{"id":528093,"date":"2026-01-10T23:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528093\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T23:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T23:19:12","slug":"wizards-get-ultimate-last-laugh-at-ex-guard-even-after-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528093\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards Get Ultimate Last Laugh At Ex-Guard Even After Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/wizards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Wizards<\/a> have had, yet again, a season to forget. Even with their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/07\/wizards-land-trae-young-in-franchise-altering-trade\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recent blockbuster<\/a> deal for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\">Trae Young<\/a>, their season couldn\u2019t get much worse in terms of record. The Wizards\u2019 record is 10-27 (.270), good enough for 14th in the Eastern Conference with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/11\/20\/the-dark-side-of-the-washington-wizards-strong-tank\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their tank in full effect<\/a>. However, even in losing situations, the team can take some positives away.<\/p>\n<p>Wizards Get Ultimate Last Laugh At Ex-Guard Even After Loss<\/p>\n<p>Washington may have dropped another game against the New Orleans Pelicans, but that doesn\u2019t mean it was all bad. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/poolejo01.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Poole<\/a>, Washington\u2019s former point guard, has spent the majority of his first season out of D.C taking plenty of shots at the team.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/28\/jordan-poole-fires-another-shot-at-washington-dead-in-there\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trashing the fanbase<\/a> to talking <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/24\/former-wizard-jordan-poole-takes-shot-at-washington-roster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">about former teammates<\/a>, it\u2019s safe to say he\u2019s rather happy to be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/06\/the-kuzma-poole-era-is-officially-over-for-wizards-whos-next\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">out of the nation\u2019s capital<\/a>. Unfortunately for him, the crowd that spent the last two seasons cheering him on had quite a different tone to it when the Pelicans and Poole rolled into town. Even after a blowout loss, the Wizards and their fanbase can say they got the last laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Poole\u2019s Horrid Season<\/p>\n<p>After arguably <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/26\/jordan-poole-trade-rumors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Poole\u2019s best season in the NBA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/24\/wizards-pelicans-poole-mccollum-shocking-trade\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he was traded<\/a> for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccolcj01.html\" target=\"_blank\">CJ McCollum<\/a> this past offseason. The Pelicans looked like a potential Cinderella team in the stacked Western Conference before the season started. Flash forward to January, and the Pelicans are losing their first-round pick, having absolutely no direction <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/12\/20\/did-the-wizards-make-a-mistake-drafting-tre-johnson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">outside of rookies<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fearsje01.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremiah Fears<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/q\/queende01.html\" target=\"_blank\">Derik Queen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Poole went from his best season in the league to possibly his worst. In his 21 games this season, Poole is averaging 15.3 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.7 rebounds in 27 minutes per game. Outside of his turnover numbers, every statistical category has taken a hit from last season, with his scoring taking the biggest hit, down 5.2 points. He\u2019s shooting 36.2% from the field and 30.8% from three, marking the lowest splits since his rookie year.<\/p>\n<p>The change of scenery has not helped the veteran guard, and in his return to Capital One Arena showed his game may be forever altered.<\/p>\n<p>Washington\u2019s Lasting Laugh<\/p>\n<p>Poole\u2019s return to Washington marked his first game in D.C since April of 2025, when he scored 23 points in 24 minutes in a win against the Kings. However, right off the bat, everyone could tell Poole was not going to have that type of game, coming off the bench for the third time in five games.<\/p>\n<p>Poole would check in for the first time in the middle of the first quarter, and the <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BrickCenter_\/status\/2009802629271171171\">fan reaction was negative<\/a> to say the least. As soon as he stepped on the floor, the boos came from all corners of the arena. They were so loud that fans could hear them from home, blaring through the Wizards\u2019 TV broadcast. Unfortunately for Poole, it was only the beginning of a VERY long night.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WizardsMuse1\/status\/2009813470745928187\">In just 12 minutes of action<\/a>, Poole would score zero points on two shots, with one assist. Every time he touched the ball, boos came from the crowd. For an arena that Poole commented on that was \u201cdead\u201d last season, they sure seemed alive when the ball was in his hands.<\/p>\n<p>Arguably most brutal, Poole ended the game with more turnovers than all of his stats put together, with three on the night. He would also end up almost fouling out with four, averaging a foul every three minutes of action.<\/p>\n<p>The Last Word<\/p>\n<p>Karma, unfortunately, has a real way of getting to everyone. For Poole, it just so happened to be the one game this season in Capital One Arena. Even with yet another bad Washington season, Wizards fans have something to be happy about. Isn\u2019t that all that matters?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards have had, yet again, a season to forget. Even with their recent blockbuster deal for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,7046,2771,6,494,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-528093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cj-mccollum","10":"tag-jordan-poole","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-trae-young","13":"tag-washington","14":"tag-washington-wizards","15":"tag-washingtonwizards","16":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}