The 24-year-old guard is going from Golden State to Washington in the Chris Paul deal. What will Poole bring to his new team?
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What qualities will Poole bring to the Wizards?
To answer that question,
The Athletic has brought together Warriors beat writer Anthony Slater, who has covered Poole’s entire pro career, and Wizards beat writer Josh Robbins, who’ll cover the next stage for Washington’s new leading man.
Josh Robbins: Before I ask you about Jordan Poole as a basketball player, and specifically the strengths and weaknesses he’ll bring to Washington, I’d like to know a bit more about his Warriors tenure. What were the Warriors’ initial expectations from him when they drafted him 28th in 2019? How did those expectations change?
Anthony Slater: Felt like a reach in 2019. Most analysts had him mocked in the second round. But there were post-draft rumblings that the
Spurs actually wanted him 29th.
His rookie season was a disaster season for the Warriors.
Kevin Durant had just left,
Klay Thompson was rehabbing an ACL tear,
Steph Curry broke his hand in the fourth game and they went a league-worst 15-50 before the pandemic hit. Poole was thrown into the deep end out of necessity despite being unready. He was an overwhelmed small guard with bottom-tier efficiency. It looked like a whiff of a draft pick.
His career changed in his second season. He opened it on the fringe of the rotation. Steve Kerr was slow to give Poole the needed trust. Kerr played veteran
Brad Wanamaker over him, and Poole was actually sent to the G League bubble. It did wonders. He was one of the best players in Orlando while Wanamaker struggled with the big team. Kerr was finally forced to give Poole — stronger and sharper because of his relentless work ethic — an extended rotation run. He blossomed.
Poole parlayed a great couple months into a monster third season. Thompson was still recovering from an Achilles tear, so Poole was slotted as the starting shooting guard in the first couple months. The Warriors opened the season 18-2. He was a major cog.
Curry sprained his foot in March.
Poole then became the starting point guard the final month. Go look at his numbers during that stretch. It was Damian Lillard-like. Poole made an NBA-high 85 3s on 41 percent accuracy, scored 24.7 points per game and actually led the league in free throw percentage that season. Then, he was huge at key playoff moments, helping lift them to a title. That’s what earned him the massive extension before his fourth season.
Robbins: You and I know that a player’s fortunes can change overnight. Late last summer, from my perspective here on the East Coast, it seemed like everything was going perfectly for Poole. He had helped the Warriors win the NBA title. In mid-October, he and the team agreed on the four-year, $123 million rookie extension that you mentioned, plus incentives.
What changed? Is it too simplistic to say
Draymond Green punching him during a practice changed everything?
Slater: It’s interesting you say that. You (and the Wizards) were actually around during the last virtuous days of the Poole era with the Warriors. Remember that preseason trip to Japan for both teams?
Robbins: Oh, yeah! Clear as day, I remember you and I and some colleagues from other outlets walking to a fish market in Tokyo. I asked you about Poole and some other Golden State players on that walk!
Slater: Everything was still gravy.
The Warriors returned from Japan, and Green’s infamous punch — and the leaked TMZ tape of it, which sent everything into overdrive — happened the third practice back. Everything did change.
Go read the Kerr postseason quotes. It was a splintering that never glued back together, and the turbulence did appear to impact Poole on the court.
He had a frantic season that spiraled toward the end. He was fourth in the NBA in total turnovers and jacked up enough questionable heat check 3s that his percentage from deep dipped to 33.6 percent. His defensive focus and effort waned, frustrating the coaching staff. His playoff performance was rough.
But the sour end masks what still was a productive regular season in some ways. Key stat: He played in all 82 games. He’s extremely durable. He averaged 20.4 points per game and always elevated his play as a replacement starter, which was plenty. The Warriors went 14-12 in Curry’s 26 missed games. Poole averaged 24.6 per game in his 43 starts.
That is the Poole I’d predict will show up in Washington next season. He has had a strong belief the past couple years that he was ready for more — minutes, shots, opportunity, a guaranteed lead guard role. I assume he’s going to get that there?
