Warriors Champion Takes Massive Shot At Jordan Poole For "Not Trying" With Team

• Warriors champ details how Jordan Poole was sabotaging the Warriors' season

• Poole lost heart for the Warriors after his incident with Draymond Green

• Toxic locker room forced the Warriors' hand in 2023 free agency

One of the summer's biggest trades happened in San Francisco, where the Warriors swapped out young sharpshooter Jordan Poole for 38-year-old veteran Chris Paul. While Paul's impact on the Warriors is expected to be somewhat minuscule, one could make the case that they made an addition by subtraction.

With Poole gone, a noticeable weight has been lifted from the franchise, but nobody knew how bad things got until weeks after he was traded. In Andre Iguodala's latest public interview, he explained how Poole wasn't even trying when he was on the court for them: "If you fall on purpose one more time to not play defense," said Iggy on 'The Old Man & The Three' podcast. "He's my brother, but I would tell him: Jordan, it looks like you're trying not to try, do you know how much energy it takes to try not to try? It takes less energy to try!"

At one point not too long ago, Jordan was considered one of the top young guards in basketball and he was huge for the Warriors during their championship in 2022. But something flipped in Poole that caused him to check out both on the court and in the team locker room. Eventually, despite attempts to rectify the situation, the Warriors felt they had no choice but to move on.

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The Punch Ruined Everything For Golden State

It's not hard to trace where the problems began for Golden State. After their run to the Larry O'Brien trophy in June of 2022, the Dubs celebrated hard before starting the next season with a viral altercation. The exact details are still unknown, but various reports claim that a verbal spat between Poole and Draymond Green resulted in a heated physical confrontation. Eventually, Poole was on the receiving end of a punch in the face that reportedly knocked him out.

Just a few hours later, video of the ordeal leaked to the media, and the Warriors were forced to comment on the incident instead of sweeping it under the rug like they would have preferred. The whole thing got really ugly, and neither Poole nor the Warriors ever recovered. "I can't even tell you how many conversations we had," said Stephen Curry, "in training camp when the incident happened to the beginning of the season when you're trying to make sure everybody's on the same page in terms of expectations on a daily basis of how you deal with personal relationships, dealing with some of the uncomfortable nature of the remnants of that situation."

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Can The Warriors Recover?

Looking back on all that happened, it's tough to argue that the Warriors didn't make the right decision by moving from Poole, even if it was for an older point guard past his prime. All season long, Jordan was playing at half-speed in an attempt to distance himself from everybody. When the stakes were highest in the postseason, he failed to show up when it counted and it may have cost them a chance at another title.

Nevertheless, Poole is not the only one to blame for Golden State's recent failures. From Klay Thompson to Draymond Green, nobody is truly blameless. For the Warriors, all they can do now is rebuild and hope that it's enough to tip the scales in their favor. If not, we could truly be seeing the end of one of the NBA's great dynasties.

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