The NBA trade deal saw Paul moving first from Suns to Wizards and then to Warriors, while Jordan Poole ended up in Washington.
Jordan Poole leaving Golden State Warriors to ply his trade with the Washington Wizards is among the headline acts of this NBA trade season. The deal which saw the future Hall of Famer Chris Paul move to Warriors also involved an exchange of a protected first-round pick in 2030 and a second-rounder in 2027. The details of the deal have been under wraps and there is much speculation about what might have led Warriors to send Poole away, a year after he signed a four-year $128 million deal. Mike Dunleavy Jr, who took over as the Warriors General Manager earlier this year from Bob Myers, has now spilled the beans on the Poole-Paul deal.
“For us to turn around next year and go back out and feel like we have a chance to compete for a championship with whatever that is, five, six, seven teams, that’s all you can ask for. And we feel like Chris enhances that. And so to make the move made a ton of sense…you know it was a big swing and you could say or whatever, but for me it was honestly a pretty easy move,” Dunleavy Jr said in an interview at The Jim Rome show.
The Paul deal was a bit complicated, as he was traded first from Phoenix Suns to Washington Wizards with Bradley Beal moving to Arizona. The latter part of this agreement saw Jordan Poole being sent to Wizards and Paul coming to Warriors. There is no doubt that Paul, often referred to as the ‘Point God’, is one of the best point guards to play in the NBA. His move to the Golden State Warriors has been met with doubts. The powers of the 12-time NBA All-Star are waning and many believe that Warriors were trying to offload a high-costing asset (read Jordan Poole).
What Chris Paul feels about the deal
In July, after his first training session with Golden State Warriors teammates, Paul suggested that it would not be much sweat for him to adjust to the playing style of Stephen Curry & Co. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play on three USA teams, ‘06, ’08 and 2012…It’s high-IQ basketball, guys that play off reads and whatnot, and what you learn is you figure it out. Everybody don’t have the answers right now. We’ll practice, I’m sure there’s going to be some things that I’ve got to learn, some things that they’ve got to learn about me, but that’s the case with any team,” he said.
Only time will tell if the deal works out for Warriors this year. Lest we forget, Paul is still very good at his job. Even last season, he averaged 13.9 points and 8.9 assists for Phoenix Suns. Paul gives Warriors some great options from the bench and coach Steve Kerr can ensure now that the creativity does not dull out when Curry is off-court.