When the Washington Wizards' new front office flipped Bradley Beal's supermax contract for Jordan Poole's lesser but still lofty contract, there was excitement in the air as the organization officially hit the reset button but at the same time acquired an offensively flashy 24-year-old. Just 11 games into the regular season, the Wizards are 2-9 and Poole has yet to have a signature performance drawing the ire of some fans for more Shaqtin' a Fool moments than highlights. After a 130-117 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday at home that was seemingly over after allowing 41 points in the first quarter, Poole met with the media so here are his own words as to why the adjustment from Golden State to D.C. has been slow. Anyone who thought it would be as easy as flipping a light switch is in for a rude awakening that is Washington's multi-year rebuild in front of them. Before passing final judgment on Poole, who certainly has had plenty of head-scratching decisions already, give it another couple of months to see if he can level up (as GM Will Dawkins has described) hopefully as a primary ball handler instead of the Wizards' currently porous starting backcourt defense.
On evaluating offensive fit and shot selection through the first month of the season:
“Shot selection has been good. I feel confident in finding the shot selection. Still figuring out a lot of the rotations, chemistry, what plays we want to get into, how to get into our flow. Just a couple schematical things that we’re just trying to figure out with the guys out on the court. In terms of shots, shots are fine they’re just going to fall, it’s a long season.”
On adjusting to being the focal point for opponent's scouting reports:
“It’s not anything new. I was getting the second best if not best defender the last two years previously. Just figuring out where guys on my team want the ball, how they can be effective. Just trying to figure out how to play the right way. Figure out how to consistently over and over and over just make the right play. Try to build the foundation.”
On being the subject of off-the-court attention and scrutiny:
“It’s social media, it’s not much we can do other than just go out there and play our game and be who we are. You can’t get caught up in stuff like that. There will always be something. Somebody will find something to come up with. Narratives can be misconstrued. But as long as the people who are close to you, the people that know you, the people you spend your time with know who you are as a person, coaches, players, essentially that’s all that matters.”
On his reputation as a serious basketball player being brought into question by social media:
“If the head coach told you that [Poole is a serious basketball player], why are we listening to anybody else? I’m locked in, work on your game, ask questions. I grew up with it, having social media my entire life. I take [basketball] very seriously, all the time, night in, night out. Think about the game when you go home, ask questions, watch film. Luckily those [on social media] aren’t the people that are important. The people that are important know how serious this is, how serious we take this and that’s why they’re in the locker room, that’s why they’re making decisions.”
On the toughest challenge going forward as a team:
“I think we are seeing it for the first time. If you go back to a couple games ago, Brooklyn game, Raptors game. It showed what type of team we can be when we’re playing the way we’re supposed to play. But we have a lot of young guys, we have a lot of guys who are seeing late game actions for the first time, seeing new roles, seeing new minutes. Just seeing it, learning from it, finding ways to go back to the drawing board, seeing what we can fix. It’s very early, very long season, 82 game season. What we’re 11 games in right now, just continue to learn. Delayed gratification. We’re not working just for the next game or the game after that, we’re working for games in January, games in February, down the course. It’s a rhythm game, the league is all about rhythm, the league is all about pattern so once we start to figure those out, once we start to find those, everything else will take care of itself.”