Steph Curry still needs to time to adjust to having longtime rival Chris Paul as his teammate in the Warriors’ backcourt. But now that the trade dust has settled, Curry sees Paul filling an important role in San Francisco.
“For CP, I think he gives us an element and change of speed that we needed even in the Lakers series because it started to become kind of just motion offense and jacking up 3s,” Curry told The Ringer’s Logan Murdock and Raja Bell on the “Real Ones” podcast. “And we were trying to figure out some more pick-and-roll situations; we were trying to find some more ways to find offense at half-court.
“He’s obviously a master of that. And I know at this point in his career, he still has the ability to elevate the talent around him.”
The Warriors’ title defense ended in six games in the second round of the Western Conference playoff bracket, as they fell 122-101 to the Lakers in Game 6. Golden State chucked up 48 3-pointers in its season-ending loss, making just 13 (27.1 percent).
Adding Paul to the mix should open things up for an offense and also improve its carelessness with the basketball for a team which led the NBA in turnovers per game (16.3) last season.
Paul’s role often has been discussed since he arrived in the Bay Area. Will he start in a small-ball lineup alongside Curry? Or will he come off the bench and be tasked with getting the most out of youngsters like Jonathan Kuminga?
Paul reportedly is open to either, although he didn’t seem thrilled about the idea of coming off the bench when asked about it at summer league in Las Vegas. Curry, however, is confident coach Steve Kerr will find the right formula.
“I think it starts with us as the players to, we always say a great team that has a lot of talent, you have to bring your egos, bring your full identity of who you are to the table but you also have to know when to sacrifice for the betterment of the group,” Curry told Murdock and Bell. “And that is the big question for us, how do we put any agendas to the side and say we’re just trying to win?
“We’re trying to maximize the great years that we have left because we know that there’s a timeline to this and what it looks like shouldn’t matter. We know that there’s, you could argue, seven guys that could argue they should start. There’s seven guys who argue they should finish games. And do the math, there’s two people that are outside of that equation. And even guys like Moses Moody and [Kuminga], those guys are going to want to have an extreme impact on the team.
“So we have to be able to put any agenda aside and just say we want to win. And whatever it looks like is in the best interest of the team. And that’ll reveal itself as we go through it.
“… It’s going to be fun to figure out what the right combinations are.”
