Poole's First Playoffs: 17 PPG (22 Per 36) on 65% TS

[The-Power]

Props to the young Guard. Rarely do we see players this young, in their first playoffs at that, scoring at absolutely elite efficiency (this is peak Curry levels of efficiency). Three of the four teams were also really good defensive teams.

Still lots to improve on but most of what he needs to improve on can be learned. Already an important player for us behind – and next to – Curry as a shot creator and scorer. The future is bright if he continues to put in the work and remains coachable.

[Jerry Maine]

He needs to slowly improve his defence and core strength in the coming years so he's not a liability on defence. While inconsistent his offence is clearly valuable.

It's possible to imagine a starting five of Poole, Moody, Wiggs, Kuminga, and Wiseman being very solid, with Steph, Klay, Green and Looney rounding out the rotation/ depth chart along as they enter their late thirties. Just not sure if there's a true point in that group.

What a luxury having all these young studs in our back pocket

[Jerry Maine]

He needs to slowly improve his defence and core strength in the coming years so he's not a liability on defence. While inconsistent his offence is clearly valuable.

It's possible to imagine a starting five of Poole, Moody, Wiggs, Kuminga, and Wiseman being very solid, with Steph, Klay, and Green rounding out the rotation/ depth chart along as they enter their late thirties. Just not sure if there's a true point in that group.

What a luxury having all these young studs in our back pocket

[FNQ]

Way more impressed with his defense the last 3 games

[Big J]

Poole is a special offensive talent. It's becoming pretty obvious that he's not just a Lou Williams/Clarkson clone. Neither of those guys have his level of efficiency. All he needs to do is get with Curry's muscle building routine and he could be the guy who bridges the generations.

[shazam_guy]

Poole also has one thing you can't teach -- balls of solid steel. He will shoot anything anytime. Not always exactly what you want, but it's what you need in a future team offensive leader -- which he'll be someday, either for us or someone else.

[ILOVEIT]

Poole also has one thing you can't teach -- balls of solid steel. He will shoot anything anytime. Not always exactly what you want, but it's what you need in a future team offensive leader -- which he'll be someday, either for us or someone else.

This. I know we all get picky at times. But he is doing things right now that 90% of the league can't do. He is playing in the style of Kryie Irving but without the BS. Better FT shooter than the best FT shooter ever? lol

And the best part....he's got a decent mix of humility and confidence. He APPRECIATES what is going on and RESPECTS the vets.

Future is bright.

[Impuniti]

If he improves his defense, he will reach the next level. Also no more bad stretches of going a whole month playing awful. Steph has only had a better TS% twice in his entire PS career, and Klay 0. Vs his first post season run.

That's the type of talent that is running right now.

[Scoots1994]

Way more impressed with his defense the last 3 games

That's what I was going to say. He's still figuring it out and he's still too inconsistent, but he's getting better consistently

[watch1958]

Way more impressed with his defense the last 3 games

I had that thought too, but I was afraid it was wishful thinking

[Samurai]

Poole also exhibited increasing ability to get to the free throw line. None of our guys are anywhere close to a prime Harden where if you breathe on him he's shooting free throws, but as a 90% shooter he becomes an even bigger threat if he can get friendly whistles on his drives to the hoop.

[HiRez]

Poole also has one thing you can't teach -- balls of solid steel. He will shoot anything anytime. Not always exactly what you want, but it's what you need in a future team offensive leader -- which he'll be someday, either for us or someone else.

That’s the one thing I remember reading about him when the Warriors (unexpectedly) drafted him and I was trying to figure out who the hell he was. I remember clearly one author writing “never afraid to take the big shot”. Which is also something frequently mentioned about Steph in college. That kind of supreme confidence—along with the ability to actually make shots of course—is surprisingly rare in the NBA. And absolutely essential for finishing off playoff series under the most pressure.

