Getty Jordan Poole of the Golden State Warriors.
Jordan Poole wasn’t able to give the Golden State Warriors much in their series win over the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. What was a lackluster regular season for the 23-year-old has carried over into the playoffs.
Despite Poole’s inconsistent production in the first round, his teammate Draymond Green had nothing but good things to say about his attitude in Game 7 against the Kings.
“I know a lot of people will slander Jordan Poole, but his demeanor tonight was incredible,” Green said on the April 30 episode of “The Draymond Green Show.” “71-64, we’re in a timeout. He came into the timeout, and he said, ‘Hey, man. They getting a little tight now. All of a sudden, floaters short, shots short. They’re getting a little tight, turn the pressure up now.’ We fed off that energy. It was huge.”
Poole averaged just 12.0 points 3.0 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game vs. Sacramento. Though the scoring was 8.4 points per game lower than his regular-season average, the real issue came in his efficiency. Golden State’s No. 3 shot just 33.8% from the field and 25.7% from beyond the arc in the series.
Through seven games, his production has fallen off a cliff compared with last postseason where he scored 17 points per game on 50.8/39.1 shooting splits.
Warriors’ Draymond Green Has Learned From Incident With Jordan Poole
Green’s defense of Poole may come as a surprise to many because the two have had a rocky relationship, to say the least. In October 2022, video surfaced showing Green punching Poole in the face during a Warriors practice.
Green said that he had to work to earn Poole’s respect in the aftermath of the punch.
He told The Athletic’s Shams Charania that he’s had to take a different approach to leadership moments with Poole.
“I felt like I had to earn my voice. A voice isn’t given. For me, I wanted to do things to earn that back. … I took a step back … three or four steps back, and just kind of let things play out,” Green said in Charania’s April 24 story.
Green later pinpointed the moment where he first laid into Poole, after the team’s January 27 win over the Toronto Raptors.
“That moment happened leading into the All-Star break. … I felt like it was important to have that moment,” he said. “But I also felt it had to be at the right time. We hadn’t put many wins together all year in a row, and so you try to feel out the right time. We were on a home stand, trying to put wins together. I feel that was the time that you try to reinsert yourself.”
Warriors Never Determined Who Leaked Draymond Green Video
During an appearance on the “#thisleague UNCUT” podcast last month, Green discussed his punching Poole. He said that the source of the leak was never found despite an investigation into the footage’s release.
“No, not at all,” Green told Chris Haynes and Marc Stein on the April 11 episode. “I was never really given a concrete answer on how it came about. But anything else that gets investigated you get to concrete things, right? Like, this is what we got to in our investigation. That’s that and it doesn’t end until you reach a concrete place. That wasn’t the case with this investigation. Could it have been the case if I pressed the issue? Probably so. Probably we could have gotten all the way to the bottom of it if I pressed the issue or Rich Paul pressed the issue. We could have gotten all the way to the bottom of it I’m sure. But in hindsight and even looking at it now, I didn’t want to get to the bottom of it. I didn’t want to chase ‘Oh man, who leaked this?’ Is there a way for me to find out where this league came from? If I do find [out], what I’m going to do? Am I going to sue someone? No. If I find out the organization leaked it, am I going to sue the Golden State Warriors? Of course not.”