Warriors defeat Poole’s Wizards, but he sure was fun to watch

This dude has tons of potential, can he put it together in Washington?

A big narrative in the Golden State Warriors 123-112 win over the Washington Wizards last night in D.C. was that was the first time that Draymond Green and Jordan Poole had matched up as opponents since Poole’s trade from the Dubs earlier this year. Last season Green and Poole infamously had an altercation in practice where after some apparent trash talk, Green punched Poole out.

In the aftermath of that Poole got paid handsomely by the Warriors, was a major part of their regular season championship defense, before struggling in the postseason as the Warriors were eliminated in the second round. When the fan favorite Poole was traded for Chris Paul, Dub Nation seemed to be split somewhere between “how could we let go of this young star we developed” and “can we trust this guy to play the right way?”.

Fast forward to this year, where Poole has been booed and benched for poor play as a Wizard. No longer is he sharing the court with the Splash Bros; now he’s fighting for playing time with Landry Shamet.

At one point he was presumed to be the heir apparent to the Splash Bros, so it was quite entertaining/bittersweet when he gave Steph Curry a variation of the step-back bomb that Curry perfected.

But ultimately, he couldn’t find a way to overcome those Dubs. Poole sputtered to a 5-of-17 shooting night (2-of-8 from beyond the arc), scoring 12 points. He did dish out 5 assists and grab 2 steals but he also had 6 turnovers. More turnovers than field goals is not a great look for the young hooper, and ominously he didn’t get to the free throw line once.

He was a great attacker for the Warriors and could live at the line on certain nights, so I’m pretty surprised by that stat.

Poole will always get a lotta love from the Bay Area for the hard work he put in to go from a first round pick G-Leaguer to an exciting hooper with Harlem Globetrotter-esque showmanship.

Here’s hoping that he finds his way out there in the nation’s capitol!