The Golden State Warriors seemed to think that Jordan Poole was next in line. They reportedly wanted him to carry Stephen Curry’s torch, which is why they signed him to such a big contract.
But Poole didn’t respond in the way they wanted or thought he’d do. He handled himself differently after getting that big contract, and stopped respecting the team’s veterans and even his coach.
However, his attitude wasn’t the reason why they shipped him away to the Washington Wizards. According to a report by Heavy Sports, his poor performances in the playoffs made the Warriors pull the plug on him.
Playoffs Underperformances Led To Poole Trade
“Poole was awful in the playoffs. I don’t think all this stuff about everyone hating him, that kind of garbage is not fair. It was performance with him,” an executive told Heavy.
“He did not perform when it mattered, again, and that made it pretty easy to make the case to trade him and create a little more flexibility to keep Klay [Klay Thomspon] and Draymond [Green],” the executive added. “The Chris Paul thing is a nice experiment they can try for a year, basically. But it’s going to be about keeping Klay.”
At the end of the day, the Warriors favored keeping their proven, championship-winning core together over a rising star with attitude issues and a big salary. Controversial as it may seem, we won’t know if it was the right call until we see them on the floor next season.