Poole to Wizards
Zards sending CP3 to Warriors, to complete the Beal trade with the Suns. Zards also get protected 2030 pick (which, hardly seems to count).
As a DC area resident, the dumping of Beal/Kuzma/Porzingis means there was zero reason to watch the Wizards other than whomever the opposing team has. But I wouldn't mind seeing Jordan go for 40 a night. (He certainly won't have any help from his teammates... yuck, what a roster.)
Poole party goes to Washington.
Gonna love those CP3 and Steve Kerr interactions.
Damn, from a crowded team / backcourt to... Quite the opposite. Despite how frustrating playing 15 min a game behind Steph + Klay in the playoffs probably was for him, this has gotta be the worst possible location for him.
D'ya think he could change his name to something else, say Pordan Joole, and return to Michigan via the portal?
He can claim he's transferring from Southeast West North Dakota State.
I disagree. JP is good with the ball in his hands, he has a decent handle and can finish at the rim pretty well - in addition to his very good shooting. No one is going to take the ball out of his hands in DC. JP also needs the freedom to not get benched for his frequent bonehead decision-making so that he can learn and grow. This is his time to shine or shrivel. He has a nice contract but can get a better one if he proves himself as a lead dog.
Agreed. This is actually not a bad scenario for Washington, a franchise that has been stuck on the treadmill of mediocrity by overpaying marginal talent.
Maybe now they can finally bottom out while they/Poole find thenselves. Give Jordan time to be the unquestioned star with high usage and see what other assets they can pull through the draft. Could be a pretty good squad in a couple years if all goes well, and if not, they should be setup with some cap space and young assets after tanking a couple seasons. That's kinda what you have to do in the NBA: take a stab at a young star who needs to find himself while racking up good draft picks.
As a teammate Poole utilized wax on wax off to protect himself from Green sucker punches. As an opponent he now needs to transition to paint the fence to defend against Green’s kicks.
Or adopt the crane to have a kick of his own.
I don't really get the move from a Warriors perspective unless they really regretted giving him that extension and didn't see a future with him as a leader on the next iteration of the Warriors. CP3 isn't a great defender anymore, can't stay healthy, and while he'll help generate offense I'm not sure that's an issue the Warriors really have.
For Poole, this is a chance to be the undisputed best guy on a team. I assume he'll shoot a ton and have some great nights offensively but my guess is it'll be pretty inefficient just because of how little other talent is on the Wizards.
This did crack me up as it relates to the Warriors with CP3 and Draymond.
They did it for cap purposes so they can resign Green. But him and Poole weren't going to be on the same team this year so it was either JP or DG being traded or let go. Paul to the Warriors will make them better then with Poole as Poole is to similar to Curry in jacking up shots. Edit should clarify that I mean Poole was taking shots in the playoffs that Curry takes. Curry can jack up shots all day and make most of them. They just seem to be very similar players and being on the court at the same time wasn't good for the team.
Agree on both points (resign Green, separate Green and Poole). In addition from what I read the Warriors feel as if their potential title window is closing and they hope to use CP3 as a third guard in next year's playoffs. But as Bronx points out, keeping him healthy is a challenge. Personally I love Steph Curry and would like to see him win another title but I think Klay is on the downside after that terrible achilles tear.
I agree they can't have Poole and Green on the same roster but it seems weird the Warriors are banking on Green + Paul being the combo that'll make them competitive in the West. The Nuggets will feast on this smaller, older lineup and right now Phoenix has three legit scorers and a good center in Ayton who could tax the Warriors. We'll see what happens after the draft and pending decisions by guys like Dame but I just don't see how this move changes the championship outlook for the Warriors especially, as you noted, with Klay clearly being a shadow of his pre-injury self.
It just feels like an old team that'll try to YMCA old-guy their way to a title and as we've see that usually doesn't work in the NBA especially with hungrier and younger teams around them. Like, the Kings took them to 7 games could well be better next year. The West isn't the battleground it used to be but it's definitely solid.
Based on what we saw in this year's playoffs, nobody in the west is going to keep up with Denver. I mean, injuries happen and things change but keeping up with Denver, especially defending them, is a mighty tall order. In any case, I suspect the #1 reason for giving up on Poole was the incident w/Draymond and the #2 reason was the big money extension he signed. Yes he could still improve and of course I like him (and his alma mater) but something was off with his game during the playoffs. Not surprised at all that they sent him packing.
It's indeed a surprise that they appear to have slotted aging Chris Paul into the 3rd guard spot. At the very least he's experienced and of course they don't need to make a long term commitment to him. It remains to be seen what the new GM will do next to improve the team's chances next year but I suspect they're not done finding guys for their rotation. There is simply too much urgency to win now/again with Steph in his prime for maybe 1-2 more years.