So yeah, the kid has done well, excited to see how he does with another year. Warriors have very tough decisions coming up on Poole and Wiggins though, and Lacob has hinted that both may not be retained. If Poole continues playmaking and knocking down shots, plus a hint of defensive capacity, you have to choose him over Wiggins but if Wiggins also found a new gear in the playoffs it’ll be hard to let him walk. If they can re-sign both at something like $22M-$25M/yr each it’d be ideal but I don’t know if that will be possible. If Poole takes another step forward this year, some teams will throw near-max offers at him and how long will he be happy playing backup to Steph and Klay if he thinks he’s capable of being a star? If he does end up walking, it's essential they get some trade assets for him instead of nothing.

[Scoots1994]

Poole also exhibited increasing ability to get to the free throw line. None of our guys are anywhere close to a prime Harden where if you breathe on him he's shooting free throws, but as a 90% shooter he becomes an even bigger threat if he can get friendly whistles on his drives to the hoop.

I didn't mind him flopping on Smart, but I really don't want the Warriors to start flopping all over the place.

[The-Power]

Since the thread has already been bumped and his upcoming extension is going to invite diverging opinions (it already has), I felt the need to (again) illustrate just how incredible of a scorer Poole has been last season – and obviously, we can expect him to improve further as he has done every season so far.

Here are Poole's numbers per 36 minutes from last season (TS% = measure of scoring efficiency, rTS% = relative to league average):

RS: 22.2 PTS, 59.8% TS, +3.2% rTS
PS: 22.2 PTS, 65.4% TS, +8.7% rTS

Now, let's compare that to the year Curry first made the playoff in 2012-13 (keep in mind that this was his age 24 season, whereas it was Poole's age 22 season), again per 36 minutes.

RS: 21.6 PTS, 58.9% TS, +5.4% rTS
PS: 20.4 PTS, 55.8% TS, +2.9% rTS

The situations are obviously not fully comparable but it's impressive either way you slice it.

Anyway, let's move beyond the Curry comparison and look at the league as a whole in 2021-22.

On basketball-reference, I filtered for all non-bigs (position listed as PG, SG or SF) who scored at least 20 PTS per 36 during the regular season. That leaves us with 25 players that qualify for leaderboards. Of those players, Poole ranked 4th in TS%. Only players ahead of him: Zach LaVine, Trae Young, and Steph Curry.

I did the same for the playoffs, except I even lowered the threshold to 18 PTS per 36 to account for small sample-size volatility and fewer players that are in the playoffs. That leaves us with 22 players who qualify for leaderboards. Among those, Poole ranks 3rd in TS%. He only trails De'Andre Hunter (who only played 5 games and should thus perhaps be manually eliminated here) and Chris Paul.

Taken together, last season there was not a single player who scored around as much as – or more than – Poole who reached his levels of efficiency in both the RS and PS. Even if we lower it to 58+% TS for the RS and 60+% TS for the PS, the only players who exceeded these thresholds among perimeter players besides Poole are: Steph Curry and Desmond Bane. That's it. That's the entire list. And Poole had to create a lot more for himself than Bane, as evidenced by the % of FGs assisted number.

It doesn't mean there weren't better scorers last year once you account for additional volume and team context. But it's very impressive nonetheless. And once take into account that he's only just turned 23 years old, has improved every season so far, and is a known hard-worker, you can easily see that he has a chance to become a truly special player that we should keep at all cost. He also happens to have learned from Steph and you can see his influence on Poole's game, which makes him all the more valuable for us going forward.

Oh, and as I've contended multiple times already: that doesn't even take into account that Poole's an underrated playmaker (lots of assists at the rim, and some really creative passes and reads). And while his defense is still subpar, he's not among the worst defensive Guards in the league (go check his D-RAPM, D-EPM, D-LEBRON and D-RAPTOR numbers and compare them to Trae Young, Ja Morant or Donovan Mitchell) and he has the tools to at least become average for his position. But I'll just leave it at the scoring numbers for now. Cheers!

