It has officially been a full season since the Golden State Warriors shook up their 2021 to 2022-winning roster. They decided to run it back in 2022 to 2023. But, chemistry got worse as well as the results that came with it. A key departure from the Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr-led squad was budding young star Jordan Poole. His conflict with Draymond Green along with the sour relationship he developed with some other members of the organization caused him to get traded to the Washington Wizards. This was the same package that brought the Dubs someone named Chris Paul.
Up until now, a great what-if in the minds of Warriors fans was if Jordan Poole developed better chemistry with the rest of the Warriors. Obviously, the biggest turning point in the middle of all this was the incident between him and Draymond Green during practice. A little over a year after the trade to the Wizards, the forward finally got to outline what was on his mind during their time in the Warriors system, via The Draymond Green Show.
“I was so embarrassed to be around our team last year with [Jordan Poole] still on the [Warriors]. I was probably late last season 20 times and I just paid a fine. Because, I was so embarrassed to show my face at that time that I would start timing everything. If we’re on the road, I’d time it up to the minute that I’d need to get there. If the elevator took a little bit longer than it was supposed to, I’d be late,” Draymond Green said.
Elevators were not the only problem that Green encountered throughout this time. He also had some issues with red lights. In the past season, he was back to his old ways of being diligent when it came to practice. That shame dissipated because Poole was no longer with them. In fact, Poole and Green have only seen each other on the court one time since the former got traded to the Wizards. It was their February 27th matchup and it saw the Warriors come out on top.
Two struggling roads after the big Warriors incident
Poole got to play his desired role with the Wizards after departing from the Stephen Curry-led team. He got to chuck up shots and play hero ball. It was largely without much consequences because the team was not in prime condition to contend. This led to some fairly ugly lowlights which could have been avoided with better decision-making. Nonetheless, his average of 15.2 points on 41.3% shooting from all three levels was still on par with what he produced with the Warriors.
Green, on the other hand, just inked a massive deal. It gave him an average annual salary of $25 million for a four-year span. But, the season was very rough for him which also meant that the Warriors struggled. He got penalized for his altercations with Rudy Gobert and Jusuf Nurkic. This meant that Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry did not have their primary defender. All of this led to an unfortunate Play-In Tournament exit which wasted a year in their superstar’s prime.
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