In the summer of 2022, Jordan Poole looked poised to be the heir to Golden State's tradition of pelting opponents with 3s. He was the next Splash Brother, a reigning NBA champion.
And then he got traded for Chris Paul the very next year. In fact, to hear the Warriors say it, team sentiment soured less than four months after they hoisted the Larry O'Brien trophy, when Draymond Green punched Poole in the middle of practice. And despite signing Poole to a massive contract extension soon after, the Warriors clearly felt that he was too expensive to keep around for how much trouble and tension his mere presence caused around the team.
So they pivoted. Dealt Poole, then sophomore-to-be Ryan Rollins, fellow 2022 rookie classmate Patrick Baldwin, Jr., and a couple of picks to the Washington Wizards for the recently acquired Chris Paul, fresh off of a solid stint with the Phoenix Suns.
However, the 2022-23 season was seemingly the end of whatever top tier basketball Paul had left in his tank, as he only appeared in 58 games for the Warriors (starting 18), and was simply waived at the end of just one campaign. Meanwhile, after two seasons with him, the Wizards made a couple of moves to essentially turn Jordan Poole into CJ McCollum, Malaki Branham, Blake Wesley and a couple more picks.
The Warriors traded the wrong players for Chris Paul
Ho hum. Let's be clear that the Warriors did not lose this trade, per se, despite what the title to this article says. McCollum's 'veteran presence' does not overshadow the fact that he's hit the cliff, Poole is no more efficient in New Orleans than he was in Washington, and Branham hasn't played a single minute ... and may we remind you, that's for the Wizards.
The Warriors, meanwhile, have largely been proven correct about Poole, especially at his current pay grade. Meanwhile, cutting Chris Paul gave them the valuable cap room to eventually sign Buddy Hield and trade for Jimmy Butler. And as one of the best teams in the West with that core largely in place, I'm sure that Golden State is more than happy to chalk this trade up as essentially a boring salary dump.
But there's just one small leak in that boat ...
Ryan Rollins is becoming a star in Milwaukee
We forgot about Ryan Rollins. And to be fair, most of the NBA kind of did. The Wizards certainly left him in the lurch, having waived him early in 2024. The Bucks, intrigued, picked Rollins up on a two-way contract that the converted into a full deal on Mar 4, 2025.
And boy has it paid off. Through just about two weeks of NBA action this season, Rollins might be taking the Most Improved Player race by storm. His scoring has basically tripled over last season (6.2 to 18.6 PPG), and his assist averages have doubled (1.9 to 5). But what has stood out the most about Rollins' hot start to this season have been on the defensive end, as he's averaging 2.4 steals per game to boot.
All in all, what this early portion of the season is telling us is that the Bucks' search for Giannis Antetokounmpo's new running mate might be over, should Antetokounmpo choose to stay. Rollins is a decently high volume, high efficiency true 3-and-D player (he's flirting with a 50/40/90 season too) and is only 23 years old. His prime is still ahead of him.
And the cherry on top? Rollins saved the best outing of his career thus far for the team that left him behind first, putting up a career high 32 points on the Warriors on Thursday Oct 30.
No, Golden State didn't lose the CP3 trade to Washington. But in choosing their package for him, they might have made a grievous mistake. Will Richard, Brandin Podziemski, and Gary Payton II are each very good role players in their own right, but none look as much like the future as Ryan Rollins has for the Bucks early on this season. The Warriors put together the greatest core of the 2010s, but their talent scouting since then has been more than a bit suspect (James Wiseman, anyone?), and nowhere is it more glaring than in the case of Ryan Rollins.