The Golden State Warriors rushed to pay Jordan Poole because they had no choice. Following his breakout campaign and his contributions to their NBA championship, they signed him to a big contract, knowing they could always move on from him.
Notably, NBA insider Marc Stein recently reported that the Washington Wizards had similar plans when they agreed to trade for him. Per Stein, they never intended to hold onto him and were only hoping he would drive his trade value up to flip him for more assets.
Fast forward to today, and that’s definitely not the case. He’s struggling mightily, posting the worst box plus-minus (-14.2) in the entire league, not being aggressive as a scorer, and averaging just 16.6 points on 38.9 percent shooting from the field and 28.4 percent from three in a bad Wizards team.
The Warriors Saw This Coming
With that in mind, an unnamed executive revealed to Heavy Sports that the Warriors knew this all along, which is why they didn’t hesitate to dump a first-round pick to move him in return for Chris Paul.
Jordan Poole of the Washington Wizards
“The Warriors did not really want to give him that money, but they knew they had to and that they could move him on later—they were hoping he would play better and they could get something more for him than Chris Paul, but that didn’t happen,” one league executive told Heavy Sports. “But now Jordan Poole is the Wizards’ problem. They’re stuck with him. You’re not going to get a first-round pick. The Warriors were lucky to just get out from the contract. The Warriors had to give away a first-rounder to dump him.”
Wizards Can’t Trade Him Now
On top of his shooting woes, Poole also comes with some baggage. There have been plenty of reports regarding his attitude and how he’s not the kind of player who owns his mistakes or is coachable or held accountable.
That’s going to make it even harder for the Wizards to get any sort of good value for his services. He’s going to have to go through another breakout season if they intend to get anything close to a first-round pick for him:
“He needs a full year of playing better,” the executive said. “He needs to shoot it better. Leadership, he needs to be a leader. He needs to win a few games with that team. You also have to have that contract about halfway over because no one is committing a-hundred-and-twenty-something million to Jordan Poole. We used to call guys like that, ‘albatross’ because of how they weighed on you.”
Some analysts and even some players predicted that Poole would lead the league in scoring this season. They thought he’d post All-Star-caliber numbers and have multiple games with 40+ points.
see also
NBA Trade Rumors: 3 Potential destinations for Jordan Poole
Barring a drastic turn of events, that’s just not going to happen. And what once seemed like a good plan for the Wizards has now turned to be a disaster they won’t be able to get out of for a very long while.
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