POOLE SET TO MAKE SPLASH
First-round pick out of Michigan oozes confidence, talent and right mindset to help retooling Golden State
The Warriors rookie sauntered into his introductory news conference, sporting a light gray suit, shiny black shoes and fitted glasses.
Jordan Poole has not hesitated showing off his swagger, both with his fashion choices and his game. Underneath that persona, though, is something that has fueled Poole all along.
“I always feel like I’m in an underdog situation and am overlooked,” said Poole, 20. “So I find a way to push myself to prove people wrong.”
Poole pushed himself when he played in AAU competition against older players. And at Rufus King High in Milwaukee, where he played varsity as a freshman. And at the University of Michigan, where he fought for minutes against upperclassmen.
After the Warriors unexpectedly selected Poole last month with the 28th overall pick in the NBA draft, he scoffed at the mock drafts that projected him to land in the second round. Instead, Poole seemed unfazed by the pressure of helping the Warriors sustain their dynastic run with scoring to offset the departure of Kevin Durant and the loss of Klay Thompson, whose knee injury is likely to sideline him for at least half of next season.
“I’m at a new start and have a clean slate being in the league now. But now you have to prove yourself again,” Poole said. “It’s something I’ve always done my entire life. So I just keep my head down and grind. That’s something that got me to where I am.”
The road that has gotten Poole to the NBA began when he was in third grade and playing for his father’s AAU team. Anthony Poole did not shower his son with praise or hand him the role he wanted right away.
“He would get on me all the time. He would say, ‘You’re a better player than this. You can do this. You can do that,’” Jordan Poole said. “At that time, I didn’t understand what he was talking about. Now that he’s not my coach and I made it to the level that I’m at now, I can kind of understand what he was talking about.”
Poole’s father required his son to have A’s and B’s in school to play. He put him on teams with older players, forcing the young Poole to find ways to compensate.
“Jordan could play with those guys,” Anthony Poole said. “He couldn’t physically keep up with them on defense. But on offense, he was scoring against those guys at an early age.”
As a high school freshman, Poole barely stood 6 feet. So Duane Wilson, Poole’s coach with the AAU’s Wisconsin Playground, put him at point guard.
At Rufus King High, coach Jim Gosz had a long-standing rule that freshmen could not play on the varsity team. He made an exception for Poole because of his skills. Yet, Gosz was adamant about playing Poole only as a reserve. “I had other kids who were better than him at that time who were older,” Gosz said.
Gosz thought otherwise in a late-season tournament game that allowed him to expand his roster. With King trailing by three points with about 15 seconds left, Gosz put Poole on the floor. The freshman hit a basket to force overtime, and King went on to win.
“He has no conscience. He is very confident in his game,” Gosz said. “Once he nailed that shot, he was indoctrinated.”
During his sophomore and junior seasons (201416), Poole led King to consecutive Milwaukee City Basketball and state regional championships. Gosz then left to coach at another high school, and Poole, who already had committed to Michigan, transferred to a prep school in La Porte, Ind., to prepare himself academically and on the court. Poole pursued this option despite needing to accept a bench role.
In high school, Gosz had harped on Poole to take defense seriously. He listened. Former Michigan coach John Beilein, who currently coaches the Cleveland Cavaliers, stressed the same thing to Poole during his freshman season. He listened then, too.
Still, nothing matches the adrenaline rush after hitting a big shot. After struggling for much of a second-round NCAA Tournament game against Houston, Poole buried a game-winning 3 to put Michigan in the Sweet 16.
“It’s about having an aggressive mindset,” Poole said. “At this level and the college level, you kind of need that to separate yourself. It’s more of a mindset than it is a skill.”
Afterward, Beilein described Poole as “an overdose of swag.” Those around him warn, however, that he is not arrogant.
“Jordan runs to his own beat,” Anthony Poole said. “What I mean by that is he has his own style. He’s confident in his own skin. He doesn’t care what people say or think about him.”
In the summer league, Poole often wore “Ricky and Morty” shirts and short shorts. More importantly, he showed how he might be able to help fill the hole left by Thompson.
“We talked to him early on about his shot selection a little bit and shooting on balance,” said Aaron Miles, who coached the Warriors’ summer league team. “We talked to him about getting into the ball and trying to lock a little on the defensive end. He’s attempting to get better at that.”
In his first two summer league games, Poole missed 16 of 20 shots, including 10 of 11 from behind the arc. After three games, he was shooting 25.6 percent (10 of 39), including 16 percent (4 of 25) from behind the arc.
So he just kept shooting — 7 of 16 for 21 points in his next game and 7 of 15 for 23 points in the one after that.
Over his last four games, Poole averaged 17.7 points. His shooting wasn’t great (40 percent overall, 27 percent from deep). Not great by any means, but trending in the right direction.
Through his shooting slumps and streaks, Poole appears to play the same way. He still takes open shots. He remains aggressive on defense. And when opponents have tried to rough him up, Poole has ignored them. Instead, he keeps firing away while offering value elsewhere.
“It’s something I’m working on and am conscious of it,” Poole said of his shot selection. “But I’m still trying to be aggressive. I don’t want to get stagnant or anything. I feel like I get good shots — shots that I practice and shots that I make So you continue to take those shots. You can’t stop shooting because you miss one or two.”
Come next season, Poole doesn’t plan to hunt shots. Instead, he plans to study Steph Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green and their day-to-day routines while asking them questions “all the time.” He pledges to remain confident with any open looks he has. As Gosz boasted, “I know Steph is pretty damn good, but this guy from Milwaukee is not far away from my opinion.”
Just as in high school and college, though, Poole is mindful he has to wait his turn. That will not inhibit him from competing against older players, though. He has done that his whole life.
“I’ll find ways to make an impact,” Poole said. “Obviously, everything is not what you want it to be right away. But A, you adjust. And B, you learn. So I’ll be able to find a way to make an impact defensively, offensively, passing or shooting. Whatever it is, I’ll find a way to be on the court.”