SAN FRANCISCO – The list of tasks the Warriors are handing to Chris Paul is relatively long, and at the very top is addressing a problem that remained unsolved in even the best of times.
The priority assignment is to run a productive offense each game during the 10-15 minutes while Stephen Curry is watching from the bench.
“To have him on our side is amazing,” Kerr said Tuesday after the team’s first practice of the season. “Maybe the biggest benefit that he will bring to us is his ability run an offense when Steph is off the floor. They’re going to be great together, too, but the biggest problem we’ve had since I’ve been here are the non-Steph minutes.
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“Even when we had Kevin (Durant) and that group that won back-to-back titles, our whole goal for the non-Steph minutes was to just put a great defensive team on the floor and win those minutes with defense. We’ve never really generated great offense with Steph on the bench. Chris will help us do that.”
Though Klay Thompson and Durant often worked tandem when Draymond Green and Curry were on the bench, both are capable passers but have score-first mentality. The result was an offense with highs and lows, largely dependent on their efficiency.
This latest theory has considerable merit because it accentuates Paul’s best asset. He has made a Hall of Fame career of identifying the strengths of teammates and exploiting them to create offense. He did wonders for Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan with the Los Angeles Clippers and did much the same for Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton with the Phoenix Suns.
And CP3 did it while also finding time to score timely buckets.
Golden State Warriors
“He’s one of the guys that I’ve coached against where you just shake your head at how good he is and how particular he is about every possession,” Kerr said. “Getting his team a good shot, getting himself a good shot, getting everybody organized. He’s so smart.”
Handing the offense to Paul when Curry sits is the obvious move for several reasons, two of which stand out. One, CP3 can play pick-and-roll with savvy veteran big man Dario Sarić; the two were teammates for almost two seasons in Phoenix. And two, no guard in the NBA is better suited to maximizing the offensive potential of Jonathan Kuminga.
The Warriors, by design, steered Paul and Kuminga toward each other during the summer to give them an early start on what’s ahead. The Warriors are not unanimously sold on Kuminga as a star, and this is the best chance for the third-year forward to prove them wrong.
And Paul seems ready to embrace the prospect.
“JK can hoop, man,” he said Monday. “We’ve had some great moments in pickup and all that stuff.
“But I'm going to tell you straight up: I'm a hooper. Of course, I may be able to help JK, but (everybody else) on the team. But I feel like those guys going to be able to help me.”
The Warriors came to the evident conclusion that Jordan Poole, for all his individual gifts, was a score-first offensive player. At his best, he could hold it down while Curry sat. At his worst, Golden State leads would shrink like cheap T-shirts in hot water.
Having Paul to dissect opposing defenses when Curry sits reduces the reliance on “ISO ball” while also allowing Kerr to experience a measure of peace of mind and call fewer plays.
“I don’t anticipate having to be standing up making calls a lot,” Kerr said. “We’ll run plenty of pick-and-roll because Chris is one of the best pick-and-roll players in the world. But he’s also showing that he’s very interested in incorporating himself into some of the stuff we already do . . . He’s such a smart player that he’s already figured out ways to be effective.”
One of the hard lessons of last season was that the good work of the starting five often was undone by the shabby play of the bench. With Paul replacing Poole, there reason to expect higher efficiency and much more stability.