If John Beilein is being honest, did he see this coming for Jordan Poole?
“It’s a great question,” Beilein said Thursday on the 97.1 The Ticket's "Stoney & Jansen Show" out of Detroit.
Three years after leaving Michigan early and one year after starting just seven games for the Warriors, Poole has taken a star turn on basketball’s biggest stage. He was Golden State’s third leading scorer this season behind Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, while leading the NBA in free throw percentage, and has followed that up with a number of banner performances during the team’s run to the Finals.
He’s been a little quieter against the Celtics, with Game 4 coming Friday night in Boston, but Poole helped carry the Warriors through the first three rounds of the playoffs by scoring the ball when others weren't. He had at least 20 points in six of the team's first eight postseason games and is averaging 17.4 for the playoffs.
It no longer looks like such a reach by the Warriors to take Poole in the first round of the 2019 draft. And it no longer looks like such a leap by Poole to leave Michigan — and the tutorship of Beilein — after two good-but-not-great seasons. (Beilein, of course, would leave shortly thereafter.)
“When they leave you at 20, you try to prepare them for the path as much as you could, instead of preparing the path for them. Everybody goes in different ways and I’m so proud of him,” Beilein said. “He showed flashes, certainly, in his two years for us and we take a lot of pride in that. And he’s got a great coaching staff there with Golden State that’s done a great job helping him grow his game.”
Poole arrived at Michigan in 2017 as a fringe top-100 recruit, likely a player Beilein expected to coach for at least the next three years. He didn’t have obvious NBA traits, other than a smooth stroke from three. He averaged 6.1 points as a freshman, 12.8 as a sophomore and then he left. It took the college basketball world by surprise, Michigan included. It took the NBA world by surprise when the Warriors drafted him 28th overall.
It surprised no one when Poole spent a good chunk of his first two professional seasons in the G League.
Look at him now.
“From the ages of 17 to 19, you really don’t know what direction they’re gonna go,” Beilein said. “And I see that. We had a lot of three- and four-star guys that certainly we had planned to be four-year (players). Some of them were and some of them, in two years they were ready. If anybody has sons that are 16 to 22 years old, you really expect the unexpected in their development in many ways.”
For the Warriors, the unexpected has been welcome.
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