Jordan Poole returned to Chase Center on Monday night with the New Orleans Pelicans. He is playing out the final year of the four-year, $123 million guaranteed extension he signed with Golden State in 2022, a deal that included incentives that could raise its total value to $140 million.

After a 138-87 loss to his former team, Poole did not hide his feelings about the Bay Area. “Do I miss it? Hell yeah,” he said. Whether he could ever come back is a question for the Warriors as much as for Poole. Draymond Green, who punched Poole in a practice after the Warriors’ 2022 title run, spoke from the home locker room after the win and welcomed the idea of a reunion.

Where Draymond Green Stands on a Jordan Poole Reunion

Green talked about a possible Poole return while Poole was out in the hallway greeting team staff and his former coaches, Joseph Dycus of the Bay Area News Group reported. Green started with a thought he never finished: “That would be incredible. That’s one of the one things I look back at my career and just kind of …”

Green then continued: “I have no issue with that at all. I will never stand in the way of this organization thinking they can better themselves. The issue will never be me. Ever.”

The answer matters because of how Poole’s time in Golden State ended. The Warriors drafted him in 2019, and he was part of the team that won the 2022 championship with Green and Stephen Curry. Poole was emerging as one of the team’s young scorers at the time.

After that title run, a leaked video showed Green punching Poole during a practice. Golden State kept that group intact through the following season, then sent Poole to Washington in a 2023 trade, and he has since moved on to New Orleans.

Green was not the only Warriors veteran open to the idea. Curry and Poole talked on the court before tipoff, keeping it light while Poole got his shots up.

Curry was just as warm about the idea: “Jordan is at the top of the list. There aren’t many guys I’ve played with that I wouldn’t welcome back.”

Poole, 27, explained why the region still stands out to him even in another team’s colors: “I think the vibe is just very me. My teammates say it all the time whenever we come back to the Bay, regardless of what team I’m on, they can tell it’s pretty fitting, and everybody always says welcome home.”

New Orleans has been a different story. Poole had missed six straight games before Monday, the first three because of an ankle issue and the last three as a healthy scratch.

Asked whether he can still play at a high level, Poole answered “Hell yeah,” then pointed to his circumstances, with Pelicans teammates and staff members around him: “But I’m kind of a victim of the situation I’m in. Obviously, things have changed. Five coaches in four years. They all have different schemes, different things they want to do.”

He set that against what Curry and Green have had in Golden State: “Every basketball player wants to have that, to be able to be settled, play in the same system, to be able to learn the same system, grow in the same system.”

Green never left Golden State, and like Poole, he is playing on a deal that ends after this season.

Golden State is 8-3 and fourth in the Western Conference. It is tied with Minnesota and Houston and holds the tiebreaker. The Warriors led by as many as 51 on Monday. New Orleans fell to 4-7.

The Warriors face the Pelicans again November 16 at Smoothie King Center, the third stop of a five-game road trip that opens Wednesday in Houston. Whether Poole ever returns to Golden State remains to be decided by general manager Mike Dunleavy and the rest of the Warriors’ front office.