Chris Paul seems really cranky at the idea of ​​stepping out of the Warriors’ bench

It may not be that simple yet.

Last month, it was reported that Paul could be included in the starting line-up alongside Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. On Sunday, Paul spoke to local media at the Summer League in Las Vegas, and it seems clear he hasn’t embraced a role off the bench yet.

When asked about the possibility of playing with the second unit, Paul got a little cheeky. “You train?” asked the reporter who brought up his fitness with the Dubs’ bench players. “I don’t know what it will be like yet,” Paul said. “So I guess we’ll have to figure that out once we get going.” Paul responded to a follow-up asked if he’d be willing to come off the bench by saying he and Steve Kerr would share training camp.

Reporters who were there discovered the energy behind the exchange. “He didn’t seem to expect him to come off the bench,” he said. said Marcus Thompson, Athletic player. “Chris Paul doesn’t seem to like the idea of ​​coming off the bench,” per San Francisco Chronicle Conor Letourneau said. (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

On some level, this isn’t surprising. Paul has started every one of the 1,214 regular season games since entering the NBA in 2005. But as we wrote last month, Paul in the starting lineup doesn’t make much sense for a million or so reasons. The three-guard lineup with Paul, Curry and Thompson will be short on defense and only short. Paul’s very slow style is better suited to the style of play as the leader of a separate unit than the fast style of play managed by Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green. ESPN wrote Sunday night that Golden State “He wanted to get a player they could trust to run their second unit.”

This Warriors training camp may not contain the incredible drama of a player being punched in the face. But it may not be completely drama-free either.