Poole’s breakthrough is Warriors’ biggest triumph of the season
Whatever the Warriors did to boost Jordan Poole’s confidence, they need to keep doing it, because this guy is exactly what this team needs right now and in the future.
Since returning from the G League season in Florida, Poole is averaging
21 points per game with a blistering effective field goal percentage of 66.
He’s been spectacular. He’s been necessary. He won’t stay this hot forever, but he’s affirmed that he’s an NBA player.
“He’s been fantastic every single game since he’s come back from Orlando,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Poole is the kind of win that the Warriors desperately needed.
The second half of the Warriors season has seen a shift. At the beginning of the 2021 season, there was an equilibrium between a KURTENBACH >> PAGE 4
deep playoff push and developing young players for the future — there is no longer that balance. Much like last season, the Warriors are focusing more on the next campaign than the current one.
The issue was that, until Poole went on his heater, there wasn’t enough development to make such a shift seem worthwhile.
But now that Poole has broken through, it lends some confidence to the Warriors’ vision.
It’s important to remember that when the Warriors drafted Poole — and later the same night, Alen Smailagic — they were coming off an NBA Finals loss and they still believed that Kevin Durant was returning to the team, despite his pending free agency. Whether the Warriors were deluded or not is a conversation for another day, but at the moment Poole was selected No. 28 overall, no one in Oakland was expecting a rebuild or the Warriors finishing the upcoming season with the worst record in the NBA.
They thought they had some time to work with the youngsters on the side.
The context is important because it highlights how much things have changed for the Dubs in a short period of time.
The Warriors had a grand plan and it was shot in a matter of months, if not weeks.
Kerr wasn’t hired to be a player-development coach — this guy led the team to a title in his first year as a coach. He was there to make good great and he did that. The organization, in turn, created their G League affiliate in Santa Cruz for the purpose of giving young players serious run and development and coaching amid the big league club’s success, which makes it difficult to find opportunities for younger players.
But Durant, obviously, left, then Steph Curry broke his hand, and suddenly the Warriors were in a new arena with a bunch of kids, a D’Angelo Russell who never fit in, a worn-down Draymond Green, and an exhausted coaching staff.
The kids never stood much of a chance last season.
Poole was 20 years old and had averaged 13 points per game his sophomore season at Michigan. He could shoot — that’s why the Warriors surprised many draft pundits by taking him — but immediately tossing him into the fire against NBA foes was a surefire way to undercut his confidence.
Poole says that he never lost that all-important confidence — that he just needed reps — but the time he did spend in the G League runs counter to that claim.
In the first 14 games of his NBA career, Poole averaged 27 minutes per game and had a shooting percentage of 26%, the worst mark in the NBA. He was pressing, and while things did improve in time, he fell out of the rotation in December, leading to a G League stint.
Poole played well in the minor league, rediscovered his aggressiveness, and had a strong and encouraging final stretch of the season.
This season, sliding in and out of the rotation brought about a similar story. A pressing player, a confidence-boosting trip to the G League, and an encouraging return.
But this time around, Poole’s a significantly better player. The game is clearly moving slower for him, and defensively, he’s providing some positive things. He’s clearly part of the rotation moving forward and is likely a closer on this team, creating necessary spacing and shot-making alongside Curry in the backcourt in late-game situations.
The Warriors expected Poole to be a Jordan Clarkson type. A no conscious shooter who can provide offense off the bench and spot start. He’s only at Nick Young level right now, but there should be optimism that he can continue to build on this success, though hopefully without another return to the G League.
If this Poole progression has staying power, he’ll be the first viable NBA rotation player the Warriors have developed since Kevon Looney.
Of course, drafting late in the first round annually means that no one should expect a high hit rate, but the Warriors’ hit rate was too low — Poole’s-shooting-percentage-at-the-beginning-ofhis-career low.
No, developing players at the NBA level wasn’t a priority back when the Warriors were winning titles. But it is a priority now. They need to build as many viable NBA players in-house as possible. A few more Poole-like success stories and the Dubs have a chance of making something special happening next year without adding another super star caliber player.
It’s going to take some self-reflection and serious reverse engineering, but the Warriors must find a way to heed the lessons from Poole’s journey and apply them to the development processes of Eric Paschall, Smailagic, James Wiseman, and whomever the Warriors take with the Minnesota draft pick.
There’s a lot riding on the Dubs doing that.
But Poole’s success provides a reason for optimism.