ever returning to that level.
The Warriors will sacrifice points in this lineup, no matter how much heavy-lifting Green and Wiggins do in the frontcourt. Where Golden State has the chance to make up for it is the offensive end, where this unit should flat-out destroy teams.
Paul is past his prime, but he's still one of the absolute smartest playmakers of all-time. The collective I.Q. of Golden State's starting five combined with Kerr's dynamic system and the floor-stretching presence of Curry and Thompson will make the Warriors very difficult to contain. Paul is going to make the right plays consistently while giving Golden State another pick-and-roll punch when the offense slows down.
A high-powered offense can cover for defensive shortcomings in the regular season. Just ask the Sacramento Kings, who claimed the No. 3 seed in the bloodbath Western Conference before Golden State dispelled them in the first round. Question is, will that Warriors' lineup get enough stops when the postseason arrives? That is less certain.
It will be fascinating to monitor the success of Golden State's small-ball if that is indeed how Kerr decides to operate out of the gate. Just because the Warriors start the season with CP3 in the starting five doesn't mean they'll finish the season that way. Kevon Looney has been an unheralded but essential cog in the Warriors' machine for several years now. There's a not-hard-to-imagine timeline where he kicks CP3 to the second unit midway through the season to balance the rotation.