Getty Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole sit with teammates on the Golden State Warriors Bench.
Jordan Poole’s season has somewhat mirrored that of his team, the Golden State Warriors. Poole has been rather inconsistent for the Dubs this year. His points per game is up from 18.5 last season, to 20.7 this year. But, his efficiency has taken a dip. Poole’s shooting splits have dropped to 42.7/32.5 in 2022-23 compared to 44.8/36.4 in the season prior.
His rollercoaster season has made things difficult on the Warriors, as they’ve had to depend on him heavily with Stephen Curry missing 26 games due to various injuries.
Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley published an article on March 9, pinpointing three issues that Golden State needs to fix ahead of their impending playoff push.
Amongst those was finding the correct role for Poole to help him be as effective as possible.
“Jordan Poole is a tremendous talent,” Buckley wrote. “Squint while he’s flashing his dizzying dribble moves, pull-up perimeter shooting and creative finishes around the basket, and you might swear you’re watching a Stephen Curry clone. But Poole isn’t having a Curry 2.0 type of impact on this team. Not anything close to that, in fact. Poole’s efficiency is down, and his inconsistency is all over the place. While the following number generally reflects some of the issues Golden State has encountered with its second team as a whole, it’s still worth noting that the Warriors have fared 5.0 points worse per 100 possessions with Poole than without him, per NBA.com. Golden State has to figure out what helps bring out his best more often than not. The Warriors need his scoring, distributing and driving—they’re only 14th in offensive efficiency—but they need them to come without these wild swings in productivity.”
Poole played a key role in the Warriors 2022 NBA Championship run. He averaged 17 points per game off of the bench, while making 50.8% of his attempts from the field and 39.1% of those from 3-point range, according to Basketball Reference.
If they have any chance of repeating this season, they’ll need the 23-year-old to find his way back to being the player he was last spring.
Proposal Lands Warriors Pascal Siakam, Sends Jordan Poole to Raps
If the Warriors are unable to find a role that utilizes Poole correctly, then they could look to move on from the young guard this summer.
Heavy Sports’ Jack Simone recently proposed the following trade that would send Poole to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for some added championship experience.
Warriors receive: Pascal Siakam
Raptors receive: Jordan Poole, Moses Moody, 2026 1st-Round Pick (Swap), 2027 1st-Round Pick, 2029 1st-Round Pick (Top-4 Protected)
Simone suggested that the Raptors would have to completely give up on their current core for the deal to be realistic.
He also pointed out that adding Siakam would help Golden State’s defense return to an elite level.
“The starting lineup of Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Siakam would be a defensive monster, and they would still have Kevon Looney, Donte DiVincenzo, Jonathan Kuminga, and others coming off the bench,” he wrote.
Jordan Poole Gets Called for Wild Technical Foul
For the time being, Poole is still a member of the Warriors.
In the team’s most recent game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he fell victim to one of the more egregious technical foul calls ever.
Poole was called for a reach-in foul with just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter. He then he threw a bounce the ball over to referee Josh Tiven, who then blew his whistle and assesed Poole a technical foul.
Jordan Poole received a tech on this play.
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Slumping ‘Stephen Curry Clone’ Forces Tough Decision on Warriors Ahead of Playoffs