I agree Poole was off this year and that may be more representative of his future than the playoff run last year when he was, at least in the first two rounds, a top-2 player on a championship team.
The fight with Green clearly messed with him and the chemistry of the team, and maybe he really was a bad fit for the team and they were regretting that extension. At the same time, Green is absolutely on the downside of his career and his playoffs this year highlighted how teams really could sag off him with little fear of him lighting them up. He's still a plus defender and a good passer but if their plan is to invest more money in him at the expense of Poole then it has to be due to personality and not actual basketball impact.
This will free up some cap space for the Warriors (something like $97M after next season presuming they don't pick up Paul's final contract year) but some of that will likely be chewed up by a Green extension. And this year Paul's owed $30M so they don't have a ton of flexibility this year in terms of picking up guys beyond what they have; maybe they move Wiggins or try to get someone on one of the exceptions but they have limited moves.
I agree that Paul as a backup PG is really good for them but we haven't ever seen him in that role before and sometimes the wheels come off a guy especially as injuries accumulate. He's not been able to finish a season healthy in years now and for all of Poole's warts he had the potential to be an elite offensive player and Paul simply isn't that anymore. So I guess we'll see.
I have a feeling GS isn't done yet I see them going for a defensive type center and another wing. Granted they are going to be creative or make trades. That's why Kuminga and Moses Moody have been floating around for trades There isn't much more time in Curry's BBall days to get more Ships So they are going to go all in to win one or 2 more before he retires then they have to blow it up and start from scratch. Regrading Klay he should get better the longer he stays healthy from his injury
Kuminga and Moody have some trade value but I'd be interested to know what the market is for them outside of GS. Kuminga could be a good wing, as he's a solid defender and could be a good offensive player especially with more seasoning. But they're also basically the only young guys they have and so if you trade them you're limiting your future (which may be fine, as neither of them strike me as future All-Stars or anything) but also likely robbing you of meaningful depth and putting more strain on a bunch of 33+ guys with lots of NBA miles on their bodies. The worst thing for the Warriors would be a year not unlike this one where they have to play hard to make the playoffs and then stare down a bunch of road series because they've got to load manage their roster but also don't have much depth so they're in a lot of protracted dog fights.
We'll see. I do think this is a pattern a lot of aging teams fall into where they think there's a bigger window than there is and wind up wasting a couple of years trying to keep it slightly open versus maybe shaking it up more and getting the rebuild going. I know it's hard because Curry is still a top-10 player but an aging Green and an older Klay aren't going to be enough in the West and would probably be behind Boston, Miami, and the Bucks in the East, depending on what happens with Harden in Philly.
I agree. Just keep CP3 healthy for the playoffs and it's a good move.
I don't think it was a good fit for Poole anymore with Steph, Klay, DiVincenzo, etc.
The concern with the cap was Poole's salary going forward but if they're going to spend that on Green then they erase a lot of that benefit. And Green is 33 while Poole just turned 24, so if they're looking to invest 3+ year money into Green then that says they don't really value Poole as a long-term future for them.
Also, Curry is one of the more efficient shooters in the history of the NBA; he doesn't "jack up shots" except in the sense that he shoots really well from basically anywhere on the court. Now, Poole is an inefficient player but his true shooting percentage last year was 57% over 82 games; Paul's was 55% and he only played 59. Paul's still a great passer and will get guys some shots but he's 38 years old and he has basically no positional flexibility, so either he's your starting PG and you've got basically no size on the court with Curry and Klay or he's a backup PG, which is something he's never been in his career. That may work but it's certainly not a given that it makes the Warriors a meaningfully better team next season and given his age absolutely makes them demonstrably worse in future seasons as guys retire/slow down vs. having Poole who, warts and all, still has some chance of improving.
Don't think that is necessarily true regarding Poole. They valued him it was just keeping him and wanting to keep Green wasn't possible. Just the fact since that punch they weren't the same team and they weren't going to play on the same team again. Then you mention Poole and his contract yea it is 40 mill a year but they are in the luxury tax for 3rd or 4th year in a row and that's makes JP contract around 70 mill a season with the taxes. Also they want to win another title and Poole wasn't a good fit with this team for another title run. He is similar to Curry in his game and wasn't a good fit next to him on the court which in turn you can't have your 2nd highest player not be on the court with Curry for the majority of games. It was all about what GS wants now and the is another title because Steph's elite days are not going to be around much longer.
