The Warriors will enter next season as title contenders but with a few big questions.
At the top of the list: Does newly acquired Chris Paul start or come off the bench? While the logical basketball play may be to bring CP3 off the bench and keep an impressive starting five together, Paul doesn’t seem very enthused about that idea. When Steve Kerr was asked about it at Team USA training camp in Las Vegas (Kerr is the USA Basketball head coach), he kicked the can down the road and said they will figure it out in training camp, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
The challenge for Kerr is not that CP3, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson will play “a lot of minutes,” but rather how to keep those minutes down and keep players fresh and rested for the playoffs. The Warriors’ biggest challenge in recent years — including the 2022 title team — is that they struggle when Curry goes to the bench. Paul can fix that, his running a slowed-down pick-and-roll game with Jonathan Kuminga, Dario Saric and others on the second unit would keep the Warriors from falling off a cliff when Curry goes to the bench.
However, Paul has not come off the bench once in 1,363 NBA regular season and playoff games. Not one time. That’s where the challenge is for Kerr because his starting five from last season — Curry, Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney — had a ridiculously good +22.1 net rating (via Cleaning the Glass). The Warriors want that unit to play a lot of minutes, maybe to start games, but now it’s back to CP3 coming off the bench. And what unit closes games?
Kerr has training camp to sort that out. His biggest task this season will be less Xs and Os and more player and ego management.
