Jordan Poole was on a fast track to be the successor for Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. He was the young, up-and-coming NBA star on the Golden State Warriors who improved his scoring output from 8.8 points per game in his rookie season to 18.5 in his third, and it looked as though the future was bright.
Is Jordan Poole’s Contract The Worst In The NBA?
“A lot of teams are calling the Jordan Poole contract one of the worst deals in the NBA right now.”
(Via @957thegame ) pic.twitter.com/H5YqsNiCYC
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 22, 2024
The Warriors thought so, too. Ahead of the 2022-23 season, they rewarded Poole, handing him a 4-year extension worth $128 million, locking in the “Third Splash Brother” for the foreseeable future.
The contract wasn’t set to kick in until the NBA 2023-24 season, though, and the Warriors never actually had to pay Poole a dime of it. After a tumultuous season last year that included the training camp punch from Draymond Green that severed the relationships with many players, Poole was traded. The team came up well short during their playoff push, and Poole’s lack of production played a role in the team losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference Semi Finals.
He became something of a scapegoat. The Warriors had to make a move, opting to keep the veteran Green and part ways with Poole, shipping him off to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Chris Paul.
Paul has played in just 32 of Golden State’s 53 games thus far while dealing with injury, and he has still been more of a productive piece this season than Poole.
Warriors Have Been Mediocre, Poole Has Been Downright Bad
Jordan Poole is the #Shaqtin Midseason MVP! 🏆💀 pic.twitter.com/SsUam1Rgnf
— Shaqtin’ a Fool (@shaqtin) February 16, 2024
Poole’s numbers have taken a serious dive while playing for the Wizards. He is down from 20.4 points per game to 15.6, and is shooting 40% total from the field and just over 30% from distance, both easily the worst marks since his rookie year. His plus/minus is 6.8, meaning that opposing teams outscore Washington by nearly 7 points when Poole is on the court this year, which ranks him 525th out of 540 players.
According to NBA insider Bobby Marks during his interview with 95.7 The Game in the Bay Area, Poole’s contract is considered to be a serious mistake:
A lot of teams are calling the Jordan Poole contract one of the worst deals in the NBA right now. [The Warriors] caught a break, there.
While the Warriors certainly aren’t at the top of the league anymore, they still have championship aspirations as they feel that their window is not quite closed. They will enter the second half of the 2023-24 season hovering around the .500 mark, and could have a tough time getting into the top-6 and out of a potential Play-In situation.
As for the Poole and the Wizards, they are hovering around being the worst team in the NBA, just one game better than the San Antonio Spurs with a record of 9-45.
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