The future of rising star Jordan Poole poses two very different scenarios for the Golden State Warriors during this upcoming season
Unless you have been living under the proverbial rock, chances are you have heard of Jordan Poole by now.
The 22-year-old has been crossing people up, before shooting it over them with a vengeance during this preseason. Even compared to his amazing finish to last season, calling this growth ‘surprising’ would be the understatement of the century.
This explosive improvement poses a tantalizing possibility for the Golden State Warriors during this upcoming season, especially considering the situation of Klay Thompson. But what happens if this is just a preseason occurrence? What are the implications of that possibility?
Let’s take a look at both scenarios.
The Good Scenario: Jordan Poole breaks out as the third splash brother and a near All-Star level player
If we’re being honest, if the Golden State Warriors want to make a push for the championship next season, they don’t just want this to happen. They NEED this to happen.
From what we have seen so far, Jordan Poole has become extremely efficient. And we don’t just mean his scoring.
Sure, his 21.8 points per game on 51/36/87 shooting splits look encouraging, but those numbers alone don’t tell you the whole story.
The Warriors star has some really underrated handles. However, he doesn’t needlessly show them off. In most cases, whenever he gets the ball to score, he doesn’t use more than 3 dribbles (apart from the loose ones beforehand), in order to make all the space he needs to get a high-percentage shot off.
To add to that, while he does excel on the ball, he doesn’t hog it. When he is going for an isolation play, he tries to make space quickly and doesn’t eat up too much of the shot clock. And if he can’t do it, he is able to make a smart pass to set up someone else.
And finally, this may seem obvious, but it seems Poole has been able to learn from Stephen Curry’s movement on the offensive end. He moves around constantly and consistently makes catch-and-shoot threes, even during the latter stages of the game.
To put things simply, in this scenario, Jordan Poole is not only a star player in his own right, but the perfect player to thrust the Warriors towards an NBA championship. But, as we know, nothing is ever a given in the NBA world.
Let’s take a look at the less fortunate scenario, shall we?
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The Bad Scenario: Jordan Poole’s growth is mostly just a product of the preseason
Mostly being the operative word.
At the end of the day, teams don’t play as hard during the preseason. So, the player’s numbers could be a tad bit inflated as a product of it.
Even if that is the case though, there are still some positives for the franchise.
For starters, the team will still have a very good sixth man for when Klay Thompson is part of the team. And until that point, they have a pretty good starter as well.
The negative though, is, the Warriors can essentially give up on a title coming during this upcoming season.
We know, that sounds harsh. But we have to be realistic here. Klay Thompson has gone through two of the worst lower body injuries possible in basketball. Taking that into account, sure his shooting will still be intact, but we doubt he’d be able to do much else on the court for at least another season.
And when you consider what the rest of the team offers, yes, they have a good roster, but not one that can make the Finals, especially given how strong the West is.
Our Verdict
We’d be lying if we said we aren’t bullish about Jordan Poole. At the end of the day, no one puts in the amount of time as he has in the gym, and doesn’t see results.
We think he’ll be an 18 point per game scorer during 2021-22, on a very efficient percentage. We also do think he will be part of the Warriors’ all-new ‘Death Lineup’, and give them the status of real contenders from the Western Conference.
Can the franchise really win the 2022 NBA championship though? Honestly, given the little information, we have now, making a prediction wouldn’t quite be right. But we wouldn’t be surprised if things were to dramatically veer in their favor when the time comes.
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