From the moment they completed the trade for Chris Paul, the biggest question of the Golden State Warriors season became how they would fit him into their offensive system.
Paul is one of the greatest point guards in NBA history and still has plenty of productive basketball to be played. But he has also consistently led offenses at the absolute opposite end of the stylistic spectrum from the ones the Warriors have used to win four titles.
Throughout the offseason and into the preseason it wasn't clear whether or not Paul would be coming off the bench, how he would operate when sharing the court with Steph Curry and how much Steve Kerr would try to separate their minutes, letting Paul do his normal thing as a foundation for the second unit.
The preseason didn't provide much of a sample — Paul appeared in four of the team's five games and only played 80 minutes total. So, Game 1 was our first real look at how the Warriors would try to optimize his fit.
The offense struggled in Game 1, a 108-104 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Some bad shooting luck played a big part but Paul and Curry shared the floor for 17 minutes and we got an early look at the challenges they'll face this season.
Chris Paul had the ball in his hands A LOT in the Warriors first game
According to the NBA's tracking statistics, Paul had the ball in his hands for 7.0 minutes against the Suns. That number is not necessarily enormous on its own, although it would have ranked in the top 15 for pretty much any regular season over the past decade.
But it's of enormous import in that it's roughly the same as Paul's season-long mark last year and considerably higher than any Warriors player has ever averaged in this era. Curry has typically been around 5.5 minutes and even Kevin Durant was between 2.0 and 4.5 during his time with the Warriors.
Paul has been talking a lot about adapting his game and playing more off the ball but we didn't really see many signs of that in Game 1. It's not necessarily a catastrophic trend, the Warriors only lost by four points in a game where they shot 10-of-43 from beyond the arc. Even a merely bad shooting night instead of an atrocious one could have given them the victory.
But this is the first sign that the Warriors may be doing more adapting than Paul.
In Game 1, the Warriors' average offensive possession lasted 14.3 seconds, about a half-second longer than last season. That may not sound like much but it would have been roughly the difference between being the fourth-fastest offense and the 15th-fastest offense last season.
The Warriors made a total of 286 passes against the Suns, down from their league-leading 321.6 last season.
Against the Suns, just 58.5 percent of the Warriors' non-turnover possessions resulted in free throws or a shot in the restricted area or from beyond the arc. That would have ranked dead-last in the NBA last season, by a significant margin, and is a huge drop-off from the 73.8 percent their offense managed last season.
Across this entire era, even as personnel has changed, the Warriors' offense has been defined by pace, constant motion of both players and the ball and a whole lot of high-value shots. For one game at least, they looked completely different. They looked like the grinding (if efficient) heliocentric offenses Chris Paul has built a legacy running.
Again, it's just one game but, so far the Warriors seem to be accommodating Paul more than the other way around.
Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided's daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with someone you love! If you don't like The Whiteboard, share it with someone you loathe!
A rough start for the Lakers new supporting cast
There were some bright spots for the Lakers in their season-opening loss to the Nuggets (18 points and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc) but some of the team's biggest new commitments struggled.
This offseason, the Lakers signed Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, D'Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent to new contracts worth a total of $177 million over the next few years. That group combined for just 37 points. All four shot under 40 percent from the field and they were a combined 3-of-14 from beyond the arc.
There are still 81 games to be played and this could out to be a fairly large outlier. But it definitely damped some enthusiasm.
READ MORE:
- 3 Los Angeles Lakers to blame for blowout opening night loss to Nuggets
by Cody Williams, for FanSided - LeBron James and Darvin Ham are already clashing after Lakers loss
by Jason Reed, for Lake Show Life
Recommended Reading:
1. The 2024 NBA Draft class is something entirely different: "This year, the talent is far more evenly dispersed. There's is major rise and fall potential for just about everybody. There are a couple early standouts at the top, but nobody who is the set-in-stone No.1 pick like Wembanyama, or Zion Williamson before him. Nor is there even an obvious collection of top pick candidates to choose between like Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, and Jabari Smith." 2024 NBA Draft Big Board 1.0: Balanced draft class could lead to maximum chaosre
2. The Denver Nuggets' immaculate vibes: "There's a photo Murray has on his sparse Instagram grid of him and Jokic together, captured on film. The snapshot, slightly out of focus with light leaks streaked across the top of the frame, is as candid in composition as their poses. Jokic has one giant arm flung around Murray's shoulders, pulling him tight to his side. Murray flashes a peace sign with the hand not pinned to Jokic. Both grin, glowing against the dark background. Murray shared it last September, just before his return season and what would be the Nuggets title run. Retrospectively, it seems the perfect encapsulation for what's about to happen for the two, but more than that there's an intuitive level of comfort that comes across in the snap." Jamal Murray On Playing As Part Of The NBA's Favorite Duo, And The Nuggets Trying To Repeat
3. The Thunder are the NBA's next big thing: "There is almost no historical analog for a team as young as the 2022-23 Thunder experiencing as much success as they did — even if that success itself seems moderate." Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and the Young OKC Thunder Are the NBA's Future