Asking DNHQ: How concerned are you by Jordan Poole's turnovers?
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Asking DNHQ: How concerned are you by Jordan Poole's turnovers?
We all love a good Poole Party, but costly mistakes have made for party fouls
Jordan Poole has been one of the interesting storylines to track this season. Last year he appeared to cement himself as an All-Star in the making, dazzling throughout the regular season before putting up some riveting performances in the playoffs.
In 22 postseason games (5 as a starter) Poole averaged 17 PPG on 50% shooting from the field (39% from deep). He also shot 91% from the free throw line and only averaged 2.4 turnovers per contest in 27.5 minutes per game.
Understandably, Dub Nation and the Warriors were aware that in order to keep this electric scorer they’d have to pay him a handsome extension. The 2019 first round pick did indeed get paid in the offseason, securing a hefty four year, $123 million dollar contract.
And after footage leaked of Draymond Green delivering a Mike Tyson Punch Out blow to Poole in practice, Poole became a sympathetic figure, a bright young man just looking to help the Warriors win another championship.
40 games later, I’m wondering if the fan base’s patience is wearing thin with that young man. He’s averaging a career high 20.6 PPG, but his shooting percentages have fallen. He’s shooting 42.6% from the field and a very suspect 30% from 3PT range, his lowest percentages since his rough rookie year.
He’s also averaging 3.6 turnovers per game, good enough to be in the top-10 in the NBA for coughing up the ball, per Stat Head:
Now, that’s not the WORST list to be a part of, considering there’s four MVP’s on there. It goes to reason that the more ballhandling and scoring responsibilities a player has, the higher chance that attacking defenses will force mistakes. But if we take a look at the top players in assists, Poole’s 4.4 dimes per game drops him down to 24th, ranked behind Joel Embiid.
Funny enough, if we change the table sorting from “per game” to “total”, Poole actually leads the entire NBA in turnovers.
But his championship winning coach and teammates are preaching patience.
How do you feel about Poole right now folks? Is he a turnover machine that can’t be trusted? Or is he a guy you want with the ball in his hands to help lead the Warriors to another championship?
I’m personally rocking with Poole 100%, and I believe as he continues to get reps he’ll get a handle on that handle.
Asking DNHQ: How concerned are you by Jordan Poole's turnovers?
My take on Poole is his selfishness and immaturity. Forget his stats good or bad. And let's not all forget, he's 23 years old, not 19. What I'm seeing is both Klay and Steph publicly dissing JP not because of his turnovers but for the fact that he feels the need to prove he's a big dawg on this team. Quiet as its kept, all and all, DV and Lamb contribute more valuable minutes when you look at plus minus of being on the court. The dismal defense he plays forces him realistically to need 30 to balance out the bad energy, TO's, poor shooting percentages, botched D assignments to break even. Given how he was non existent in the post season last year vs any team that played D (Boston and Memphis). I truly don't see him as a realistic contributor this post season, not necessarily in scoring but being the reason we are winning series's. We overpaid. Give me a Darius Garland any day. Quiet and hard working baller with no extra shit. JP- don't trust him. Don't condone what Dray did but we all understand how it could have happened. Let's be real. As true Warrior fans we all have a tendency to give our players a ton of latitude but if we get to the meat and potatoes of what Jordan Poole is at this point, he's simply a guy who as of now has not chosen to buy into playing ball the right way, the Warrior way. Selflessly finding the hot hand, finding true joy in your team mates playing well.
I need you to roll back the Detroit game clip when Klay hit that last 3. Look for JP's presence after the game tying shot goes in. Nowhere to be found, almost as if he felt a certain way about the fact that it was a missed opportunity for him to get some much needed sunshine onto his dimly lit season he's having this year. I truly hope our locker room can withstand his energy. Poole has cost us far more games than he has contributed to. I call these selfish numbers, empty calories, not unlike Westbrook, Hardin, George, or Young might provide their respective squads. One of the biggest challenges of an NBA scorer is to be able to contribute the points but at the same time, have the other guys on the court involved and continuing to play hard. Think Luka, Curry, Bron and Joker. Poole needs to be aware of this and not just feel that he is our scoring savior.
A couple of items regarding the turnovers:
1. IMO Kyrie has the best handle in the league. JP's hand length is relatively small, but basically the same measurement as Kyrie at 8.25". Steph is supposedly at 8.5". JP's hand *width*, however, is much smaller than Kyrie's, and maybe that contributes to the ball squirting away from him frequently. He probably needs to work on his grip strength.
2. It seems like Jordan now hesitates to shoot off a pass unless totally open, and that allows defenders to stay back a bit further, making it harder to drive by them. He used to push the ball out further and then catch up to it, but I haven't seen that lately. I think once the shot comes back, defenders will close in again and the turnovers from driving will reduce.