A Jordan Poole 1st round pick is a great coda to the Beilein era. Especially as we wait to see whether Klay Thompson stays. Go get 'em, hit some threes in the playoffs, and put Michigan in the news.
Darn, the sports media is going to be obsessed with the Michigan v. Michigan State rivalry between Poole and Green.
I know what youāre saying, but I can think of 1,370,200 reasons why it isnāt necessary. Best of luck to Jordan Poole. If Iguodala thinks Green is going to bully teammate Poole, thatās laughable.
To the people who seriously thought Jordanās limitations as a player might prevent his being drafted, respected. To the haters: nothing but raspberries and crow.
JPās NBA entrance is really such a great metaphor for his entire Michigan career I canāt get over it. He declared for the draft with the same brash confidence he had when took all the tough contested step back threes. The fan base questioned his decision making like always. And this time, the shot went in. And just like for the past two years, when it goes inā¦there arenāt many who can make it look as pretty as Jordan Poole. There is no better team or opportunity I can think of for JP to truly establish himself than with the Warriors on a team that fits his playing style and needs a wing ASAP. Iām ecstatic for him
Poole is going to learn how to stand in the corner and be happy about it. Good for him and I hope he does well, so thatās that. For me personally Iām ready to focus on the current program and not its past.
Thatās certainly possible. Itās also possible that people (even those really happy for him now) in the Michigan sphere - be they players, media types, boosters, fans, even coaches, who knows - unreasonably vented their frustration on a 19-year old (turned 20 the day before the draft, happy birthday!) for everything that went wrong (in a 30-7 season) and helped turn large swaths of the fan base against a nice kid who hit one of the iconic shots of Michigan basketball history and had one of only three seasons in the Beilein era with 75 FTs, 75 2 PTs, and 75 3PTs.
(That last fun fact is barely true - JP just hit two thresholds and Trey and Derrick just missed one. And it excludes exhibition games, otherwise Treyās sophomore year would qualify. But still! The other two by the way are Nikās sophomore year and Timmyās freshman year.)
That possibility noted, I always said that Jordan would leave for the NBA the first chance he had, and Iām glad things worked out and will be rooting for him.
Hey if you werenāt frustrated going 0-3 against your main rival and seeing what those scouts saw and commented on, more power to you - thatās a tough trick. But itās certainly possible and reasonable to be frustrated about it without being rude about the kid himself, who, after all and quite obviously, is still just a kid.
I wasnāt trying to defend people who lost their mind on Twitter or this site or wherever. My point is just that the NBA Draft is about potential, not an evaluation of your performance in the most recent season.
Thatās why guys who accomplished so much are sometimes not even drafted.
Iām not sure who turned large swaths of fans against Poole? If thatās supposed to imply me, then Iām not really sure where you go that.
I personally was surprised at the number of people who thought that the NBA would overlook his obvious gifts and potential because of immaturity. The NBA is all about getting the youngest most talented kids in the door, and that seems really obvious.
Iām solidly in the crow-eating bucket right now. Touche Jordan.
And my point was, in part, that Jordan demonstrated that potential with a better season than people credited him for.
I wasnāt implying you, and I donāt need to call out those who (some perhaps unintentionally) were, though Iād note there was a stretch of games even reasonable folks like you and Quinn seemed to tweet every time Beilein looked at Poole sideways. It seemed to get away from people a bit, including Beilein. No mortal sins or anything to keep people up at night, but Iād suggest there may be something to learn from how things ended up that might yield consideration in the future.
I feel like you are kind of mixing up explaining was happening with causing it to happen.
Beilein was frustrated with Poole. Poole was frustrated with Beilein and his role. Those are things that happened.
Whether it was Anthony Poole explaining the familyās frustrations or Beilein losing it on Poole on the bench at different moments (again those are things that happened). Do you get more of that bench interaction talk during the B10/NCAA tourney? Yes, because we get to sit there.
Pooleās production fell off a cliff after about the Wisconsin game. Reasonable minds can differ about why ā shooting luck, spacing issues due to Simpson, frustration or whatever else ā but how can we cover the team without pointing that stuff out?
Same way that in early January, I was writing about Poole as a potential pro (and said all along that he had the highest NBA ceiling on Michiganās roster) when he played so well in December.
I would most certainly NOT prefer coverage that whitewashes those episodes or pretends they didnāt happen or ignores the steady drip of Beilein statements over the course of the year in which he said stuff like that he wishes he had a deeper bench in case ``thereās a guy we need to sit down because heās not making good decisionsāā, etc. etc.
I think this accurately sums it up. Sometimes our rabid fandom puts these kids under a microscope where every make/miss has an exponential effect on how they are viewed within the fanbase. With Jordan, the talent is there. Did he stink in some of the late season games? Absolutely. Did the majority of the kids who were drafted after the lottery have some stinker games (especially the younger kids)? Yep. But, unless youāre a crazy college basketball fan and watch/scout every team and player, you would likely have no idea. Like has been mentioned a million times before, NBA teams draft on potential, not what a kid did in college - production and visibility help, but in the end if you present with an NBA skillset and NBA body you are going to get looks.
With regard to Beilein and Pooleās relationship (or Pooleās relationship with his teammates, etc.), I think people want to make a mountain out of a mole hill - there is no doubt in my mind that Beilein and Poole were on different pages at times and probably frustrated the hell out of each other at times. But, the majority of us have no inside knowledge or are not privy to the inside workings of the team and really canāt use a snapshot moment to judge player/coach relationships, etc.
Further, when they were winning, I donāt remember reports of strife or unhappiness. I swear, we win one of the MSU games and the narrative of the season would have been completely different.
You have your opinion but those spending the millions have their own, fortunately for Poole theirs is the one that counts.
Poole has potential to be a great volume shooter and not just shooter. I hope that Curry will take Poole under his wings and Poole can find a role model in Curry.
I am guessing Jordan gets some good-natured hazing but I canāt believe that this is a Boogie-Stauskas situation. I believe that Draymond is smart enough to know roles and responsibilities
Given all that has happened this offseason, I might take some flak for this but I think Iām comfortable saying now that Iām of the opinion that Jordan and Anthony Poole had a point on how he was used. I think itās incredibly hard to play next to Zavier Simpson as a high usage NBA-level scorer because he requires you to play off ball.
Like him, hate him, whatever. One thing Draymond does is stand with his guys. JP is one of his guys now. Iād expect some bets along the way but Draymond will do what he can to get Jordan to be a part of that time in order to help them win.
Oh yeah, what we needed more of was Jordan Poole playing on the ball. He was so effective driving to the basket, his patented āspin-move, fall to the floor, throw ball at defenderās chest, look around for foul callā was nothing if not consistent. In the half-court, transition, whatever, you could always count on the same result