Warriors taking potentially season-defining risk following free agency departure

Chris Paul's tenure at the Golden State Warriors lasted all of 58 games, making his departure from the franchise far more heartbreaking than that of fellow veteran guard Klay Thompson.

But in terms of direct impact on the team from an on-court standpoint, you can make the argument the Warriors will feel the loss of Paul more so next season. That's not only because of their respective outputs last season, but more because of how they went about reconfiguring the roster this summer.

The Golden State Warriors are taking a major risk by not appropriately replacing Chris Paul following his departure in free agency

Thompson may have had a more prominent role and averaged nearly double the points, yet the on-off numbers show Golden State were better with him off the floor last season, and contrastly better when Paul was on the floor.

The Warriors moved quickly following Thompson's departure, securing De'Anthony Melton and Buddy Hield as two viable replacements for the 5x All-Star. Conversely, when the franchise waived Paul's non-guaranteed contract allowing him to sign with the San Antonio Spurs, they responded by doing very little.

Instead, Golden State are likely to rely on Brandin Podziemski to not only start in Thompson's vacated role, but also replace Paul as the back up point guard behind Stephen Curry. They did sign undrafted guard Reece Beekman to a two-way contract, but there's no guarantee he remains at the franchise by the season opener, let alone be a legitimate rotation option.

What's often forgotten is the fact the Warriors actually needed Paul less than they could forseeably have expected last season. There's no doubt part of his addition was to be an ideal replacement for Curry, and yet the 2x MVP was largely healthy, playing 74 games which was his first time reaching the 70-game mark since 2016-17.

What happens next season when Curry is out for the 15-20 games history suggests he'll miss? Podziemski takes on the primary point guard duties, and perhaps Steve Kerr leans more on Draymond Green and Kyle Anderson as point forwards? That's not an ideal scenario whatsoever, and is a potentially season-defining risk with the potential for disaster.

It's not as if Golden State are looking to address the issue either. The reported players they've brought in for workouts so far this offseason -- Bruno Caboclo, Davis Bertans and Troy Brown Jr. -- are not point guards by any means.

There's still time for the Warriors to make changes leading into training camp and preseason, but at this stage there appears to be little in the way of contingency plans if Curry goes down, or if Podziemski simply proves incapable of running an NBA offense so early in his career.