3 benefits Chris Paul will bring to the Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors dropped a bombshell of a trade last Thursday, trading their best bench player, Jordan Poole, in a shocking move for an all-time great point-guard on his last legs in Chris Paul.

At the time it was a shellshock for fans and the media alike. Many were surprised that the Warriors let go of Poole, a player who was so pivotal for them in their title run, and was key in the Warriors’ remaining afloat when Stephen Curry got injured this season.

After the initial shock wore off, you can rationalize the move and see just why the Golden State Warriors wanted to make a move for Chris Paul.

While the Warriors have landed themselves a 12-time All-Star, there’s mixed feelings about how Paul’s style will fit into Golden State’s motion offense. Let’s look at the positives though and the benefits that ‘CP3’ will bring to the table.

1. Paul is a veteran and has one of the highest basketball IQs ever

Very simply he’s just a basketball savant. He’s an all-time great playmaker, and almost always makes the right decisions with the ball. While his scoring has continued to dip, he remains one of the best passers in the league. For as good as Jordan Poole has been with the Warriors, he’s been prone to taking bad shots and was very loose with the ball throughout his Dubs tenure. Paul on the other hand is very surgical with the shots he takes, getting to his spots on a consistent basis.

He almost never turns the ball over with an impressive 8.9 to 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio. Basically, he’s always going to make the right decisions and he’s going to significantly raise the floor for the Warriors offense in the non-Cury minutes. He’s an elite foul grifter as well, and when the team is near the bonus, he is probably going to draw some quick and easy fouls to put the Warriors at the line.

2. The Midrange

The Warriors are a team who love to play in a way analytics tend to favor. They take a bunch of threes and use that spacing to open up easy shots at the rim. While they often take high percentage shots, a problem this season arose with their over-reliance on the three-ball. If the threes weren’t falling they’d struggle to generate offense anywhere else and often put too much pressure on Curry to create.

Poole fits very well within this — he was a decent enough shooter and could get to the rim. Chris Paul, however, does one thing very well and that’s the midrange shot. It’s  basically his go-to when it comes to creating and he’s incredibly efficient. A go-to shot like that is something Poole never really had, and having a shot like that is a luxury for whenever the Warriors’ offense dries up.

3. His Playmaking

CP3 also gives the Warriors another elite playmaker — Steph and Draymond are elite passers, two of the best in the league, but it’s fair to say Paul is the best of the lot. He’s consistently averaged over 8 assists in all but 3 years in his career, boasts a low turnover rate and is one of the most intuitive players in the league.

He’s almost always improved players whenever he goes to a new team, whether it’s turning Deandre Jordan into an all-nba player, helping turn James Harden into an MVP, improving the young OKC Thunder in 2019-20, and most recently helping elevate and improve both Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker. There’s a high likelihood that he improves Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody’s level of play, or at the very least makes things easier for the stars in Curry and Klay Thompson.

On first glance there are valid concerns about how Paul will slot into a motion offense given he’s primarily a great pick-and-roll player. However, there are also a ton of reasons to love his fit in the offense, and time will tell how beneficial it is for the Warriors going forward.