NBA Exec On The Future Of Jordan Poole In Washington

Jordan Poole has been a lightning rod of controversy in his short NBA career. Following his blocking of a vicious Draymond Green punch with his face during  2022 training camp, the Golden State Warriors were forced to trade him after the season, less than a year after handing him the bag of a 4-year, $128M contract. 

Now, as his inefficient start to his Washington Wizards career is only a month old, trade rumors have been flying already, and now one NBA exec has dropped this little nugget, courtesy Heavy Sports:

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... 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.

Poole is averaging 16.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, but he's doing it while shooting just 39.6% from the field, and an even less efficient 28.4% from three-point range. On top of that, his 2.9 turnovers per game nearly wipe out his 3.5 assists. 

Will the Wizards ever be able to move on from Poole? Maybe, says the exec, in a couple of years, "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.”

For now, the Wiz are "stuck" with that weight, as the rival exec says, and with a 2-12 start to the season, it's an ugly situation in DC that might not get better for a while. 

Photo: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports