As Jordan Poole drove into Chase Center to face his former team, the Golden State Warriors, for the third time since the organization traded him in 2023, it all felt natural again. Steph Curry borrowing his sunglasses pregame to knock down a shot felt natural. On the court, though, he didn't look like the player who used to throw Poole Parties all around the Bay Area.
Poole finished with just seven points and posted a minus-47 in 34 minutes after scoring 25 points in his first game back with the Wizards in 2023 and putting up 38 points on eight made threes in January 2025.
Poole has played for five different coaches during his time with the Wizards and the Pelicans, as his role has constantly changed. So when asked whether he missed his days as a Warrior, Poole didn't hesitate.
"Me? Hell yeah. Obviously," Poole said after the Warriors routed the Pelicans 138-87 to extend their winning streak to eight games.
What about a reunion?
"Definitely," he told Luca Evans of the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is my last year on the deal. I'm a free agent at the end of this season. So you never really know what's going to happen. But if there's any place that I'm comfortable, it's probably where I started."
The half-court heaves, scoring flurries, and dazzling moves down the lane always come rushing back into Dub Nation's mind every time they see him on the floor. Now three years removed from his abrupt departure from Golden State, Poole has yet to find the stability he enjoyed during his time in the Bay.
His openness to a reunion reflected more than nostalgia. It was a recognition that the Warriors remain the only organization to find the right balance between his offensive freedom and a defined role.
Golden State brought out the best in Jordan Poole
Golden State is where everything started for Poole. Drafted by the Warriors with the 28th pick of the 2019 NBA draft, he spent the first four years of his career with a clear structure around him. From the day he joined the league, the franchise's goal was clear: win another championship. Against expectations, they reached the promised land in 2022, and Poole played a major role in that unexpected success.
Whether it was as a reserve or a starter, surrounded by savvy veterans, Poole provided a scoring boost on a nightly basis. With Curry drawing attention and Draymond Green shouldering some of the playmaking duties, "the third Splash Brother" averaged 18.5 points per game and made 51 starts, initially in place of Klay Thompson and later filling in for an injured Curry.
Over the final 12 games of the season, all of which Curry missed because of a foot injury, Poole took over the offense and averaged 25.8 points, five rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game. He carried that momentum into the postseason, scoring 30, 29, and 27 points in his first three playoff games while Curry came off the bench in the first four to manage that same foot injury. By the second round, with Curry back in the starting lineup, Poole became the second-unit creator and crowd energizer.
Across his 22 games during that championship run, he put up 17 points and 3.8 assists per game. Those buzzer-beaters against the Celtics in the Finals will live in the memories of Warriors fans for a long time.
"We don't win that championship in '22 without Jordan," Steve Kerr said back in December 2023, the day before Poole's first return to Chase Center.
Everything went south during a random practice in October. Just over a week before the Warriors and Poole agreed to a four-year, $123 million extension, a video of Draymond Green punching his younger teammate surfaced online. Eight months later, Poole was traded to the Wizards in the deal that brought veteran point guard Chris Paul to Golden State.
His efficiency did drop in the season after he signed the extension—especially in the playoffs, when Poole averaged just 10.3 points per game while shooting 25.4% from three. And the Warriors never publicly identified the punch as a direct reason for the trade, though Kerr later acknowledged that the incident damaged the team's trust and chemistry. Instead, general manager Mike Dunleavy described the move as a way to get better while giving the organization financial flexibility moving forward.
Poole has never found the same kind of stability since. In his two seasons in Washington, he received more freedom offensively—he made a Wizards-record 235 three-pointers in 2024-25 and recorded a career-high 45 points that season—but played for a team that went 33-131 during his time there.
After Poole joined the Pelicans as a proven scorer from Washington – he averaged a career-best 20.5 points per game in his final season with the Wizards—injuries, coaching turnover, and inefficiency have steadily reduced his role. Poole was removed from the rotation at different points during his first season with New Orleans and made just eight starts.
He has already been a healthy scratch three times early on this season in addition to missing time with an ankle injury. His 34 minutes against the Warriors were mainly the result of injuries to several key players. Through five games this season, he's averaging just 6.2 points on 19.2% shooting in 19.6 minutes per game.
"Pretty f–––ing difficult. Pretty f–––ing difficult," he said when asked how challenging this year has been for him. "But I mean, this is part of the league. You just try to find ways to get better, learn, be positive."
With Poole now in the final year of that contract he signed with the Warriors a few years ago, a reunion could make sense for both sides. The Warriors have only three guards with fully guaranteed contracts for 2027-28: Curry, Brandin Podziemski, and Moses Moody. According to Joseph Dycus of the Mercury News, Curry said that Poole is "at the top of the list" of former teammates he would welcome back. Green, meanwhile, did not sound opposed to a reunion, saying that "the issue will never be me" and that "it would be incredible."
From a basketball standpoint, although the front office hasn't yet expressed any kind of interest, the Warriors know what they can get out of Poole. Kerr, who's under contract through next season, knows how to best use him. His declining production and defensive limitations would be major question marks, but if Poole is willing to come back in a role similar to the one he held during the 2022 title run – a secondary scorer – and on a much smaller contract, the idea seems worth exploring. For Poole, whether the fit works isn't really a question.
"We won a championship," he said. "So it works."
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