When the Warriors start their season this fall, Chris Paul’s playing time will be a heated topic of discussion.
Training camp starts on Oct. 2, about three weeks before the regular season opener on Oct. 24 against the Phoenix Suns. Warriors coach Steve Kerr will have a tough decision to make on the starting lineup, as it appears he has six candidates for the five spots: Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and CP3.
Veteran NBA reporter Marc J. Spears of Andscape recently joined Yahoo! Sports’ Vince Goodwill on his “Good Word” podcast and said he thinks Paul will be in the starting five once the season starts.
“I do expect him to start. I do,” Spears told host Vincent Goodwill. “I think it’s like five-minute spurts. I don’t know if they want his minutes to be high, but I think they’re gonna try it. I could be wrong, but that’s the gist that I’m getting. This isn’t an opinion, this is just what I’m hearing – that he’s expected to start.”
Spears, who hails from San Jose and has been covering the Warriors for years, was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame for his journalism career, so his reporting definitely holds some weight here.
As talented as Jordan Poole is, it was a lot easier for Kerr to bench the explosive 24-year-old than it would be to bench the 38-year-old Paul, who has started an NBA-record 1,363 games to begin his career.
The easiest scenario to see would be to see the Warriors going small and inserting Paul into the starting backcourt alongside the Splash Brothers, moving Wiggins to the power forward and Green to the center. Looney has been a consummate team player and it's hard to see him making any scene about Paul, the future Hall of Famer, starting instead of him.
At this point, it’s still speculation. Steph knows that Paul’s playing time will be a big topic of conversation this season, but the Warriors should have enough championship-driven veterans to make the puzzle fit.
