Michigan Players in the NBA

I think them all coming out to defend him against the nonsense tweet from Haynes is pretty telling. They all know where Haynes got that information…

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True of course he does have Pistons beat writer and MSU slappy James Edwards III carrying Draymond’s water today. Saying Poole escalated it by shoving Draymond.

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I dunno. There’s probably literally nothing MOST NBA players could say to provoke that reaction, but if anyone could it’s probably Poole. And were I the Warriors I would absolutely be wondering about how coachable he’s going to be once that extension’s in. Not that it justifies Sparty being Sparty, because nothing does, but Poole on a rookie deal was already proving to be not that much more coachable than Poole in college. The guy just does his own thing sometimes. He is not going to be some players’ idea of the ideal teammate. I don’t think he’s going to get to that level of dislike of, say, Reggie Jackson in OKC, but he’s not the easiest guy to have in your lineup.

mivhigan fans really do not like Poole lol

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Come on man that video is SO one-sided. You’re trying too hard to not be biased. There is no planet where Green isn’t 100% responsible here.

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If that wasn’t clear enough, let me be clear – Green is 100% responsible. Green is a borderline guy and surely none of us would be surprised if/when he’s retired he hauls off on someone in normal life where he no longer has the on-court setting to protect him from the consequences of his actions and he ends up facing criminal charges and/or a civil suit aimed at his money. Absolutely.

But, if it needs pointing out, that doesn’t mean Poole is an angel or anybody’s notion of the ideal teammate. There are clips out there of Klay on the court and visibly frustrated with Poole just like we saw with Z pointing at him in transition to cover his man in an M/MSU game before said man scored a pivotal bucket late in the fourth, IIRC in the second of the three losses to them in '19. Poole is Poole.

That said, also seems very relevant context and SIAP but looks like Poole’s in line get his big extension before Green gets his new deal.

Huh? I’m confused. Teammates being frustrated with someone’s positioning on the court or about a shot they take does not make them uncoachable or a bad teammate. He seems pretty unanimously well liked amongst his teammates. Curry and Kerr both said Poole has been great in training camp. There’s not much in Jordan Poole’s career that would lend him to have a hard to coach tag. Yeah he wanted a bigger role his sophomore year of college, but it’s not like he was actively ignoring orders or not trying

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What did Klay say?

About what?

somehow I find myself thinking Hack is being too rough on both Poole and Draymond in terms of their overall character (I’ve heard nothing to suggest Poole is a jerk, and I don’t at all agree Draymond is going to get busted for assault when he retires), which seems really hard!

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Poole. He’s said a bit, in words and body language. Lately and last season too. And some of that you can file as older, slower player recovering from injury looking at his heir apparent. no doubt. But not all of it.

No longer an Athletic subscriber, but the well-remembered piece BQ did from the sidelines with the Beilein/Poole exchange would be a good starting point – an example of, if not “actively ignoring orders” then “blowing off the coach trying to coach him”. I also cited other examples. None of this is Iverson Practice Rant level stuff, but it’s there.

I’ll take it. Better to be accused of being too hard on both than on just one.

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To be fair, Poole did lobby in a nationally televised post game interview during the playoffs that he should start over Klay.

I don’t think it makes him a jerk, but could also see why Klay wouldn’t care for it.

I don’t think he’s a jerk either. But even guys who aren’t that brazen about themselves still aren’t gonna be everyone’s cup of tea.

Irrational Jordan Poole hate among some factions of the Michigan fan base is apparently slow to die.

He’s in line for a $100 million contract after being a late first round pick when most of the same people said he shouldn’t be drafted and wouldn’t be a good pro. He spent a year in the G-League, worked on his game and cracked the rotation for one of the best run teams in the league. Then made dozens of key plays in the playoffs. But he’s somehow hard to coach.

Hmmm. :thinking:

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This is Local Fluff a bit but I’ve never interpreted anything Klay did towards JP as actual disdain. Mostly curmudgeonly vet stuff

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@umhoops, that’s ridiculous. He wouldn’t be the first very good player and playmaker to get paid and be worth it who is, also, hard to coach. He got more P/R touches as a soph than Nik Stauskas and was dissatisfied with his role. BQ documented an example; those of you with an Athletic login can refresh your memories should you have forgotten. Any one of you is 15 seconds from watching Klay Thompson react on Youtube to Poole in a way that’s pretty uncommon for NBA players to react. And 15 seconds from watching Klay Thompson discuss Poole needing a humbling.

Rational: gathering up the data points that exist for this player but not too many others, and considering what that evidence suggests.

Irrational: not doing that.

I think you can’t ignore that angle. Poole will take Klay’s job soon. There’s no doubt that it’s a factor. And I think that it’s also pretty likely that, sooner rather than later, things are smoothed over between Poole and Green. Green himself IIRC used to brag about how fights in practice in EL actually helped create those bonds, and how he brought that mentality to GSW and how it helped them be a tougher team.

But that does not negate the presence of media in the public domain demonstrating that Poole generates a level of frustration, and you can’t replicate that body of evidence for most NBA players.

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So your case that he’s not coachable comes down to a quote his dad gave after he declared for the NBA Draft, an anecdote in a story that Brendan wrote while sitting in the front row (which I’m pretty sure was late in a blowout win?), frustration on the court between teammates and some random clips of Klay saying something about humbling him?

The kid has played a ton of different roles really well for a bunch of winning teams and played for really good coaches. That’s way better evidence that he’s coachable.

People (a subset of Michigan fans mostly) want to feel a certain way about Jordan because of how his sophomore year ended IMO. He definitely has a unique personality – from cats to irrational confidence to overly kind to slightly cocky and maybe aloof at times – but that’s very different than saying he’s not coachable.

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The Klay comment on Poole about humbling him was in jest.

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