It’s gonna be weird seeing Chris Paul in the No. 3 Warriors jersey.
That number used to belong to Jordan Poole, but the two players were swapped earlier this summer as Golden State made a no-doubt, win-now move.
During a recent podcast conversation with NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Dubs Talk” with Dalton Johnson and Monte Poole, Dunleavy opened up about the decision to trade Poole to the Washington Wizards for Paul.
“In a lot of ways it was an easy move,” Dunleavy said. “I thought it would make our team better and it gave us a decent amount of flexibility moving forward. To me, it wasn’t that tough. The hard part was letting go of Jordan. … It’s part of the business. To have the opportunity to address some needs and to clear up some financial relief – honestly, I didn’t lose much sleep over that one.”
While Paul is 38 and his body has broken down in recent seasons, Dunleavy is putting a lot of faith in the sports medicine and performance staff led by Rick Celebrini. The Warriors want Paul to be able to get through the season and produce in the playoffs, before re-assessing his contract situation.
Paul’s $30 million salary for 2024-25 isn’t guaranteed until June 28, 2024 – so the Warriors could cut him after this season to save payroll. Poole, meanwhile, inked a four-year, $123 million extension that runs through the 2026-27 season, which hamstrung the Warriors in the long-term as they try to keep the Dynasty Dubs core together.
As talented as Poole is offensively, he obviously comes with defensive shortcomings and questions about his maturity. The Warriors didn't wanna wait around for the full blossom or see if Poole and Draymond Green could correct their chemistry. Golden State is also feeling a time crunch, considering Curry is 35, and Klay Thompson and Draymond are both 33.
Dunleavy said calling Poole was the hardest part of the deal, as the 24-year-old spent four seasons with Golden State and helped them win a title in 2022.
“It’s tough, but you gotta be open and honest,” Dunleavy said. “We have a pretty good relationship. It wasn’t a week or two before when we were talking about next season and things to do to get better, things you can do, whatever it may be. The next call you make, he’s out of the country and, ‘Hey, we’re making a move.’ Didn’t love that, but Jordan was great about it. Think he’s gonna have a wonderful opportunity in Washington.”
We’ll have to see if Paul can eat some humble pie and come off the bench for the first time in his career, but it seems like he’d be the perfect point man for Golden State’s second unit. The future Hall of Famer would provide less scoring than Poole, but also less turnovers, more assists and more leadership.
“We really value guys who can shoot, pass and dribble,” Dunleavy said. “He can do all three of those things, he defends. He brings an element of leadership that we’ll embrace. To me, you can never have enough leaders. Chris just brings so many things to the table, even at his age, that we’re so excited to bring him on. To me, the fit will be pretty seamless. But we’ll see.”
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