When talking about the all-time greats, Draymond Green isn’t often mentioned, despite being a four-time All-Star and have three NBA Championships, all with the Warriors. Green’s impact has been on clear display over the last few weeks.
The Warriors are just 2-6 over their last 8 games and have struggled mightily since Green first missed time.
The Golden State Warriors are missing forward Draymond Green, and it’s especially obvious in the recent play of guard Jordan Poole.
Green has been out since January 6. One player especially impacted by Green’s absence is shooting guard Jordan Poole. Poole was having a career year with his shooting and scoring both drastically higher than expected.
However, over the past few weeks, the third-year guard has returned to his old inefficient self and at least part of that should be attributed to the Warriors playing without their top distributor.
Poole went 0-for-7 from the field against the Mavericks in a game in which the Warriors saw their 19-point lead erased. Golden State was outscored by 20 in the fourth quarter. While that can’t solely be put on Poole, his mere four points didn’t help.
Poole was just 5-for-12 with 12 points against the Timberwolves, another blowout loss for Golden State.
Since the Green’s absence, Poole has shot just 40.7% from the field, a percentage worse than both his average this season and last. His three-point shooting is just at 32.2% for that stretch as well. Poole topped 20 points in a game just once in February.
Poole’s struggles may go deeper than not sharing the court with Green. With Klay Thompson continuing to struggle with his health, Poole has been seeing a continued shift with what’s asked of him. His role has been consistently changing.
Nonetheless, Poole hasn’t played well as of late, and if the Warriors are going to do anything about, it inserting back into the starting lineup when Thompson is sidelined could be a start. Head coach Steve Kerr noted he isn’t worried about Poole following the loss to Dallas.
However, given the timing of his struggles, it should be concerning that Poole may not be able to reach his ceiling with the Big 3 at full strength. What is clear though is that Poole has been playing far worse since the loss of Green.