The evolution of Jordan Poole over the course of this season has been a sight to behold. With Stephen Curry out, the 22-year-old Poole has shepherded much of the offensive load and is now a bona fide, elite NBA scorer who has scored at least 20 points in 17-straight games.
In that span, he’s shot 49.7 percent from the field and 45 percent from three while averaging 26.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, a far cry from the first half of the year when he had some stellar games and some brutal ones.
Over the first 39 games of the season, Poole averaged 16.6 points a game on 43.2 percent shooting from the field and 33.3 percent from three with about 3 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game.
It’s been a monumental improvement and Steve Kerr credited Poole for putting the onus on himself. He said on KNBR on Tuesday that Poole frustrated him in the early parts of the season.
“To be perfectly honest, early in the season, he drove me crazy with how much he was dribbling and how often he would over dribble at the expense of our rhythm and our ball movement,” Kerr said.
What changed? Kerr said Poole was open and coachable, putting in work in the film room.
“It’s been a process of watching a lot of tape and just continuing to talk to him and more than anything, his own willingness to embrace the things we’re teaching him as a staff and the things that Draymond [Green] is telling him on the court and Andre [Iguodala],” Kerr said. “He’s really coachable and I just think his flow right now is so much better because he’s not dribbling a hole under the ground. He’s making his move and he’s going and it keeps the rhythm and the pace of the goal of the game going for us.”
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