James Wiseman and Kevon Looney practiced in New York on Monday afternoon. Both centers are slated to return for the Warriors on Tuesday against the Knicks. That has immediate rotation ramifications that Steve Kerr can’t avoid.
Looney is expected to retake his spot in the starting lineup. Wiseman will be given at least one stint per half, earning extra court time the better he performs. The Warriors have discovered small-ball lineup combinations that work well with Draymond Green at center. Juan Toscano-Anderson is part of a few. But he’s a candidate to be bumped from the rotation altogether. So is Mychal Mulder.
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“We can’t play 12 guys,” Kerr said. “So I’m going to have to make some moves.”
Kerr’s fringe rotation choices will fluctuate from night to night. What does the matchup dictate? Is some Toscano-Anderson energy needed here? Is some Mulder floor spacing needed there? Is Looney’s steadiness more suitable than small-ball to close the half? Is Wiseman having a night where 25 minutes are warranted?
But those are all feel-of-the-game coaching decisions that will materialize over the next couple of weeks. There’s a larger rotational choice on the horizon for Kerr and the organization, and it’s growing in legitimacy with each Santa Cruz Warriors game.
Is it time to give Jordan Poole a chance as the team’s backup point guard and second-unit playmaker over Brad Wanamaker?
Poole has not been an effective NBA player in his 72 early-career games, but the full context is needed. He wasn’t near ready to help as a rookie, but injuries shoved him into a regular role. He was the most destructive player for the league’s worst team, shooting 22 percent, 29 percent and 11 percent overall in October, November and December, while getting burned regularly on defense. He couldn’t make shots or prevent them.
But he wasn’t just unprepared and overwhelmed by the moment. He was also in an incorrect position for optimization. Poole was used mostly off the ball, next to D’Angelo Russell and Jacob Evans, spotting up and defending bigger guards.
Russell and Evans were traded together at the deadline for Andrew Wiggins. Steph Curry was still injured. That cleared the way for Poole to be used in a point guard, playmaking role the last subsection of his rookie season before the pandemic paused everything.
Poole’s numbers in the 13 post-trade games: 14.2 points and 3.9 assists in 27.2 minutes, making 48 percent of his shots and 38 percent of his 3s. It became immediately clear the point guard role was a more comfortable fit. Forget the sudden spike in raw production and efficiency. It was the court vision, dribble package, accurate passing and overall offensive instincts he began flashing. Assists like these two became semi-regular.
The offseason signing of Wanamaker remains understandable. The Warriors couldn’t enter the season with playoff aspirations and employ the still unproven Poole as the only backup point guard behind Steph Curry. Thirteen games in a low-stakes environment for a losing team prove nothing. Wanamaker was a steady veteran hand for the Celtics in a playoff setting. That’s a more trustworthy sample.
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But the addition of Wanamaker did push Poole back into a spot that doesn’t suit him best. To find playing time, he’d need to do so next to Wanamaker, mostly off the ball. The Warriors did give him tiny pockets of playing time. It was hit-and-miss, his performance mostly reliant on whether he made or missed the occasional spot-up 3. He’d go 1 of 7 over a two-game stretch and it’d be a failure. He went 3 of 6 from deep and it appeared a positive bench punch.
But the Warriors knew he needed on-ball point guard reps. That’s why, the day after he scored 16 points in 21 minutes against the Pistons, they still sent him to Orlando for the G League bubble. Poole didn’t get a normal offseason or a summer league. They wanted to give him 30-plus minutes nightly to further explore his scoring and distribution ability in a developmental setting.
It has gone well. Poole has been one of the best players in Orlando. He’s third in the bubble in points: 24.4 per game. He’s made a passable 35 percent of his nearly nine 3s per game. He’s turning it over too much — a concern — but also spraying around passes that only some of the league’s better table-setters make. He has some natural gifts. Look at this slick transition grab, go, spin, drive, hang and pinpoint lefty wraparound dime right into Jeremy Lin’s shooting pocket.
Poole has made several other highlight reads and assists in his eight Orlando games. If you want the visuals, click here for a passing compilation. If you want to watch him score 37 points, click here. For 32, click here.
But you probably get the idea. Poole is thriving with the ball in his hands at the prospect level, which in no way guarantees that’ll translate to the NBA stage. But you’ve gotta think he’s doing enough to thrust himself into the backup point guard conversation, considering the veteran ahead of him, Wanamaker, hasn’t proven to be the clear answer behind Curry.
