Chris Paul's season with the Golden State Warriors still feels surreal to a degree -- it's the sort of thing we'll look back on in 20-30 years and ask, "did that really happen?"
Paul had his moments during his time with the Warriors, but his lone season was largely uneventful as the franchise was bundled out in the Play-In Tournament by the Sacramento Kings.
Chris Paul has implied disappointment over his year with the Warriors
Golden State acquired Paul in the 2023 offseason largely as a means to get off Jordan Poole's contract, with the franchise always unlikely to pick up the 12x All-Star's $30 million team option for this season.
When the Warriors were unable to send Paul's contract out for Paul George or another star prior to free agency, they were left to simply waive the 39-year-old which opened the door for him to become a free agent for the first time in his decorated career.
Instead of joining a bonafide championship contender, Paul chose to sign with the San Antonio Spurs and French phenom Victor Wembanyama. Speaking recently with Tony Parker on the official Spurs YouTube channel, Paul spoke about his reasons behind joining the franchise.
“Last year was probably one of the toughest years for me. I just love to hoop. I wanna play. If I’m gonna sacrifice my family and be away from them, then I at least need to be playing," Paul said.
Last season was the first time Paul had come off the bench in his career, having appeared to settle into the role well after some initial hesitation following the trade. Evidently he wasn't fully comfortable though, with the point god starting in just 18 of his 58 games with Golden State.
While Paul has started all of his 25 games with the Spurs, his 28.2 minutes per game is less than two minutes more than the 26.4 he averaged with Golden State last season. Therefore this idea that he went somewhere to play significantly more isn't entirely true.
Paul didn't help his playing time by getting ejected in the first-quarter of Friday's matchup with the Trail Blazers in Portland. The 20-year veteran received his second technical foul just 11 minutes into the game, but his Spurs went on to win 118-116 thanks to 28 points from Wembanyama.
As much as the Warriors were never going to pay Paul $30 million to be their backup point guard, they are missing his steady presence in the second unit with Brandin Podziemski having failed to deliver on expectations to start his sophomore season.