From being his mentor and eventual arch-rival, it was indeed an unthinkable moment in his basketball lifetime for Stephen Curry to view Chris Paul being his teammate in the Golden State Warriors for the upcoming NBA season.
As such, he got nothing but excitement about what Paul can bring to their side as the 38-year-old still holds that coveted wisdom and leadership which can still be vital in their hopes to be back on top once again.
“It’s one of those things where you have a guy that understands how to play basketball. He’s elevated teams that he’s been on his entire career and even at this stage, like what he did in Phoenix (Suns) when he’s been there,” Curry said as he talked about Paul’s addition to his team in his appearance on the “Gil’s Arena” show. “I know that they didn’t accomplish the goal, but they were better because of his leadership and his ability to manage the flow of games.”
In a shocker move this offseason, the Warriors decided to pull the trigger just to acquire Paul by sending a package that featured Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards.
In terms of a simple basketball standpoint, both Paul and Golden State’s play styles do clash as the all-time point guard owns a slow, tactical approach while the Dubs do boast a run-and-gun offense. But at the end of the day, Curry still acknowledges the high value that Paul will contribute to them in terms of connecting themselves.
Paul, an unparalleled floor general of his generation, is widely viewed as a necessity for the Dubs to patch their league-worst 16.3 turnovers from last year. He is also expected to help the franchise in finding additional ways for offensive opportunities with his gifted wits to facilitate the ball.
“There’s a lot of excitement that for us, like we want to talk about strict Xs and Os, he connects a lot of lineups for us in terms of being able to help some of the young guys figure out, know what it means to play winning basketball and be in the right spots. He’s obviously a great leader in terms of his communication like he’s going to over communicate and we need that. … That’ll help us in trying to be more cohesive,” Curry explained.
But more than anything else, there has been an obvious negative chatter about their upcoming partnership.
Since the deal took place, many have already speculated how Golden State will define Paul’s role to them heading to the new season with their starting line seeming to be already locked. Questions were further raised when Paul had various instances of dishing out cryptic responses when asked about his views on his future position on the team.
While coach Steve Kerr already declared that they’ll find a needed answer come training camp, Curry maintains an early optimism that they’ll be able to work things out regardless of what would be the forthcoming decision that will be made.
As Golden State is seeking to expand their dynastic reigns, they have to pull it off with Paul who is meanwhile looking to win that lone championship to finally fill the missing piece of his Hall of Fame hardware.
“We have a lot of questions to answer in terms of who’s starting, who’s finishing and that’ll play itself out but at the end of the day, we all I think are motivated to win. I’m sure nobody more than him,” Curry said.
” … There’s gonna be a lot of narrative and conversation again around, sacrifice and what that looks like when it comes to (winning). There’s only five guys on the court in the time, but I think we can all figure that out. So that’s going to be our challenge at the end of the day.”
