Friday night marks the first time Jordan Poole will return to Golden State since being traded from the Warriors for Chris Paul over the offseason. Poole’s time with the Warriors ended in a rough way despite an overall successful tenure, as a well-documented preseason incident with Draymond Green foreshadowed an uneven season that saw the Warriors fall in the second round of the playoffs and Poole average just 10.3 points per game in the playoffs (down from 20.4 in the regular season).
Poole went from a late first-round pick who struggled to find playing time in his first two seasons to an integral piece of Golden State’s championship run in 2021/22. His efforts earned him a contract extension from Golden State, good for four years and $123MM, but he never ended up playing on that deal before being moved.
With Poole traveling to Golden State on Friday, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater looked back at Poole’s time with the Warriors and caught up with all parties to determine what went wrong.
“I look back at that, and I hate that it happened,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I know that in my heart, that when [the punch] happened, we handled it the best way we thought we could handle it. But in hindsight — and hindsight is always 20/20 — we could have done better for sure. I just hate the way it ended for Jordan here, because he is a huge success story. For us and for him, this was a great marriage. He helped us win a title. We helped him, you know, become a champion and a guy who signed a big contract, life-changing contract. It was all wildly successful. But I hate the way it ended.”
The peak of Poole’s time with the Warriors was the championship year, as he averaged 17.0 points on .508/.391/.915 shooting splits. As Slater observes, Poole actually started over star Stephen Curry in those playoffs as the latter worked his way back from injury. Poole averaged 22.9 points and shot 46.2% from deep in his first eight playoff games that year.
“We would not have won a championship in ’22 without him,” Klay Thompson said. “Simple as that. So I hope Dub Nation shows him the right ovation on Friday night.”
While the Warriors and Green have been more vocal about the punch that headlined a shifted locker room vibe and the subsequent fallout, Slater writes that Poole has continued to keep his cards close to his chest.
“Successful time,” Poole said. “Learned a lot. Can’t ask for too much more than that. Won a championship. Played with Loon (Kevin Looney). Played with some of the greatest ever. Played with (Andrew Wiggins). Met great guys. The staff is good. It was a cool experience. It was just dope to accomplish something you’ve been looking for your entire life, winning a championship at the highest level, seeing what that takes.”
We have more Warriors notes:
- Wiggins, who was one of Poole’s best friends with the Warriors, per ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, also spoke highly of Poole and how he dealt with the altercation with Green. “He handled that better than 99 percent of people would,” Wiggins said. “He handled it like a true professional.“
- An NBA dynasty never lasts forever, opines The Ringer’s Howard Beck, and the Warriors are no different. While it may be true Golden State’s dynasty is coming to a close, it isn’t just because of Green’s recent suspensions, Beck writes. Things have been falling apart on the edges for Golden State for a while, and it’s seemingly coming together now, as the Warriors struggle through a lackluster start to the season. As Beck writes, the Warriors drafted James Wiseman over players like LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Haliburton and their attempts to develop a two-timeline system haven’t come to fruition yet. On top of that, championship architect Bob Myers is no longer with the team. Still, Beck cautions to not write the Warriors off yet, as they won a title in 2022 after some down years and still could pull things together.
- The Warriors lost their first game after changing up their starting lineup, but have since strung together three wins in a row. Part of that success is coming from giving younger players extended run, and second-round rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis has stood out in each of the last two games. In those outings, he has averaged 12.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks. According to Kerr, he’s going to be in the rotation moving forward. “He’s gonna play,” Kerr said (Twitter link via Slater). “He’s gonna be in the lineup.“
Or keep Jackson-Davis and add Santos in there
TJD playing solid, always knew with him it would just be a matter of time before he started to show out.
