Jordan Poole Fluff Pieces
Couple new articles detailing Jordan Poole's rise on the Warriors - not a ton of new info but some good stats on his impact this postseason. Still think he should've stayed another year at Michigan for his development /s
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-warriors-needed-jordan-poole-more-than-we-knew/
https://www.theringer.com/2022/5/9/23063881/jordan-poole-golden-state-memphis-max-player
Great stuff.
The 538 article links this good one about the intense individual work he did with the Warriors player development coach Chris DeMarco.
It's always interesting when people are like, these players should stay and develop longer in college. If an NBA team is willing to draft a player, they are going to pour a significantly more amount of time and resources into that players development than a college team could ever hope to.
If it doesn't work out, it's 99.9% a matter of the player simply not being good enough or having the work ethic to stick in the NBA and staying another year in college wouldn't have changed either of those things.
Very happy for J. Poole.
This is going to likely be applicable to Moussa this year. Pretty sure that someone is going to see his potential, draft him, and put a lot of effort into developing him. I hope he does as well as Poole (and Duncan, and Caris).
I remember the year before Jordan arrived, a video of his early morning workouts circulated--that was one hard-working kid, bwoy.
Don't see why you're calling that 538 piece fluff. Really shows how Jordan is evolving the game. He stands to be one of the greats. Thanks for sharing it.
Uh, I didn't call anything a fluff piece...?
Sorry, no you didn't--the OP did.
I was just listening to the NBA Big Board podcast and they were saying the exact opposite of you. They said if a player wasn't a lottery pick or close to it they would advise them to go back to school if they were in a good situation at their school. Their reasoning - and these guys spend a lot of time around teams - is that teams don't have a lot of playing time to develop players and after training camp an NBA team holds very few practices. The NBA teams also spend very little time on fundamentals and skill development. Most of that is directed through the players' agents by individual player development trainers and coaches.
Poole was very lucky that 1)a projected late second round pick was drafted in the first round by 2) a world class organization that 3) happened to be tanking his rookie year and gave him lots of minutes to be bad and 4) had very few other young players on the roster so he was a huge priority for them to develop. There's a world in which any of those 4 things aren't true and he has path is wildly different.
Some players are such self-starters and so highly motivated that all that extra time the NBA affords them are put to good use and other players need more structure or a few more years to find that motivation. Staying longer can be extremely beneficial for players who need more structure or who's game requires more actual on the court game reps. I think Moussa is 2-3 years out from being a contributor on an NBA. Will the team that drafts him wait that long? Will Moussa have the patience if he has to wait? Will he lose belief in himself. He doesn't have one great NBA skill yet to get on the floor so he has a high likelihood of busting. I can't say for sure what is the best path for him but I do know if he stays he will good a lot of time next year to develop on the court under a cohesive system. If he stays in the draft he may very well bounce around between his NBA team and their G-league affiliate next year.
Your comment about "99.9" is farcical. Luck and circumstance have a lot to do with it as well. Moussa may catch a team's eye and make it into the first round but there's an equal chance he goes un-drafted and ends up on a 2-way next year. I hope it makes it no matter what he does and I think it's okay for us to say we have no idea what happens with him.
+1 for farcical
Your making too much sense for this board
Not having to play around Klay Thompson was also a big help since it gave him additional playing time that wouldn't have been there.
Jordan certainly doesn't IFNOR because he'll pick up and extra $30 million by leaving a year early.
Poole is similar to Steph in how they play and how he's a threat from anywhere but Poole is much craftier with the ball in his hands which makes it a difficult guard. We saw brief flashes of it at Michigan but he was too inconsistent to put it all together. Poole's effort level on defense has improved tenfold, but he's still a minus defender. It doesn't matter because his value as an offensive player far outweigh his value on defense. GSW is a much better team on the floor with Poole on the court.
He gets a lot of Steph comparisons because they share the court and run the same sets, I think Dame is a far better comparison, though.
Yeah, and when you have elite defenders like Thompson, Green and Wiggins, you can 1) somewhat hide Poole and 2) have great help defenders to mitigate damage.
Incredible how well they've done with drafting and developing.
Double dipped. Now it's time to tip. Just a little slip, so nobody flip.
I'm hip.
He'll be good on D in time. You see the floor that well on offense, you move that well. . . your defense will come. He's just mostly been concentrating on the offensive end.
Steph is a freaking magician with the ball in his hands, what Poole does have over him though is he's longer and more athletic. Poole is in a great spot right now, he can have an off game and not worry because he's not expected to lead them in scoring. There's no pressure on him like there is Klay and Steph. So he can go 4-12 shooting with 4 turnovers and it's just a learning chance for him, he's not going to catch any heat.
Poole has really improved as a passer and playmaker. He's going to have a long career and be a star.
Golden State just knows what they're doing. Poole is a future star, but so might Kuminga be. Just a freak athlete who's been able to take his time learning the game, but could be the next Andre Iguadala in a couple years. Not sure they'll be contenders indefinitely, but they have a good core for 5 years down the road.
Earlier this year when Poole was starting to go off, the TNT crew started using the term "Poole Party". IIRC, Kenny Smith was taking credit for the name and the others howled whenever he used it. Made me want to jump through the screen. Those guys have zero knowledge of the college game and it shows during March Madness.
True about Kenny et. al only watching during March Madness, but I'm sure high schoolers in Milwaukee were rolling their eyes that the Maize Rage thought they could coin Poole Party. Sure you could argue at least NCAAB is mainstream & televised, but eh it doesn't seem too big of a deal. Especially when the nickname / term is so low-hanging.
We need to all stop this, "He should have stayed another year" nonsense!
Yes, when he left his game was not NBA ready, however, he was drafted at the right spot by the the perfect team who had the patience and the right offensive system, to watch him now become a star. Most any other team would not have developed him to where he is now and/or been the right offensive system to highlight his talents and he may be in the G League or even out of the NBA.
I concur. Poole broke records for shooting futility his first year in the league.
Someone posted this elsewhere, that only one person in NBA playoff history has had, in one postseason, more games with 25+ points and a true shooting percentage of 75.0
Jordan has now had 4 such games in the playoffs. If he gets one more this year, he'll tie Kawhi for the most ever. Btw the other 10 who've had 4 such games in one playoffs are people like Lebron, Kareem, KD, Nowitzki