Rookie Poole makes an instant impact
SAN FRANCISCO >> Growing up on the North side of Milwaukee, Jordan Poole was always one of the youngest, smallest kids on the pick up court. Charges to the basket were met by stronger bodies, and so he had to find other means to score.
“I was accustomed to finding a way to create my own shot because, when I was younger playing against older kids, you would go to the basket and it really wasn’t doing too much. They were just physically stronger,” Poole said. “I think that’s something I’ve never lost.”
Poole has been undersized all his life. The 20-year-old Michigan product weighed in this summer
at 185 pounds before muscling up to 205 in training camp. During the draft process, scouts questioned his ability to hold up to the NBA grind, but Warriors teammates and coaches rave about his outsized confidence. “I got a chip on my shoulder,” he says.
That confidence has Poole in position to make an immediate contribution. Through two preseason games, Poole has been a standout for the Warriors, scoring 17 and 19 points, shooting nearly 48 percent from the field and making seven of his 16 3s.
“Being able to play on this team, I’m able to just shoot,” Poole said. “It’s a shooting team and they have an amazing offense.”
Shooting has long been Poole’s ticket to playing time. As a freshman at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, Poole once made a game-tying 3-pointer off the bench. Despite playing only sparingly to that point, Poole’s coach put him in for the most important possession of the game. He got the ball with under 15 seconds left and drilled a shot from several feet behind the line. The game was sent to overtime, and Rufus King won.
More buzzer beaters would follow. For his senior year of high school, Poole transferred to La Lumiere School in Indiana and helped lead it to the 2017 Dick’s National High School Championship game against R.J. Barrett’s Montverde Academy. With the game tied and the clock winding down, Poole had the ball deep on the right wing and hoisted a 3 that splashed at the buzzer.
A year later playing for Michigan, Poole found himself in almost the exact same spot, only it was the NCAA Tournament. He again hoisted and delivered, sending Michigan past Houston to the Sweet 16.
After he helped lead Michigan to another Sweet 16 appearance as a college sophomore, Poole declared for the NBA Draft. The Warriors took him at No. 28, believing that, if they didn’t, the San Antonio Spurs would select him with the very next pick.
Coach Steve Kerr likens Poole’s game — at least, offensively — to a young Klay Thompson, conceding that Poole is still working to bulk up defensively. Like Thompson, Poole will be primarily used off the ball. Not just catching and shooting, but also cutting to the basket. “I love his cutting ability,” Kerr noted.
In the wake of a summer that saw Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston leave, and with Thompson sidelined with an ACL tear until February, there is opportunity on the wing. Despite being the team’s secondyoungest player, Poole is among the most comfortable in his role.
Like on the black tops of Milwaukee, Poole’s age hasn’t revealed itself on the court at Chase Center. In the locker room is when the age disparity between him and his teammates is most obvious.
One of many new perks at the Warriors new arena includes a personal TV in each of the players’ lockers. After Thursday’s win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, most of the players had their sets tuned to the news. Poole was watching “Spongebob Squarepants.”
Poole’s bubble extends beyond Bikini Bottom. Despite his coach being the target of criticism by the president, he seems blissfully unaware or, more accurately, unconcerned, with his team being in the middle of the political conversation. Poole’s naivety of world-wide events is as much a signal of his youth as it is a conscious design. He does not have Twitter or Facebook, though he does have Instagram. “To watch cat videos.”
Poole’s twisted hair bounces as he answers questions from the media. Blond highlights invoke the sun-bleached tops of Pacific-coast surfers. He is at once laid back and confident. In another word: cool. He feels at home in San Francisco, spending his time adding weight, making shots and watching “Rick and Morty.”
“Here, in San Francisco, it’s the most ‘me’ vibe. Be yourself, be unique. It’s real chill, laid back,” Poole said. “I feel like if there’s any place I was supposed to be, it was California.”