Many Warriors fans have painted a negative picture of Jordan Poole but Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala isn’t happy about the narrative surrounding the young star.
Obviously, Poole and Draymond Green had a fight during training camp and the bad vibes stuck with the team throughout the whole season.
Poole also didn’t have the best postseason and as a result, was restricted to limited minutes by Steve Kerr.
Because of this, many fans think he just had a bad year all round but Iguodala wants to set the record straight
“He was the only one that got to the line for us consistently,” Iguodala said on Gil’s Arena. “People act like he had a bad year. Like, OK he had a bad year? You blame him for the year we had last year and he averaged 20? And they (the Wizards) have no expectations for winning. Twenty-five plus [points per game] easy.”
Iggy is correct. Poole led the Dubs in free throw attempts per game last season since he averaged 5.1 attempts per game, while Steph Curry averaged five.
The four-time NBA champion also went on to say how he thinks a fresh start in Washington will be good for Poole, as he isn’t competing with a whole heap of veterans.
“Not saying he was in handcuffs, but he was playing with three Hall of Famers and an All-Star [Andrew] Wiggins,” Iguodala said of Poole. “You gotta restrict him a little bit or it’ll be too chaotic. It’s already chaos.”
The 36-year-old hasn’t been immune to the JP baddie memes and joked that Poole will be back to his best on his new home court with some fresh eye candy around.
“Then at home, you gotta give him the whistle at home,” Iguodala said. “He’s gonna average 30 at home. You know it’s Chocolate City, so you know they’re gonna be in the stands. You know they have the memes – every time he see a bad chick he goes for 40.”
At only 24 years old, Poole definitely has the means to bounce back from a rather forgettable season and hopefully thrive beside his new scoring mate in Kyle Kuzma.
“I talk to him to this day,” Iguodala said. “I said, ‘You gotta grow up now. You got your own team and it comes with some responsibility. You’ve been in environments where it’s really controlled and everybody’s cool and everybody’s in line.’ Like, man, it really ain’t like this in the NBA. …
“He’s already starting to make the right strides. I’ve heard about what he’s been doing with his teammates. I just sat with him the other day and was asking him about his teammates. He knew everything about every one of them. I was like, ‘OK. Now we’re starting off on the right path.’ He’s tapped in. I think he brought him all out to LA. Like he did it. Like he’s leading them.”
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