Less than a year after arriving, Jordan Poole's tenure with the New Orleans Pelicans appears short-lived. The team eyes a quick flip for their high-priced, underperforming guard.
Less than a year ago, the New Orleans Pelicans traded for Jordan Poole from the Washington Wizards. Now, they're likely going to look into trading him once again.
Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz recently came up with a list of each team's player that is "most likely to hit the trade block next." On it, he chose Poole for the Pelicans. He is indeed the obvious and logical selection.
It's kind of difficult when trying to figure out just how bad the trade for Poole has been, because it partially worked out for the team. Just not with Poole.
New Orleans traded CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a 2027 second-round pick to the Wizards in exchange for Poole, Saddiq Bey and the draft rights to Micah Peavy.
It wasn't supposed to be the move that made the Pelicans a contending team, but ship away McCollum in hopes of building a better offense. That has sort of happened with Bey, who is on one of the best contracts in the NBA and in the midst of a career year.
The problem is that Poole is completely out of the rotation and sitting on the bench while being the second-highest paid player on the team.
The 26-year-old has averaged 12.9 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 36.5/32.6/87.6 shooting splits. The team has a -3.5 rating with him on the court, which is mostly the offense falling off a cliff in terms of efficiency.
It's fair to look at this season as a whole and come to the conclusion that it would have been pretty hard for Poole to really ever find his footing. His minutes fluctuated over the first seven games, and then he missed the next 18 games with an injury that he has since said was hurting him at the start of the year.
He played in 20 of the next 21 games after coming back, for a new coach, but saw inconsistent minutes and then was taken completely out of the rotation before the trade deadline. Now, he really just plays when there is an injury.
Poole is a volume shooter who has never had the chance to find a groove. At the same time, from New Orleans' perspective, he was pretty much unplayable when he saw the court for much of his time. How much could they afford to give him that much more space while the season spun down the train?
Now, they'll try to move him again this offseason. There isn't going to be a hefty market for him, but he will have an expiring contract, which certainly helps the Pelicans' case if there is a team looking to shed salary.