Wizards' Jordan Poole Says He's Happy 'to Have My Own Team' After Warriors Trade

To Jordan Poole, the Washington Wizards are his team.

While speaking with Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, Poole discussed his transition from being a less prominent figure with the Golden State Warriors to an important piece of the starting lineup with the Wizards:

"Obviously, I wanted to be in a position to have my own team, and then if it did come, how would I go about that? Luckily, I'm able to do that so young, after learning from some of the best. It's cool. It's a smooth transition. We're building everything from scratch, essentially. Building up a new foundation. Everything in Golden State was already established, so we kinda had to fit into the mold that they have there."

Poole added: "It's a bit different, too, like, once your contract is signed and once you got a ring. Essentially everything that needed to be done in Golden State got done. I got a ring. Made sure my family is straight. A good situation to come in [to Washington] and just kind of have my own team, play my own type of basketball."

The Warriors selected Poole in the first round of the 2019 draft out of Michigan, and he improved in each of his four seasons in Golden State. Despite that improvement, the Dubs traded him to the Wizards in exchange for an older, more mature and more experienced Chris Paul.

The trade has seemed to pay off for Poole statistically as he has started all seven of Washington's games this season and is averaging 17.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 41.5 percent from the floor and 31.9 percent from deep.

Now that he's a starter and is playing against the best of the best, Poole's game should only benefit as a result.