Andre Iguodala wants Jordan Poole to not be blamed for how the Golden State Warriors performed last season.
Jordan Poole was shipped out to the Washington Wizards for Chris Paul this summer, as the Warriors ended up dumping his contract after an acrimonious year in the locker room. Despite all the off-court issues, Andre Iguodala doesn’t blame Poole for what happened last season.
“He was the only one that got to the line for us consistently. People act like he had a bad year. I’m like, a bad year? Ya’ll blame him for the year we had last year? He averaged 20.”
Iguodala went on to say that Poole will average over 25 points on a Wizards team with relatively low expectations. Given his natural scoring ability and not having to share the ball with Stephen Curry, Poole will have a chance to showcase his full offensive arsenal on a nightly basis.
Should Jordan Poole Be Blamed?
When a team fails, it’s the entire team that has to shoulder the blame. If we blame Poole, we need to blame Draymond Green as well, given how the pre-season punch on Poole negatively affected morale for the entire year. He did his part in the regular season and kept the Warriors above the play-in tournament despite Curry missing time.
Ultimately, Poole disappointed on the court. He averaged a putrid 8.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in the six-game loss to the Lakers in the second round. He looked disconnected from the team for the entirety of the playoffs and the Warriors stood no chance when one of their leading scorers performs like that.
Chris Paul won’t put up the numbers Poole did, but he hopefully can steady a ship that has become extremely rocky after a summer of changes.