No Poole Parties in the new NBA labor deal

The Warriors hit the escape hatch on Jordan Poole as the new collective bargaining agreement arrives. Adding talent to the team in the Curry era becomes more difficult.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Lady in White; Vito d’Ancona; 1870s

The first big domino of the new NBA collective bargaining agreement — which hasn’t even been distributed in full to teams, according to various reporters — has fallen: the Warriors traded Jordan Poole’s long-term contract for the short contract of Chris Paul, and paid a draft pick to the Wizards for the privilege.

With Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins under contract, Draymond Green considering a new one this summer and Klay Thompson not far behind, Poole’s massive deal — $128 million over the next four years — was a potential problem if the Warriors didn’t believe in his contributions. And the 2022-23 season was certainly a step back in the Poole experience: it become more clear that he works way better alongside Curry than as his back-up, and despite Poole leading the team in minutes played he had lost a lot of trust from Steve Kerr in the playoffs.

Also, he got knocked out by Green on camera during training camp. That situation can dissipate but it never disappears.

The Warriors hit the escape hatch. Losing Poole damages Golden State’s regular season depth — already a problem that cost the Warriors wins last season — as he’s been a minutes sponge and given his age you don’t worry about wearing him down like you Curry or Thompson. You will absolutely worry about wearing down CP3, so it becomes imperative that the Warriors find another guard on the roster or somewhere else that Kerr trusts enough to play in the 82-game season so that the more important Warriors — including CP3 — get to the 16-game season fresh enough to win series.

You can tell this is an escape hatch salary cap dump because the Warriors included a pick — a protected 2030 first — in the deal. (They are also sending a 2027 second.) On top of that, the Warriors had to confirm they would be guaranteeing CP3’s $25 million salary for 2023-24 and not just waiving him outright; that would have been a mild surprise, but certainly within the realm of possibilities.

It’s not my money so I think it’s smart to keep CP3 around, even if his screen-roll, slowdown tendencies are anathema to the Warriors’ system, and even if there is a lot of bad blood between CP3 and the Warriors fanbase from years of lopsided rivalry. The Warriors are often careless (none moreso than Poole) and a little deliberate precision in key moments could go a long way. I have a feeling that Curry and CP3 will get along beautifully on the court, in any minutes they share.

The one other wrinkle here is that because CP3’s contract expires at the end of the 2023-24 season, the Warriors can’t really flip for another asset unless they move by the trade deadline, which sort of invalidates the reason to have CP3 in town. The Warriors will never again have actual cap space with this core, so the way to add talent above the mid-level zone is via trade. Poole was a big chunk of salary, but that was something that could help trades for big-salary targets and would have been available basically until Curry is knocking on age 40. That’s gone now. Assuming the Warriors don’t flip CP3 before February 2024, to land another star during Curry’s reign, Golden State will likely need to trade Wiggins or Thompson, a re-signed Green or aggregate some salaries along with Jonathan Kuminga. The easiest chip is out. Getting better is going to get harder for the Warriors.

But it could be even more difficult under the new trade rules for super-high payroll teams, so it feels like this is a bet by the Warriors against Poole and a bet for their own ability to be creative and bold.

I suspect that Poole will thrive in his own fashion in D.C., giving Wes Unseld Jr. about 10 stomach drops per game along with 22 field goal attempts and four turnovers. GMIB readers know that I’m pro-Poole because basketball is entertainment and Poole is fun. I imagine the experience of watching Poole play for your team is a little less simple. But if nothing else, as the Wizards rebuild from ash, he’ll be entertaining in that very Jordan Poole way. Plus, playing for a down-bad team without expectations outside the limelight could lead to personal and professional development. Jordan Poole is not a finished product. None of us are!

I’ll reserve further reaction on the Wizards until we see what more Michael Winger and Will Dawkins have up their sleeves. They have been involved in three of the four trades involving active NBA players so far this offseason, and there remain shoes to drop on Kyle Kuzma and D.C.’s new guard glut. You can’t say they are sticking with the status quo!