Jordan Poole made headlines on Monday night during a game against the Pistons. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the headline an NBA player wants to make. Poole’s decision not to take a wide-open jump shot after faking out his defender immediately went viral due to how that choice played out for the Wizards guard.
Late in the second quarter, Poole had a wide-open shot, but instead of just taking it, he paused, then attempted to flip up an under-handed layup, which Detroit rookie Ausar Thompson proceeded to swat into the stands.
Jordan Poole is something else man pic.twitter.com/8ilPDyXkko
— Slightly Biased (@BiasedSlightly) November 28, 2023
When discussing the play on Tuesday during FanDuel’s Run It Back NBA show, former NBA player Chandler Parsons gave a brutally honest and harsh critique.
“Here’s the thing, this is Jordan Poole in a nutshell, right? He’s young, he’s immature and he’s arrogant. That is all three of those things—is this play, and that’s why he’s had some personality issues,” Parsons said of Poole. “The kid can hoop. He belongs in the NBA, but this is the stuff he does that annoys a coaching staff, that annoys his teammates—this is the frustrating stuff.”
"This is Jordan Poole in a nutshell, he's young, he's immature, and he's arrogant." ????@ChandlerParsons @MichelleDBeadle @TeamLou23 think this Jordan Poole moment against the Pistons was hilarious ???? pic.twitter.com/G92RY72SFh
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) November 28, 2023
Since being traded to Washington from the Warriors, Poole has had an up-and-down season for a Wizards team that’s struggled to string together wins. While they wound up defeating Detroit in this game 126-107, that victory snapped a nine-game losing skid and moved Washington to 3–14 on the season.
As for Poole, he’s averaging 17.3 points, 3.6 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. All of those marks, aside from steals, are down from last season with Golden State, and he’s in the midst of his worst season from a shooting perspective since his rookie year in 2019-20. Poole is currently shooting just 39.7% from the field and 28% from beyond the arc.