As for the Warriors and somehow getting better, this would be the deal I’d pushing to make
Detroit: Draymond Green
Chicago: Isiah Livers and Gui Santos
GSW: Bojan Bogdanovic and Andre Drummond
Then
GSW: Pascal Siakim
Toronto: CP3, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and a protected first
From these two moves you’ve also now created two extra roster spots. Bring in Stanley Johnson and Javonte Green
GSW
Curry Klay Wiggins Siakim Drummond
GP2 Podzi Johnson Bojan Looney
Joseph Green Saric TJD
Curry still is the leader, Sikaim gives you a consistent sidekick, Klay will occasionally have a big game and Wiggins is a good two glue guy. Drummond just gets boards and has no offence run through him. Probably not the best interior defender but Looney can play that role. Off the bench Bojan is the go to option, GP2 is a good leader, Podzi has a good role to play as does Loon
Very interesting…is there a way to make things happen without JK? The more I watch JK in person, the more I see him play this game with such ease. JK is having fun with his sparse minutes as he, literally, soars above the rest of the players on the court. In any event, the sky isn’t falling and maybe no trades are even necessary. Kerr may actually be finding a rhythm with some of these rotations and perhaps Draymond comes off the bench when he is back – to be a defensive sparkplug and even run the offense from the top of the key as he has been doing for many years. Less ego from the vets and more teamplay. I do like Bogdanovic though, and Sikiam would be a great addition, just not one that should cost the team JK imo. CP3, Moses and Podz for Sikiam…sign me up.
Podz is way better than expected, trading him would be stupid.
Drummond is not the type of big GSW needs. And I don’t think the Raptors would make the trade you propose.
I don’t think Drummond is perfect but he would offer you some certain things you really want. Size and rebounding in particular. He’s a genuine 7 footer and will easily grab 10 rebounds a game minimum in like 20 minutes.
You’d just need him to run rim to rim getting boards.
As for the Raptors end of the deal I think it would be terrific for them. JK is a great like for like return, on top of that Moses Moody is a good prospect and CP3 gives you a solid expiring deal
Drummond is 6’11”. he can’t even shoot free throws at a decent percentage, and Trayce rebounds at similar rates. I’m glad GSW would never try to get him, nor will they consider trading Kuminga who is stating to level up..
It seems Draymond is the only guy who is bitter about the Punch when he was suppose to show remorse and “be better”….. his time is clicking with Warriors. It’s too bad but Draymond has only himself to blame. He’s no longer the player or the person he use to be. The hardest worker on the court, the underdog, do whatever it takes to win, the most energetic, unselfish, make others better, just pure winner. He’s none of that now. Just arrogant, entitled, whining, distraction. Let’s win classy. Get him the counselng he needs and turn the page. His allegience is with LBJ anyway.
It has been nice the last few games of not arguing with officials and just playing the game. Its going to be all on Green when he comes back to keep his mouth shut and just play the game.
He’s a poor role model not only for our young players but all of our children watching the games. I do not want to win with Draymond’s antics. Let’s win with class!
There could be a trade with Pistons coming up since the Pistons look very desperate to change their team around. Bagley and Burks plus 2 second round picks for Green. Pistons get a leader they desperately need.
Is Stewart a possibility?
Warriors drafting the last 7 years has been nothing short of awful. Not sure why Bon Myers’s is so lauded when he’s the guy who drafted all these guys who can barely stay in the NBA, and he’s the one who gave Poole the huge contract in the first place.
The real credit should go to Curry, Durant, Draymond, Thompson, and Coach Kerr, for carrying the team. And Iggy, Poole etc for being strong support, at times.
Look at the difference of Myer not drafting. GSW picked up 2 good players in the draft this year.
Dude what are you expecting from drafting 28, 29,30 in the draft? Getting Poole and Loon was a huge win with the draft position the team generally had. The only really bad draft is 2020 when it was at an odd time with no in person scouting or workouts really. I love the revisionist history too since Lamelo was thought to be a far worse shooter pre draft, and there was a clear top 3. Nobody was thinking that was a bad pick on draft day.
Like would it have been awesome to trade down to 9 or 10 and get Hali and assets? In hindsight sure, but that sure seemed like the right move at the time with the information available to the Warriors and like every draft expert. Also Im pretty sure Ant was the top of the board for them but he wasnt available when they picked.
