Poole’s Relationship With Green ‘Just Business’ At This Point

The Golden State Warriors find themselves on the outside looking in on the postseason festivities after being ousted by the Los Angeles Lakers in six games and much of the blame was placed on Jordan Poole’s shoulders.

Averaging a paltry 8.3 points on an abysmal 34.5 percent outing from the field, Poole was a far cry from the player that he was in the 2022 postseason that saw the Warriors claim another NBA title.

Many were ready to crown him the heir apparent to Stephen Curry then and there as he had shown flashes of his game en route to their six-game obliteration of the Boston Celtics over the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Something clearly went wrong behind the scenes for Golden State and the incident between Poole and franchise cornerstone Draymond Green in October, where the latter punched the former, appears to be where it all began.

Team chemistry appeared to be shot as soon as the season started and Poole’s relationship with Green has been the main storyline for much of the season.

As to where they are right now, Poole had an exclusive conversation with The Ringer’s Logan Murdock.

“I don’t have an answer for you. Other than that, we were just on the court and teammates, and we were out there trying to win games,” Poole told Murdock.

“What I do recall saying at the beginning of the season is that, ‘We’re coming. We’re going to come out here. We’re going to play on the court. We’re going to try to win a championship.’ We were teammates. It’s just business, honestly. And that’s really all it was, it is, it has been. It’s just been business. It’s been basketball.”

As it has been in previous years, the Warriors were an unstoppable force of nature at home after logging an impressive 33-8 record but played below their talent level on the road with a record of 11-30 which was still good enough to secure the sixth seed.

The comeback series victory over the Sacramento Kings was believed to be the turning point that Warriors fans had been waiting for the entire season, but they just did not have enough in the tank to outlast the Lakers.

Letting go of key pieces like Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton, Nemanja Bjelica, Damion Lee and Juan Toscano-Anderson now appears to be season-deciding moves as Poole was re-signed to a massive four-year, $128 million deal.

While it was important that they secured their prospective future franchise star, the Warriors lacking depth to compete for an NBA title was a sight many fans were not ready to see.

How Golden State rectifies the situation between Poole and Green remains to be seen and an offseason filled with uncertainty is only going to make it even harder for upper management to find a convincing solution.