It's been almost three years since the Golden State Warriors traded Jordan Poole to the Wizards, where he spent two seasons before Washington sent him to New Orleans last summer. He had an opportunity to be the Pelicans' primary guard with Dejounte Murray out, but instead, rookie Jeremiah Fears took that spot, putting Poole's future in Louisiana in question.
Chris Lambert, the lead writer for Pelican Debrief, believes that the guard is one of the players that New Orleans needs to move on from this offseason.
"With Dejounte Murray supposed to return in the New Year, JP was asked to hold things down as the team's lead guard, then later move back to the bench to give the team a nice spark. But he wasn't ready for the moment."
Although Warriors fans thought differently after watching Poole help the team win a championship in 2022, he wasn't a consistent go-to scorer for Golden State, and he didn't look like he truly could take over for Steph Curry one day. Of course, what happened between him and Draymond Green didn't help matters, either.
Still, it didn't seem like Poole was going down the path he is now. He averaged 13.4 points (his lowest since his second season in Golden State) on 37.2% shooting from the field and 33.3% from three in only 39 games (eight starts).
Considering he racked up DNPs with the Pelicans, of all teams, you can assume the team will try to offload the final year of Poole's contract this summer.
Former Warriors guard Jordan Poole struggled with Pelicans
Golden State signed Poole to a four-year, $128 million deal, but he didn't hang around long enough to start the first season of it (2023-24) with the Warriors. He will officially be on an expiring contract, making $34 million in the 2026-27 season.
If he were still in San Francisco, he'd be the third-highest paid player on the roster this season, behind Curry and Jimmy Butler. You can understand why teams won't be lining up to trade for Poole, regardless of his expiring status. If the guard were set to make significantly less, there would probably be at least a couple of teams willing to take a flier on him.
The Warriors made it clear that Poole wasn't part of their future, and New Orleans has already done that, even though he's still on the roster.
Poole is an erratic scorer. How he ended the season shows that, as he dropped a season-high 34 points on 12-of-23 shooting in a win over the Jazz last Tuesday, but followed that up with 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting against the Celtics three days later. He didn't play at all in the Pelicans' final game of the year on Sunday.
Hopefully, things will turn around for Poole next season, whether that's in New Orleans or elsewhere.