WASHINGTON (AP) — Jordan Poole grew to become a Washington Wizards participant for the primary time in July 2023 in a deal that despatched Chris Paul to the Golden State Warriors.
In response to his teammates and his coach, his actual arrival got here a lot later.
Poole might have worn a Wizards uniform for all of final season. However the expertise that earned him top-10 NBA Most Improved Participant votes for 2 straight years in Golden State did not absolutely resurface till a struggling 15-win marketing campaign, and after the Wizards have parted methods with former coach Wes Unseld Jr. in favor of Brian Keefe.
“From final 12 months to final summer season, I feel Jordan is a really totally different particular person,” Kyle Kuzma, final 12 months’s Wizards main scorer, mentioned on the crew’s media day. from Monday. “I feel it’s Jordan Poole. I do not suppose final 12 months he essentially was. He was just a little calm, just a little distant.
One in all Keefe’s first targets after taking on in January was to get Poole into extra ball-handling conditions, which Poole feels is way more suited to his strengths.
“With the ability to get into transition, giving confidence to my teammates. It’s one thing I’ve at all times been in a position to do, particularly with the ball,” Poole mentioned. “Guys are open, simply give them the ball and attempt to put them in conditions to achieve success.”
And the outcomes recommend Poole and the Wizards took benefit.
Poole improved his scoring common by about two factors and his help common by about two – with out a main improve in turnovers – during the last 40 video games coached by Keefe. His 5 highest-scoring video games all got here throughout this stretch. Three of his 4 double-digit help video games have come within the Wizards’ final 10 video games performed.
Washington’s successful proportion was solely barely higher below Keefe, however typically the performances have been extra aggressive.
Because the Wizards have added extra gamers they view as on-ball decision-makers this offseason, Keefe confirmed they’ve given Poole that accountability which is able to as soon as once more be his focus.
However that alone cannot clarify the event his teammates have seen, he mentioned.
“Jordan got here unstuck,” Keefe mentioned. “Stylistically, we gave him the ball. However I simply needed Jordan to be himself. He is a man who’s already had an ideal profession. I simply needed to remind him that that is who he’s.
Teammate Corey Kispert advised it was so simple as getting used to a brand new atmosphere, in addition to a brand new position by which he must tackle larger visibility on and off the sector. That is one thing Kispert has but to expertise in three NBA seasons on his rookie contract.
“You possibly can simply inform his blood stress is quite a bit decrease,” Kispert mentioned. “I could not think about the sorts of issues he was coping with in his first 12 months right here, coming to a model new crew, to a spot he’d by no means been earlier than, and also you’re requested to do a crowd various things the place perhaps he did not have that position or that accountability with the Warriors It was like he was juggling numerous various things.
APNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Copyright 2024 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
