Stephen Curry offered his brutally honest take on Jordan Poole’s struggles this past week.
Last year, Poole consistently served as the Golden State Warriors’ second or third best player on nightly basis. He was a big reason for them winning a championship, and he was rewarded with a four-year, $128 million contract.
Unfortunately, he has taken a major step back in 2023 – especially in the playoffs. In the first round, against the Sacramento Kings, Poole averaged a mere 12 points on 33.8 percent shooting from the field and 25.7 percent from beyond the arc.
He hasn’t fared much better in the second-round against the Los Angeles Lakers. Aside from one standout Game 1 that he still managed to ruin with an ill-advised attempted game-winner, Poole has been awful.
In the Warriors’ most recent loss, a Game 4 heartbreaker in L.A., Poole finished with no points on 0-of-4 shooting from the field in 10 minutes of play. Over his team’s last three outings he has amassed 11 total points on 5-of-19 shooting.
Worst of all, he has developed an attitude problem. It becomes more and more apparent with each passing game.
So how does Curry feel about all this? He tried to defend his teammate .
“We all have to play better. … There’s no sense in isolating him in this situation.”
Steph Curry in response to a question about Jordan Poole’s struggles.pic.twitter.com/6geN3qLCix
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 9, 2023
“We get questions about him a lot and it’s our whole team, we’re all together in the sense of trying to figure out how to win playoff games,” Curry said.
“We all have to make adjustments, we all have to play better considering we’re in a 3-1 hole. So, there’s no sense in isolating him in this situation. It’s all about collectively what can we all do to be better?
“The conversations we have in film sessions and on the bench, in the locker room, are all consistent throughout the season—especially in this playoff run—of trying to answer that question.”
While Curry’s take is admirable, the reality is that Poole has brought a lot of this upon himself. These days the youngster is only in the news cycle for either his discontent with his place on the Warriors or his $500,000 date with Ice Spice, not for any substantive basketball accomplishments.
KAT and his girl are clearly enjoying the NBA offseason. https://t.co/V5TjOiOy4v
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 9, 2023
When you are a rookie minimum deal, you can get away with a lot of stuff.
That’s not the case when a squad is paying you more than $100 million, though.
Will Curry be able to get through to Poole and help him turn his nosediving career around? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
