Golden State Warriors: Steve Kerr must keep faith in Jordan Poole
Despite struggling for much of the season so far Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr must keep faith in rookie Jordan Poole.
Hopes were high when Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers picked Jordan Poole 28th overall in the draft, but injuries to Klay Thompson and later Stephen Curry have seen the former Michigan man take an expanded role this season.
However, unfortunately, after 13 games Poole hasn’t demonstrated the ability of a dead-eye shooter, shooting 27.3% from the floor and 26.3% from deep. Poole was benched after a lackluster 1-8 shooting display.
From fulfilling a role of a complementary scorer for Michigan last season, Poole was quickly thrown into the deep end as a professional having to guard the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Russell Westbrook and CJ McCollum within the space of a week.
A role which likely wasn’t envisioned in July.
Nonetheless, the youngster has retained the backing of Coach Kerr.
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"“I remind myself that he should be a junior in college,” Kerr said to Dieter Kurtenbach. “Even guys like Steph and Klay struggled in their first year in the NBA. It’s not easy. It’s overwhelming at times when you first get into the league… I’m very confident that it will happen. I think that Jordan has done a much better job the last few games of taking good shots — they’re just going in right now.”"
Despite this, Poole’s confidence has remained and is largely his biggest asset. Poole’s willingness to try and shoot himself into rhythm has left hope this only a temporary slump.
In the end, the former Wolverine is simply trying to create offense off the dribble, which is a much more difficult thing to do than catch and shoot but it’s evident that the rookie needs to change-up his shot selection to improve his chances of scoring. The step-back 3 isn’t working for him.
In addition, Poole’s decision making must improve, far often he ignores open driving lanes to launch a wayward three-pointer that bounces off the rim.
The Dubs drafted Poole for his unwavering self-belief and his potential to become a knockdown shooter which has been evident on occasions this season with 20 point outing against the Spurs on November 1st but consistency must improve in order for Poole to advance.
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Luckily from Poole’s perspective, the Dubs are in the midst of a development year and it has enabled Kerr to analyze him, Eric Paschall and potentially the likes of Alen Smailgacic and Damion Lee more effectively.