Golden State Warriors: Issuing an APB on Jordan Poole

Despite claiming a 121-106 win at Chase Center on Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors still find themselves in an unsettling 3-2 hole. One of the biggest contributors to their second-round struggles has been a lack of bench productivity.

Every championship run during the Warriors’ illustrious and incessant dynasty has featured a bunch of key role players who’ve been able to step in for minutes at a time and impact the game in one way or another.

During their 2014-15 finals run, guys like Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli, and Shaun Livingston provided quality minutes when called on to spell the starters. During the Kevin Durant era, players like Andre Iguodala, David West, and Quinn Cook stepped up against some deep Cleveland Cavaliers teams.

Jordan Poole was an invaluable component of the Golden State Warriors’ bench unit last season, yet that hasn’t translated to this year’s postseason just yet.

Along with Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr, and Nemanja Bjelica, Poole continued the trend and filled the “spark-plug” role off the Warrior bench, deploying his self-creation chops to help put the Boston Celtics away in the NBA Finals.

This season, the 23-year-old has been unable to replicate his successes, his confidence levels wavering with his production. Golden State were injury-riddled throughout the regular season and players were forced to assimilate and adjust on the fly. Stephen Curry missed 26 total games this season while Andrew Wiggins missed 45. There were a lot of moving parts, and the Warriors’ rotations were ever-changing as a result.

Yet Poole suited up for all 82 games this season, joining Kevon Looney as the only other Warrior to accomplish that feat. He had plenty of opportunity to prove himself, and Steve Kerr allowed him to play through his mistakes all year long. Yet the same self-inflicted wounds that plagued Poole at the start of the season are still haunting him in the playoffs.

Defensively, Poole has been a trainwreck. He’s offered little resistance as an on-ball defender and has repeatedly botched defensive rotations. He was a defensive target for the Kings in the first-round and the Lakers have made it their mission to consistently involve Poole as a defender in screening actions.

On the offensive side, his confidence is clearly rattled. His shot selection has been flat-out confusing at times, often passing up quality looks for contested low-percentage shots. He’s been cavalier with the ball in his hands and with Poole at the controls, the Warriors offense has looked disorganized and out of sorts.

Poole’s postseason stats have drastically dipped across the board and his minutes have subsequently plummeted. During last year’s Finals run, Poole averaged 17 points per contest on 50.8% shooting from the field and 39.1% shooting from three-point range. This year, those numbers have plummeted to 10.6 points per game on 34.4% shooting from the field and 26.7% shooting from three in only 261 postseason minutes.

In Game 4, Poole was only on the floor for 10 minutes, shooting 0-for-4 from the field and committing two turnovers in that span. He showed some improvement with his decision-making in Game 5, but he still shot just 5-for-14 from the field.

This has been a postseason to forget for ‘JP’, but the Warriors’ chances partly hinge on his ability to get his act together. In Game 1 of this series against the Lakers, he recorded 21 points on 7-for-15 shooting and 6-for-11 shooting from deep. There is evidence that he can right the ship and find his groove, but it’s up to Poole to get out of his own way and let the game come to him.