Warriors' Paul glad to raise kids around basketball

Chris Paul's season ended earlier than it has in over a decade. He'd made the playoffs for 14 straight seasons. He was a fixture of May basketball.

But with the Warriors, Paul missed the playoffs despite teaming up with three other future Hall of Famers. Before this year, the last time he played for a lottery team was 2010.

Life was different back then. Paul was 24 and in his athletic prime. It was five teams ago, before he created pick-and-roll nirvana in Los Angeles with Blake Griffin. His first child, Chris Paul II, was only one year old; he's now on the cusp of the preps basketball hype machine.

Paul is older and wiser now. He's a father of two. He intends to extend his career into Year 20, confident in his ability to still drive efficient offenses. He did so this past season with the Warriors, even on a team that seemed like an awkward fit personality-wise but ended up being a tougher fit on the court.

Paul has a “big summer” ahead of him, he said. His offseason will be another one of training — which doesn't get easier with age — negotiating and family time. For someone who has lived away from his wife and kids for the past four years, that third activity is a real silver lining.

“Yeah, don't feel good,” Paul said of losing his playoff streak. “(But) I get a chance to travel and be an AAU dad, make some of my daughter's volleyball games. “A little bit of a longer break than usual, but it is what it is.”

Paul never would've imagined playing with the Warriors before they traded for him. For many years, he battled Steph Curry

and Draymond Green in the playoffs, often coming out on the losing end. Green feuded with him. Curry used him as a measuring stick early in his career, then surpassed him.

But Paul and Green became fast friends and somewhat of basketball kindred spirits. He got involved in multiple Bay Area-based charities, including one that helps create savings accounts for Oakland middle schoolers.

On the court, Paul was a member of several of Golden State's most productive lineups. His counting numbers didn't jump off his Basketball Reference page, but Paul stabilized the Warriors when Steph Curry sat more than any other time since Kevin Durant's tenure.

Paul developed excellent pick-and-roll chemistry with rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis and ranked second in the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio among players who averaged at least 25 minutes per game.

A pleasant takeaway for Paul was the Warriors' flexibility in finding pockets of time for the point guard and his family in Los Angeles to connect during the season. Paul is a 12-time All-Star, a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team and has made over $380 million in career earnings, but is most proud of being Chris and Camryn's dad.

“There's no greater job,” Paul said of fatherhood in a mid-March conversation with this organization.