Why the Chris Paul, Golden State Warriors marriage gives both ...

So Chris Paul will be a Golden State Warrior.

That's a blockbuster shift, to be sure, and for the 38-year-old point guard it's about as opportune a last-chance landing spot as you could hope for.

And make no mistake: This is indeed just that, a likely final shot for an all-time great point guard to find a way to win that elusive NBA championship -- and turn the tide, one way or another, on how he is ultimately remembered. 

Help the Warriors win it all, and Paul's the equal, historically speaking, of the likes of an Isiah Thomas -- a stark irony, given Thomas' role in the Phoenix Suns' decision to send Paul to the Wizards who, a short time later, sent him to the Warriors.

But fail to win a title, particularly with Paul in the final year of his contract with nearly $31 million remaining, and, well, he's something else entirely: a Hall of Fame player with that "but" that will always trail him. Think Karl Malone. Think, as Shaq likes to constantly remind us, of Charles Barkley. 

Great, yes, sure. But still missing something forever out of reach.

Paul is complicated in his greatness -- and the other things that surround it -- which means much rides on this fascinating last-ditch, legacy-saving, championship-pursuing opportunity.

Let's be candid here. Paul is both respected and loathed, and over his career he has been coveted by teams and, at times, viewed as problematic within them. How that is remembered will be more important than what's actually true, and a title (or the lack of one) will largely shape such things.

His fit in Golden State certainly makes sense on the surface. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, he arrives in exchange for Jordan Poole and a package that will include Golden State's top-20 protected 2030 first-rounder as well as its 2027 second-round pick.

Sources, who confirmed the trade, expressed a sense everyone here can win: Paul get a shot on a contender; the Wizards, in full tear-down mode, get a promising young scorer in Poole plus those picks; Poole gets liberation from a Warriors team that fell apart internally after he was viciously punched by Draymond Green before the start of the last season; and the Warriors get liberated from that dynamic and Poole's hefty contract.

In conversations with NBA front-office officials after the trade, similar points arose in support Golden State's end of the deal: Paul is a clear upgrade, at least in a one-year window, to Poole. Paul's ball handling skills and his world-class basketball IQ will take pressure off Steph Curry, add offensive firepower, and make life easier for Klay Thompson and his ability to get easy looks. 

Paul, in short, is an outstanding player and, in the nitty gritty of the Xs and Os detail, a fine fit.

And Paul's age need not be as much of a hindrance, the thinking goes. Since he doesn't need to carry a team, the Warriors will be able, if they're smart about it, to manage his minutes and try and arrive at next year's postseason with a relatively well-managed Paul, Curry & Co.

The Warriors, for their part, are in a win-right-now mode. Presuming Green, an unrestricted free agent, returns to Golden State -- a move most think will happen -- you'll have another season with the core intact. Thompson has one (expensive) year left on his deal, and Curry, while 35, is still so very elite. 

Yet there are worries, and not just the fact Paul is getting older and more and more injury prone, nor the great fear that Golden State could be squandering whatever remains of Curry's window, nor even the worry that Thompson will be more his 2023 playoff version (not great) instead of his regular-season version (at times utterly phenomenal).

There's the worry of Paul himself.

One of the tremendous superpowers of the Warriors during its dynastic run has always been its locker room -- the chemistry behind the scenes that matched the joy and success on the floor. That spell was broken last year in the aftermath of the Green-Poole fiasco, with real consequences.

Paul is proud. He can be difficult. Sources from past teams have described an at-times condescending intensity that became grating as seasons wore on, and infuriating for those -- and there were many -- who saw him as one way with the media and another with his teammates. 

Those things are fine when you win hardware. Yet they become irritating when you fail to, and then jump from place to place, depriving a team of the natural chemistry than can inoculate against such things.

Which is to say: The guy can be hard to play with, even if he also paradoxically can be, on the floor, an utter joy to have alongside you. 

It's hard to believe the Warriors would have made this move without Curry, Thompson and Green signing off. So that Big Three, of which CP3 is not a part, cleary think they know what they're in for.

But sometimes being a teammate, particularly Paul's, can be a lot like having a buddy become your roommate or tag along on a long vacation. Seemed like a great idea at the time, until it turned out that being around the guy sometimes is totally different than getting the full, 24-hour-a-day version.

There's a reason, even excluding the Wizards, that the Warriors will be Paul's sixth team of his career. He's been great, but he hasn't won. He's been a difference maker, but often someone teams were happy to eventually see go.

He's often been underestimated. He's often been utterly hard to be around, at least for some.

Can he get along with Green, and can the alpha-at-all-times Green get along with Paul? Can Paul adjust his vibe to the Warriors culture, rather than expecting it to adjust to him? Can he accept whatever role -- certainly a secondary one to Steph, and probably Klay and Dray as well -- will be his new reality? 

Can he get along with a locker room and its players who need that chemistry to come back if they're to successfully battle the likes of Denver, Phoenix, Memphis and others this upcoming season?

If so, the Warriors may -- may -- just find themselves back in the championship mix.

But if not -- if Paul can't stay healthy, or happy, or easy to be around -- his addition will likely come up short, if not short-circuit an under-pressure, win-right-now organization.

It's a possible last chance for Paul, in which a career of greatness and shortcomings, of almosts and could-have-beens, will have its final judgment on the question of the man's career: Who, exactly, is Chris Paul the basketball player? 

A generational talent with a ring, or a generational talent who could never quite get it done despite super team after super team.