Has Jordan Poole Earned a Starting Spot?

We covered this over the weekend, but Jordan Poole has been on an absolute tear. Since last Friday, however, he’s kicked it up to an even higher gear. Poole’s averaging 24 points and 4 assists on 59% from the field, 54% from the three point line, and 87% from the line in his last 7 games. That’s good for an eFG percentage of 73%, and 76% true shooting, which is highly impressive for a 3rd-year player who was in the G-League just a year ago.

A few of those games have included Poole as a starter, either due to rest or injury from players normally in the starting line-up, and it’s started to raise the question: Has JP3 earned the role of a starting guard? His stats per game see a minor uptick from his season averages when he’s on the floor for the tip-off, and lineups including him, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have looked hyper-lethal as an offensive unit. With Draymond Green back, it’s obvious to see how that was upgraded even further last night.

The answer, by most logic, is unequivocally yes. Jordan Poole is a starting calibre guard in either the 1 or 2 spots, he’s shown that he can make leaps quickly and he’s taken intelligent steps forward with his game. His defense has improved a lot in terms of IQ and attention, his offense has become more polished and even simpler, he’s listening to the vets and learning from them, etc. It seems like it’s a good recipe for him to make leaps and bounds, and his confidence in the starting role has seen to be sky-high.

The real question we should be asking, instead of has he earned it, is a little more complex: Should he be starting?

The Pros:
As we stated earlier, the Steph-Klay-Jordan lineup is lethal. Poole’s driving ability opens up looks off-ball or draws defensive attention which put Curry and Thompson on islands with defenders. That’s a huge boon for both of those guys, but for Steph specifically because he’s one of the NBA’s best isolation players. Thompson can certainly get his own too, or just quick-shot a jumper over a closeout off the catch.
In addition to that, the Warriors have employed 33 different 5-man lineups that have played at least 5 games where they shared the floor together. Poole is a part of the top 4 lineups in offensive rating, all of which boast a 123.4 or higher. It’s obvious how good the offense is with him on the floor. The defense isn’t half bad either, with Poole ranking in 3 of the 5 best lineups in terms of defensive rating as well. He’s starting to make more of the right reads, he opens up the floor for shooters, and his improvements have shown he deserves the role.

The Cons:
Unfortunately for Poole, there’s a lot of moving parts to this team that bring up questions… The first being who do you bench if Poole plays first? Wiggins would be the obvious candidate, but his confidence is very important at this juncture heading into the playoffs. Benching him wouldn’t yield productive results for him, especially when the Warriors are going to need him especially on defense. Benching Kevon Looney would yield size, benching Klay Thompson runs the risk of disgruntling him, and both Curry and Draymond are obviously not eligible for that.
The second question is who runs the bench unit? Poole is a lead guard, able to organize and run the offense. He wrecks opposing second units, where a lot of his lead guard minutes come from. He’s great with the ball in his hands, and while starting lineups obviously do plenty of sharing, the more volume he can get against a team’s bench, the better.
The third question is about consistency. Poole’s been phenomenal lately, but he’s had his ups and downs this season. He also has no playoff experience outside of last year’s play-in games, if you can even count that. If he were to start and continue starting for the playoffs, it’s a totally different environment: He may not be ready to play those minutes.

The Conclusion?
Yes, Jordan Poole deserves to start. No, he should not start. He’s an excellent player, and phenomenal in the minutes he plays right now. He should absolutely been in a closing line-up in close games, as well as sharing more minutes with the Splash Brothers, but starting? There’s too many variables that prevent him from doing so at this juncture.
Now, could he end up starting in the future? The chances are he will be Golden State’s starting PG one day, when the original Big 3 is at the tail-end of their careers and could start moving to the bench or to less-central roles. But for now, Poole is in an excellent spot, and with a pending extension, he could continue to grow in that role until the opportunity arises for him to force himself into that spot not by his attitude, but with damn-good basketball.

(Photo credit: Jeff Chiu / AP Photo)