[Onus]

Poole is a better scorer than Klay is already. They probably don’t start Poole next year but if he gets extended he should probably start over Klay the following year as we start to have Klay take on a smaller role.

[Impuniti]

Since the thread has already been bumped and his upcoming extension is going to invite diverging opinions (it already has), I felt the need to (again) illustrate just how incredible of a scorer Poole has been last season – and obviously, we can expect him to improve further as he has done every season so far.

Here are Poole's numbers per 36 minutes from last season (TS% = measure of scoring efficiency, rTS% = relative to league average):

RS: 22.2 PTS, 59.8% TS, +3.2% rTS
PS: 22.2 PTS, 65.4% TS, +8.7% rTS

Now, let's compare that to the year Curry first made the playoff in 2012-13 (keep in mind that this was his age 24 season, whereas it was Poole's age 22 season), again per 36 minutes.

RS: 21.6 PTS, 58.9% TS, +5.4% rTS
PS: 20.4 PTS, 55.8% TS, +2.9% rTS

The situations are obviously not fully comparable but it's impressive either way you slice it.

Anyway, let's move beyond the Curry comparison and look at the league as a whole in 2021-22.

On basketball-reference, I filtered for all non-bigs (position listed as PG, SG or SF) who scored at least 20 PTS per 36 during the regular season. That leaves us with 25 players that qualify for leaderboards. Of those players, Poole ranked 4th in TS%. Only players ahead of him: Zach LaVine, Trae Young, and Steph Curry.

I did the same for the playoffs, except I even lowered the threshold to 18 PTS per 36 to account for small sample-size volatility and fewer players that are in the playoffs. That leaves us with 22 players who qualify for leaderboards. Among those, Poole ranks 3rd in TS%. He only trails De'Andre Hunter (who only played 5 games and should thus perhaps be manually eliminated here) and Chris Paul.

Taken together, last season there was not a single player who scored around as much as – or more than – Poole who reached his levels of efficiency in both the RS and PS. Even if we lower it to 58+% TS for the RS and 60+% TS for the PS, the only players who exceeded these thresholds among perimeter players besides Poole are: Steph Curry and Desmond Bane. That's it. That's the entire list. And Poole had to create a lot more for himself than Bane, as evidenced by the % of FGs assisted number.

It doesn't mean there weren't better scorers last year once you account for additional volume and team context. But it's very impressive nonetheless. And once take into account that he's only just turned 23 years old, has improved every season so far, and is a known hard-worker, you can easily see that he has a chance to become a truly special player that we should keep at all cost. He also happens to have learned from Steph and you can see his influence on Poole's game, which makes him all the more valuable for us going forward.

Oh, and as I've contended multiple times already: that doesn't even take into account that Poole's an underrated playmaker (lots of assists at the rim, and some really creative passes and reads). And while his defense is still subpar, he's not among the worst defensive Guards in the league (go check his D-RAPM, D-EPM, D-LEBRON and D-RAPTOR numbers and compare them to Trae Young, Ja Morant or Donovan Mitchell) and he has the tools to at least become average for his position. But I'll just leave it at the scoring numbers for now. Cheers!

If his defense improves in the offseason and Kerr isn't coaching with feelings, he should easily start over Klay. Even though it won't happen even if he is playing like a top 20 player while Klay a contested 18 footer sliding left with 20 seconds left in the shot clock.

[Scoots1994]

I think Klay will be better next year than last ... a lot better. That said I also expect Moody and Divincenzo to have minutes in a regular rotation too. Kerr's got some work to do to find a rotation that wins games while keeping Curry fresh.

[Scotty2Hotty]

This is a guy who was deemed “unplayable” in the Finals by Brian Scalabrine and many on this forum. Many on this forum wanted/wants him traded. I simply do not get it. First playoffs. Off the bench, balls out on offense. 17 PPG in 27.5 MPG in the playoffs. AND shoots FTs better than Steph. So what his defense hasn’t developed yet. It’s his first playoffs. And some want him traded. Unbelievable.