The concensus around the league was that Poole had to go nor is he viewed very highly. He, for all his scoring, was basically a basketball idiot. Pretty sure Steph hated playing with him and Steve Kerr had enough as well. Made the most boneheaded plays, literally 3 or 4 idiotic plays a game.
What I think and what also was reported is they now have 2 point guards who are elite that can play much fewer minutes in the regular season and stay fresh for the playoffs. No need for Steph and Paul to play close to 40 mins in the regular season they now can get around 30. Now saying that they do need some good defensive players due to Paul being older and Curry just an avg defender and both are not very tall or have the length for some players. Klay should improve after another off season to recover from Injury. To me a perfect player for them at center would be Myles Turner a great defender and shot blocker who can shoot 3s. That will make Green the weakest 3 point shooter of the starters but Turner isn't going to the Warriors unless they somehow pull off a trade.
Shooting a ton and having some great nights just means your a poor man’s Carmelo.
I spend 100+ nights a year in DC and I've literally never heard anyone call them the "Zards."
I don't watch NBA basketball at all and I had a feeling this was just some made up thing from a message board guy. It sounded too stupid to be real. I bet OP says "fetch" a lot.
I say "Fletch" a lot because it's one of my favorite movies.
It's all ball bearings nowadays...
totally.
OK, but in fairness, if you spend 100 nights a year in DC... you probably never hear anyone talking about the DC basketball franchise at all, regardless of name.
"Zards" is sometimes used on the Junks. (Which is a very DC thing... if you don't know whom I mean by the Junks, then, don't go commenting on the DC area sports fans.)
Fully aware of the sports junkies and it makes perfect sense that dudes who think “hitting skins” as a euphemism for sex is the height of hilarity shortens the name to Zards.
I might actually watch the NBA if Poole starts jacking up 30 shots a night. 40 would be even better.
Yeah, somebody out there joked Poole's ambition when moving to DC is the same as the most famous resident of DC, 100 million shots in 100 days.
He'll get a chance to handle the ball and put up a lot of shots. It'll be interesting to see if his dip in efficiency this year was a blip and he continues to improve as a player, or if he's kind of plateaued off in that regard.
Kuzma isn't being dumped he just opted out of his player option that paid him below his market value. But I don't think he is going to be in the rebuild of the Wizards. Since he is 28. They finally got smart and are doing a full rebuild as they weren't going anywhere with Beal and his bloated contract
I know the contract looked bad this year, but this is a dumb move for the Ws IMO. People are way too low on JP over one down year after his team let another player sucker punch him with no repercussions. Giving up assets for the corpse of CP3 just to dump him is dumb to me.
This is just too lazy of a take - let’s move on to a poster who has some real knowledge
Man, I respond to one of your comments and now you're obsessed with me.
Hope Poole is an All-Star. Will miss watching him in the Bay.
The 'Zards might actually be watchable for once. It'll be very interesting to see what other misfit toys they add to their roster tonight.
Hopefully he can revitalize his career in D.C. That massive contract got to his head.
As for CP3. Idk how the Warriors make this work. His style is completely different from how the Warriors play offense.
No, what got to his head was Dray's fist.
Sparty noooooo....
The Warriors have about a 2 year window left to get Championships with their core three, Curry/Thompson/Green. CP3 has about a 2 year window left in his career before injury starts to take him out. So they all can make one last run together.
Jordan Poole did some great things here though. He was a big key to last years Championship.
We replace the "F it, I'm putting it up" of Kuzma with the "F it, I'm putting it up" of JP. As a Michigan fan who lives in DC, I'll take that trade!
Now we just have to bring back Mo and Trey, and the Ringer predicted that the Wiz would draft Kobe. We'll stink, but I'm all in!
What a terrible landing spot
Very weird move, seems emotional to be honest.
The Warriors didn't play their younger guys enough and would yank them quickly for mistakes. Their main issue was on defense and Paul doesn't help them there. I don't really get the fit unless you just want him running the second unit, but he's been hurt every single year so I don't think you can bank on him being there the whole season.
Maybe Poole did have an attitude problem, but at the same time you didn't really punish the guy who punched him in the face and he wasn't held accountable in anyway. Poole averaged like 27 as a starter and carried offensively when Curry was out. Paul is not doing that, and you barely play the other guys.
I guess Poole shoulda made that pass back to Curry.
Good. He’s trash
Pooleman has Zards??
Zards isn't a thing
Glad he got a ring before he left, will be interesting to see what kind of player he is without the support around him.
Even if he continues to regress, Poole contract will always be worth cause of his endless supply of expressive memes