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The plan, which can always change, is for Poole to remain in Orlando for the duration of the bubble. He’s a young player who sat inactive for nine months. He needs as many reps as possible. The second unit with Wanamaker has been passable recently. So expect it to remain the same, while Poole plays out the final eight G League bubble games, a schedule that ends March 6.
That coincides with the All-Star break. Poole will rejoin the Warriors for the second half of the season. That week-long pause often gives coaching staffs a chance to reflect and reconfigure the team’s path forward for the stretch run. If there is an in-season time to best make a bigger-picture switch, it’s then.
That makes the next few weeks huge for Wanamaker and the second unit. He’s 31 years old. He isn’t under contract for next season. Poole is 21 and is under contract for 2021-22. If Wanamaker is clearly a can’t-remove component of a thriving second unit, it’s hard to argue for Poole when the playoffs are still an achievable goal.
But Wanamaker is shooting 35 percent overall and 23.5 percent from 3. He has quick hands and some veteran defensive instincts. The Warriors nearly won the other day without Curry partly because of the way Wanamaker defended LaMelo Ball. But, in general, Wanamaker’s occasionally shaky ball security and inability to create shots much for others, hit the spot-up 3 or finish inside over a contest has led to offensive droughts without Curry on the floor.
The Warriors have a 105.4 defensive rating in Wanamaker’s 512 minutes, which is great, and a 107.0 offensive rating, which is terrible. The three-man combination of Wanamaker, Eric Paschall and Damion Lee — the heart of that start of the second quarter, start of the fourth quarter unit — has played 280 minutes together. They are a cumulative minus-19 with an offensive rating of 103.8.
They defend well. Which does matter plenty. Kerr is adamant about building a physical, disruptive defensive identity and Wanamaker has been a helpful bench component to that. They both foul like crazy, but Poole is indisputably worse than him on that end at this stage of their careers. So a change at backup point guard is a defensive concession but arrives with larger offensive upside and greater future benefits.
Here’s the second unit idea: Pair Poole with Wiseman. The two have developed a nice connection behind the scenes. Wiseman really enjoys playing with him, I’ve been told, and Poole has shown practice flashes running the pick-and-roll with such a large lob threat and skilled partner.
We’ve barely seen any of it in-game because the two have barely touched the floor together, but that’s a half-speed, mop-up duty version of the idealized offensive vision of a Poole, Wiseman second unit — high pick-and-rolls, drag screens in transition, three wings (probably Andrew Wiggins, Kent Bazemore and Damion Lee) spreading the floor around them and picking up the defensive slack on the other end.
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This could work well on some nights and terribly on others. They’ll get scored on more easily than the current second unit and should score better. It could slightly help or hurt. It’s a small risk, choosing a developmental shot in the dark over a more veteran, established unit that treads water decently.
But this season, as Kerr has said plenty of times, is about the balance between competing now and developing. Wiseman with the starters hurt the Warriors in the Curry minutes. That proved too valuable a cost to the current team, so they scrapped it. But Wiseman and Poole developing together on the second unit is a smaller risk (you’re already at a disadvantage when Curry sits) with a potentially large reward if the young connection blossoms. Wiseman probably needs some exploratory offensive minutes away from Curry and Draymond Green.
Eric Paschall would be impacted in this situation. He’s found a nice little home as the small-ball second unit center. In this scenario, he’s bumped out of that role. But Kerr, when asked on Monday, said Paschall’s long-term NBA growth must include a return to the power forward position. So maybe he gets some late first and third quarter minutes next to Green or even a test drive in the Wiseman, Poole lineups, though playing three traditional wings next to those two seems to make more sense.
“In order for us to really help Eric develop and for his career to blossom, he needs to play some four,” Kerr said. “He needs to be able to flourish in that role as well. So I think you’ll see some of that going forward. You’ll still see some five, too, depending on matchups and lineup combinations.”
This isn’t a decision Kerr must make right now. But March is nearing. The trade deadline and unavoidable roster and rotation decisions are ahead. Poole is one of them. Even if he’s not the backup point guard answer, there’s only one way to truly find out.
(Photo: Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)
Anthony Slater is a senior writer covering the Golden State Warriors for The Athletic. He's covered the NBA for a decade. Previously, he reported on the Oklahoma City Thunder for The Oklahoman. Follow Anthony on Twitter @anthonyVslater
