In yet another good start to an NBA off-season, it appears that an awesome marriage of two different situations has happened.
The rebuilding Washington Wizards, who are really, really starting from scratch, will now be the home of former Golden State Warrior Jordan Poole, a young, capable talent that’s in need of a fresh start.
Poole has climbed from late first-round pick, to bench warmer of a last-placed team, to a top-tier, high-scoring sixth man on a championship squad. In fact, he was once considered as an heir apparent to Stephen Curry, so much so that he was signed to a four-year, $140 million extension last October 2022.
As you know, things started to turn during last year’s training camp, when he was on the receiving end of a Draymond Green punch that was caught on video and leaked to the public. In a controversial move, Green wasn’t traded and they just moved along into the season. That had to feel terrible for Poole – mentally, you’d start to think you’re way below in the pecking order.
Then, as the touted defending champions, the Warriors proceeded to have an underwhelming 44-38 record and a sixth-seed finish, which ended in a second-round defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Overall, Poole actually did well in the 2022-23 regular season. He was one of only 10 players throughout the league that played all 82 games, and he coupled it with averaging 20.4 points per game despite sharing the ball with the Splash Brothers – Curry and Klay Thompson. He also stepped up nicely when called upon as he posted 26.1 PPG with a 56.5% TS in the 26 games that Curry sat.
At the same time, though, he had stretches where you could see questionable decision-making, particularly in his shot selection. That one time Steph got so frustrated that he threw his mouthpiece was a good example, especially since it caused a misunderstanding between the referees and he was ejected.
Then, there’s that aforementioned series with the Lakers. Poole was just horrendous, particularly from Games 2 through 6, where he only mustered 5.8 PPG on 30.2% shooting, including a combined 1-of-17 from three. He was so bad that his minutes dwindled to just 18.8 per game.
It was a dreadful end, but that’s what makes his move to Washington encouraging. The Wizards have torn the team down to a million pieces, trading away their two best players – Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis – for chump change, likely allowing let their third key man, Kyle Kuzma, walk in free agency.
As of now, the Wizards’ main guys include Poole, 22-year-old Deni Avdija, Monte Morris, new acquisitions Tyus Jones and Landry Shamet, and 2023 lottery pick Bilal Coulibaly, who’s still weeks away from turning 19 years old. Free agency will most probably add a couple of names, but it’s bound to be one heck of a rebuilding year.
All that opens the avenue for a big, scoring season for Poole much further. While he’ll be that classic high-scoring no. 1 option on a bottom-feeding team, it’s a good starting point to refresh his career.
Based on the makeup of the team, and how experimental they can be considering it’s basically a year to try as many things as possible, we can expect the 24-year-old to flex his shooting, handles, and high-scoring capabilities. He has already proven he can put up 20-plus even when surrounded by big-time scorers, so 25 or more PPG on a much-inferior roster should be automatic.