Robbins: I expect him to have a big role as a scorer, for sure. A huge chunk of shots per game evaporated when the Wizards traded
Kristaps Porziņģis and
Bradley Beal, and those shots must go to others. If
Kyle Kuzma leaves in free agency or in a sign-and-trade, then Washington’s three leaders in field-goal attempts per game last season — Kuzma, Beal and Porziņģis, in that order — will be gone. More trades probably are in the offing, perhaps with
Monté Morris and
Delon Wright and maybe even newcomer
Tyus Jones.
One of the hallmarks of Wes Unseld Jr.’s head-coaching tenure in D.C. is that he’s given Kuzma the greenest of green lights during their two seasons together. Kuzma wanted to expand his offensive role, and Unseld permitted that, without many, if any, impediments. I think something similar will happen with Poole.
You’ve touched on this, but what’s Poole’s ceiling? What are his biggest weaknesses?
Slater: He’s a spectacular offensive talent and plays a fun, flashy brand. I like him as a lead guard for a rebuilding team that needs to generate local interest. When he’s rolling — and he can go on a hot streak for several weeks — fans gravitate toward him. During his best stretches, he had fans coming to the arena in pool gear.
His offensive ceiling, in my opinion, will come down to his 3-point percentage, and that could largely depend on improved shot selection. If he can tame his most destructive instincts and take mostly smart 3s, I’d wager he can be a 38, 39 percent shooter from deep. That’s enormously different than 33 percent for a high-volume guy.
Gear up for some monster nights and frustrating stretches. There are going to be some 42-point outbursts where he’s the best player on the floor and some seven-turnover, 2-of-14 from 3 duds. But it won’t be uninteresting.
On the defensive side, he’s been an exploitable target. Kerr was always critical of Poole’s lack of physicality. They always wanted him to “enter the mix” more, crack a cutter, hit somebody on a box out. He can be averse to contact on that end. But when he locks in and plays physically, he has quick hands, decent size and smart instincts. He’s currently way below average on defense, but his Warriors coaches believed he had the long-term capability of becoming passable.
But he has to embrace that side of the floor. He also has to embrace his situation. Do you think he will in Washington?
Robbins: I do expect him to embrace his overall situation in Washington. And I say that for two reasons.
First, the Wizards’ first-round draft pick this year, 18-year-old wing
Bilal Coulibaly, said he received a text from Poole welcoming him to the team. Poole reaching out to the team’s youngest player has got to be a welcome sign for the Wizards.
And I see some parallels between Kuzma’s arrival in D.C. two years ago and Poole’s situation. Kuzma already had won a ring with the
Lakers before the Lakers included him in the four-team trade that sent
Russell Westbrook to L.A. With that ring in hand — admittedly, as a Lakers role player, not the guy driving the bus, as Charles Barkley would say —
Kuzma then expanded his individual offensive game in D.C., and that went so well from an individual standpoint that Kuzma almost certainly will receive a good payday in free agency this summer.
Poole has his ring, and, though he’s already had a massive payday, I think he’ll embrace his chance as “the guy” in Washington. I expect Poole to be a focal point of the offense, and perhaps even
the focal point of the offense.
On defense, I’m not as bullish on Poole’s prospects there. Generally speaking, Unseld hasn’t gotten the most out of his players on that end during his two seasons here. That’s an area where Unseld has to improve.
Before we wrap this up, would you please familiarize people in Washington with the two lesser-known people coming here in the trade, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins?
Slater: Baldwin was a top prospect in high school — in the Chet Holmgren and Paulo Banchero class. But he had a bad ankle injury that didn’t fully heal, a bad freshman season in college playing for his father at UW-Milwaukee and dropped to 28th in the draft.
The Warriors took a swing on upside. They rehabbed his ankle. He had a few intriguing moments as a rookie. The guy is a legit 6-foot-10 with a smooth stroke from 3. If he can get right and keep his body right, there is an NBA player within there.
Rollins is a bigger unknown. The Warriors bought into the second round for him but discovered a foot fracture upon his summer arrival. He rehabbed it well enough to play plenty in the G League last season, to varying results. But the stress fracture persisted. His season ended because of a surgery. He didn’t show them enough for them to believe he was ready to contribute. The Warriors threw him in the trade to create an extra roster spot.
