When D’Angelo Russell came to the Golden State Warriors in 2019-2020, the move was a polarizing one: How was a scoring point guard who couldn’t play much defense going to fit in with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry? Plenty of people were high on having a scorer as talented as Russell, now on the Timberwolves after the Andrew Wiggins trade, to shore up the team’s Kevin Durant-sized hole after his departure the year prior. Plenty of others were concerned he would be a massive defensive negative with not enough offense to boot, not even getting into his albatross of a contract. Whether you liked it or not, however, there was a period of time where D-Lo could have been the successor to Steph as the number 1 on the team a few years down the road.

We aren’t quite there yet with Jordan Poole. He’s shown plenty of flashes as he enters just his 3rd year in the NBA, and there’s obviously plenty of time before Curry will be passing the torch, but whether he can keep it up like he did in the latter half of last season and in the lone preseason game this season so far remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though: His admiration of the 2-time MVP is paying dividends, both on the court and in the locker room. Recently, Poole went on the ClutchPoints Warriors Multiverse podcast with Mark Haynes and discussed his relationship with Steph, saying “It’s amazing. First of all, Steph is big bro. I ask him questions all the time… a younger player going against the older player, you’re going to want to ask as many questions as you can. They’re going to want to teach you.”

Poole’s willingness as a younger player to be mentored by someone who has played a very similar way and enjoyed such great success with it is the type of attitude that sets apart the good potential players and great potential players. Last season, it was easy to see just how much Poole benefitted from being around Steph: When on the floor, the gravity and attention Curry pulls gets Poole more room to operate on and off-ball. When off the floor, Poole gets the keys to the offense and has shown he can run it smoothly to the tune of 22 points per game, 3.3 assists, and 2.8 rebounds (in 8 games without Curry last season). His mentality is akin to an iron-sharpens-iron one, saying that “…We’re both competitive, and we always want to get better… We try to push each other as much as possible. I try to push him to be as great as he can be. I try to learn as much as possible from him.” If there’s one thing Poole has already learned, it’s how to shoot off the catch. In his rookie year, he shot 29.9% off the catch from beyond the arc. Last season, he ticked that up astonishingly to 37.8% while shooting 0.7 shots more per game.

While his pull-up shooting game needs a little work (he shot 37% flat last season on these kinds of shots), his creation off the drive was reminiscent of Curry’s statistically last season. Poole took about half as many drives per game, a scoring proportional amount (about half Curry’s points per drive) and mirroring Steph’s kickout and assist percentage, while also posting a lower turnover percentage. His abilities as a pick-and-roll handler and in isolation are going to require marked improvement to reach Curry-esque echelons, but having the run of the second unit last season – and possibly this season as well – will do wonders for his game. “Coach Kerr kinda gave me the keys to the second unit, it instilled a lot of confidence into me on the court. I was able to gain a lot of chemistry with the other players… It just feels comfortable already knowing what they want me to do, what they allow me to do, how aggressive they want me to be, being able to make plays and just play my game” Poole said on the podcast, praising his Warriors teammates and how they’ve helped him grow.

Aside from the stats, the eye test places Poole and Curry in a similar category in terms of style. Poole has seen a lot of minutes running similar off-ball sets to Curry, and will likely continue to do so well into this season.

(Photo credit: Jeff Chiu/AP)