Following Draymond Green’s punch to Jordan Poole’s face, the Warriors were faced with a decision. They could either severely punish Green or even trade him, despite his value to the team, and prioritize Poole’s well-being, or they could ignore the incident and show Poole that his safety was not a top priority. Unfortunately, the Warriors chose the latter, resulting in a season filled with dysfunction and a second-round elimination from the playoffs. Despite Green’s decision to become a free agent, the team ultimately decided to let go of Poole.
Some players get traded, some get released, others get relegated to the end of the bench. Jordan Poole got banished.
There was no evil intent on the Golden State Warriors’ part as they sent Poole to Washington in the Chris Paul deal, but the enigmatic young guard could not have landed in a more dubious NBA location. The notion of him “haunting” the Warriors, in some way, is completely off the table.
As this is written, it’s conceivable that the Wizards could truly start from scratch and trade Poole for some future draft choices, but for heaven’s sake, fans need some reason to attend the games. At his best, Poole is a gifted, electrifying presence with his long-range shooting, either-hand dribbling and explosive moves to the basket.
He also pays no attention to defense, falls into streak-shooting slumps and — last season at least — had a discouraging tendency to make ill-advised decisions at important times. Worse yet, his maturity (or lack of it) came into question as he never seemed to get over Draymond Green’s preseason punch.
He’s so far out of the Warriors’ vision now, they might go all of next season without seeing him in a nationally-televised game. Seldom has the expression “out of sight, out of mind” seemed so appropriate.
It appears unjust that Poole is being portrayed as the antagonist despite being the one who was physically assaulted, while Green, who produced a documentary about the incident, faced no repercussions.
However, Cam’ron has his own theory about why Green resorted to violence against Poole. He claims that Green was provoked by certain things that were said to him.
https://twitter.com/GoIdenState/status/1673414644998742017
It’s impossible to determine the validity of the statement, but it’s plausible that the Warriors may have made an erroneous decision if Green is truly that easily affected.
