In a blockbuster trade which saw NBA veteran Chris Paul team up with the five-time champions Golden State Warriors, Jordan Poole and Patrick Baldwin Jr were sent to the Washington Wizards in return, with NBA writer Mark Medina arguing they were ‘casualties’ of the move.
NBA news – Washington Wizards
The Chris Paul trade saw the 38-year-old join Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green at the Golden State Warriors – with the deal earning him $30.8 million for the coming season – while the Washington Wizards acquired a potential star of their own in Jordan Poole.
Anthony Slater and Josh Robbins of The Athletic expect the 24-year-old to have a big role as a scorer, and that his offensive ceiling relies mainly on his 3-point percentage and whether he improves his shot selection.
Poole now faces the role of being the focal scoring option for the offense, alongside forward Kyle Kuzma who re-signed to a 4-year $102 million deal during free-agency, after having to take a backseat to the Splash Brothers in Golden State.
Gibson Lowenberg, an analyst for Wiz of Awes is full of optimism for the 2022 NBA champion, predicting he could average as high as 28-5-4 as the lead guard for the Wizards, and can even envision him being selected as an NBA all-star in his first season with the ball club.
After being a top prospect in high-school, Patrick Baldwin Jr. dealt with a bad ankle injury that slightly derailed his college career, but now it is fully rehabbed the 6’10” forward poses another potential scoring threat from three-point range as he looks to increase his role on an NBA team.
With the addition of highly-touted 18-year-old Bilal Coulibaly who was a lottery pick in the 2023 NBA draft, the Wizards could become one of the NBA’s most exciting young teams due to both Poole and Kuzma’s flashy offensive flair on-the-court.
What has Mark Medina said about why Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Jordan Poole were traded?
Medina believes that Baldwin Jr in particular was included in the trade package for CP3 due to being a young player who could be offloaded after the Warriors chose to stick with their veterans.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, the journalist said: “I don’t think it had any specific misgivings about Patrick Baldwin Jr’s ceiling. It’s just he’s a young player.”
“After they won the championship in 2022, the Warriors have been on record and their actions showed that they were going to try to thread the needle of still leaning on their championship veterans while developing young players for that next bridge.”
“Philosophically, it was just that we’re going to prioritize what we know works well. As long as Steph Curry is on the team, that is the window of chasing the championship. And so with that, I think Jordan Poole was a casualty and Patrick Baldwin Jr was a casualty with that philosophy, not because of their specific individual play.”
What do the former Warriors players offer the Washington Wizards?
Jordan Poole was seen as a player on the rise, and this was demonstrated by the Warriors offering him a 4-year, $140 million extension in 2022.
As per StatMuse, the 6’4” guard posted career-highs in points and assists during the 2022-23 season with 20.4 PPG and 4.5 APG respectively. He also contributed 2.7 RPG in 30 minutes per game for the Warriors, and offers the Wizards some much-needed perimeter shooting.
On the other hand, Baldwin Jr. was a consensus five-star recruit in the class of 2021, declining offers from college power-houses Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Kentucky to play for his father at Milwaukee.
Despite enjoying a one-and-done season where per Sports Reference, the 6’10” forward averaged 12.1 PPG, and 5.8 RPG, he played little part in the 2022-23 Golden State Warriors campaign, participating in only 31 games averaging only 7.3 minutes.
Instead, he spent part of the season with the Warriors’ G-League Affiliate team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, where he averaged 14.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 2.1 APG in 26.3 minutes per game.
While Jordan Poole is expected to form a dynamic duo with Kyle Kuzma, Baldwin Jr’s role as a member of The District of Columbia still remains unclear.
However, it should be a great opportunity for both young players to seek out regular minutes and have a fresh start in a new organization that is entering a rebuild after the departure of its franchise corner-stone, Bradley Beal.