5 things analytics say about Jordan Poole’s game originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Wizards’ biggest offseason acqusition was undoubtedly Jordan Poole, who at just 24 years old has already made a name for himself as an electric scorer and NBA champion. Wizards fans have likely seen plenty of his games over the past four years as he often played on national television and in the NBA playoffs.
But they will now learn much more about Poole the player and the person as he plays in Washington where he is expected to take on an expanded offensive role. Before his career with the Wizards begins, let’s take a deeper look at Poole’s game going beyond the box score…
More and more pick-and-rolls
Poole handled the ball quite a bit more last season for the Warriors than he did the previous three years to the degree Basketball Reference tracked him the majority of the time as a point guard rather than a shooting guard for the first time in his career. By their estimate, he played point 64% of his time on the court after doing so only 33% the year before and 28% the season before that. Another way his evolving role was reflected is in the amount of plays he ran as a pick-and-roll ball-handler.
According to Synergy, Poole ran a career-high 472 pick-and-rolls last season, up from 322 in 2021-22, 118 in 2020-21 and 149 in 2019-20. His efficiency on those plays has also generally trended upward, starting out at 0.65 points per possession as a rookie to 0.78 his second year, 1.00 his third year and last season at 0.92. Though his PPP dipped a bit last season, it was in much greater volume (150 more possessions) and was commensurate with stars like Trae Young (0.94 PPP) and Ja Morant (0.93).
Lots of hand-offs, screens and transition plays
You can really see how the Warriors utilized Poole when you take a close look at the playtype data provided by Synergy and available on NBA.com. Basically, he was part a ton of plays using hand-offs, screens and in transition. Poole had the second-most hand-off plays (177 possessions) in the NBA last year, only to Kevin Huerter. He also scored the second-most points on hand-offs (189) with a respectable 1.07 PPP. Generally, anything above 1.00 is good.
Poole had the sixth-most plays off screens last year and of the top-20 players in off-screen volume, he was seventh in PPP (1.00). He also had the ninth-most transition plays, boasting a 1.12 PPP while shooting 53% from the field with a 59.8 effective field goal percentage, which accounts for threes being worth more than twos. The 1.12 PPP is quite good, as it ranked just behind Giannis Antetokounmpo (1.16) and Morant (1.14).
All-time great free throw shooter
Poole’s defining strength may be his free throw shooting, as he is unusually good at knocking down shots from the charity stripe. In fact, he holds an 87.81% career clip from the free throw line. If he had enough attempts to qualify for the all-time leaderboard (he’s 281 short) that would rank 19th-best in NBA history and just behind Dirk Nowitzki (87.88%). Poole’s new teammate Danilo Gallinari is actually not far off, placing 21st among qualified shooters at 87.69%.
While free throw percentage on its own is not an advanced metric, Poole’s free throw shooting ability could help the Wizards achieve an efficient offense. Two years ago, he led the entire league by shooting 92.5% from the line. With those numbers, it will make sense to generate as many shooting fouls as possible. The more the Wizards can get Poole to the line, the better.
Lots of threes, rarely from the corners
Poole will bring a different element to the Wizards with his volume 3-point shooting. He takes and makes a ton of threes, to an extent no Wizards player has in years. Poole has made 200-plus threes each of the last two seasons, while Davis Bertans was the last Washington player to reach the mark back in 2019-20. Poole last season attempted 637 threes which would have been a Wizards franchise record. That is 41 more than any Wizards player has ever taken in a single season! Put another way, he took more threes last season than the Wizards’ top-3 guards Bradley Beal (219), Monte Morris (204) and Delon Wright (119) did… combined.
There’s also a defining trait to Poole’s 3-point shooting and that is he rarely shoots from the corners. Of his 637 attempts, 86.8% of them (553) came from above the break. He shot 34% on those plays. That, by the way, included the fourth-most threes made from 30-plus feet (16) in the NBA last season. Meanwhile, he made 44.2% on 43 attempts from the left corner and 21.2% on 33 attempts from the right corner.
It could work out well as the Wizards aim to space the floor because some of his teammates love shooting corner threes. Kyle Kuzma, Deni Avdija and Corey Kispert all shoot more than 20% of their 3-point attempts from the corners with both Kuzma and Kispert knocking down over 40% of those shots.
Offensive value
Poole’s 2022-23 season on the offensive end saw him set a career-high in points per game (20.4), though his shooting percentages dropped across the board. In spite of that mixed bag, he showed up fairly well in ESPN’s offensive real plus-minus, which is described as “estimated on-court impact on team offensive performance, measured in points scored per 100 offensive possessions.” Poole was rated a +2.46 which placed 34th among all NBA players.
What makes this stat noteworthy for Poole is he ranked higher than anyone on the Wizards’ roster last season. Kristaps Porzingis was 36th, so right behind Poole, and the only Wizards player in the top-50. Beal, for comparison as the player Poole will replace in the starting lineup, was 52nd. It’s only one stat and not a be all, end all metric. Still, it speaks to Poole’s relative value as an offensive player and that was all during his Age 23 season. If he continues to ascend, as most players his age do, the Wizards could have a very good player to build around.
