Golden State Warriors and the first glimpse of their 2023-2024 strategy: Chris Paul as a backup star | Sports New Spain

This Sunday, October 29, Chris Paul did something he hadn’t done before in 1,365 games between regular season and playoffs: play a match as alternative.

The reason for breaking this streak is very clear. And if Golden State had trouble at Last seasonwithout a doubt it was the performance of a second unit full of inexperience and very poor level all year. San Francisco made moves to erase that deficit in 2023-2024 and with Paul as new star of this substitute teamKerr’s men are already starting to find good results.

With the Draymond Green’s debut In the campaign, the doubt was resolved as to what Kerr’s ideal quintet would be: Keep the double base with Paul and Curry, leaving Looney as a replacement? Or combine Green with Loney and bring in CP3 from the second unit? Against Houston, the doubts were over: Looney and Draymond start, Paul on the bench, for the first time in his NBA career.

Beyond a reasonable win against Houston – still winless in three games – against 106 to 95driven by 11 3-pointers from Steph Curry (6) and Klay Thompson (5)the story of the night for Golden State happened through the huge thumbs up which made the first test of Paul in an aspect hitherto unknown to him.

As expected, the experienced point guard did absolute owner of the second unit and was instrumental in the Warriors not only not feeling Steph’s rest minutes, but even will extend the advantage during these sections. In fact, Paul – author of 8 points and 7 assists – finished with it best +/- of the whole match: +22.

The total of five substitutes Kerr used? +57.

Aside from the fact that it’s obviously only the first game, the performance of Golden State’s bench is starting to show potential for improvement over last season. In that 2022-2023, the Warriors finished 17th in +/- of his second unit in the Regular Season and they felt that weakness much more in the Playoffs, when their backups had it worst spread among the 16 teams that participated in the postseason.

Their income Chris Paul as the sixth man in place of Jordan Poolemay take away from this team’s scoring explosion, but no doubt makes up for it with one much more organized and reliable attackwhich promises to bring out the best in youngsters like Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga. Again, Paul’s impact shouldn’t just be measured in his points and assists, but in what he does (and did this Sunday) for the rest of his teammates.

Sure Pavlos is no longer there to be a central piece in a team with aspirations, but like guarantor during the minutes of rest of the main starsGolden State couldn’t have had a better choice.

There’s a long way to go in the season, but this Sunday in Houston, the Warriors showed that today they have cards very different from those of the last contest and that what he knew to be a weaknessmay have turned into a power.