Warriors should have either traded down, future assets, or should have gone all in a traded for another veteran star. Bottomline is 2 timeline backfired big time. How many rookies and 2nd player did Warriors have last yr?
In the NBA salary matching is a thing. You cant trade Wiseman for a star you have to trade one of your main players which they didnt want to do. They explored attaching the pick to Wiggins and didnt like the offers. They also seemed pretty down to trade down in the 2020 draft but it takes 2 to tango, and they didnt get any offers that made sense. All of this was heavily reported on at the time if you actually follow the Warriors…
Do you really think they didnt explore both those options in detail? Again this revisionist history where people try to do a 3 years later redraft like the team had all the information we do now then…
Sabonis was available.
Point is 3 1st round picks were once very coveted
The Ws dont want Sabonis He is a much more expensive Looney that doesnt provide much more on this roster
I am not calling out Myers for Drafting Wiseman because it was the covid draft and most players did not play a lot. I am calling him out for other drafts. Like traded for a 2nd round pick for a player they cut the next year? Don’t forget Evans another disaster pick. Look at his draft record it was not very good. He got a lot of praise for players given to him.
There was a lot of concern about Wiseman’s lack of college experience making him a project (so shouldn’t be a #2).
Talk about revisionist history. Kuminga and Wiseman were both top 10 picks. And if top 10 picks are so useless the warriors could have traded them away. Good players have been traded for less, eg: Holiday.
Make all the excuses you want. Bottom line is that warriors front office hasn’t executed anything good in quite some time.
Insult to drafting Myers also traded away a lot of future draft picks. 2 1st round picks and multiple 2nd round picks are gone. I don’t even think they have a draft pick this coming year.
If there is one draft in the next 5 you dont want a 1st in its this one, and they have every one after this except 30 20-30 picks so they could still trade 30 as long as its unprotected 1-19.
Poole just stopped playing basketball well. That is why he was traded
Poole was traded because of his contract. He is not a $30 million a year player. He is a 6th man off the bench $14 million a year player.
If he was playing like he did the championship year he is probably still in Golden State.
I could understand not performing well there last year after being punched by a team-mate. I also understand and respect how he didn’t share his side. I think that was smart, I doubt him saying something about it would have gone well.
However his play and behaviour in Washington now have me seriously wondering about the guy.
He has never played good defense. Only reason he got that big fat contract is Myer ego making him feel like he found a diamond in the draft. He can score but inconsistent at times. He is a Jamal Crawford can shoot the ball but the defense will never be good.
He was doing dumb Poole things like jacking up shots from just inside half court with 22 sec left on the clock too that obviously drove the coaching staff mad. The dude also cant keep from sliding into the splits. I think he needs different shoes.
But there’s no denying he was magic 2 yrs ago when Curry was hurt and Klay just getting back.
He shot really really well for the final 2 months of the season and got himself a huge contract for it. He started the playoffs well but continually lost playing time on the way to the finals. He pretty much has been a poor efficiency volume scorer his entire career outside the 7 weeks he played Currys role in the offense while he was out.
Only an idiot would trade Kuminga.
Kuminga needs to stay in the starting lineup permanently this yr.
Look at any advanced stat and Kuminga is right at the bottom, not Wiggins bad, but not a positive. Green returns to the starting lineup when he gets back with Curry and Klay beyond that its a contest for the final 2 spots although if Wiggins figures things out at all he will lock down another one of those. Kuminga has to either become capable as a 5 in the starting lineup or outplay Wiggins the rest of the way.
I dont disagree but if Warriors are not going to win anything, we meed to develop our young players.
Last night, 22 pts on 81%/50%/100% splits 4 reb 3 ast 1 stl +/- of +9 in 27 minutes.
Zero chance he gets traded.
This whole thing would be so much different if Draymond sought help years ago…
No punch and the Warriors are still contenders… That punch killed any chance of a decent winning culture for some time…
Notice how it’s Loon and Wiggins that get their names called out…
Poole came out of this situation looking like the classy one… Yet gets far too much of the hate… But that’s how fragile the jock ego is these days..