Zaza Pachulia knows what championship basketball looks like after winning a pair of Lary O’Brian trophies with the Golden State Warriors.
Now as an executive with the team, he has the chance to be an observer off the floor. According to the former Warriors’ big-man, he sees nothing short of the Most Improved Player of the Year in Jordan Poole, who’s seen his game take mighty bounds and leaps this season.
“He’s always on top of the scouting in our league for the opposing teams,” Pachulia said on 95.7 The Game Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what else can be called star status but hopefully he’s going to win the Most Improved Player of the Year.”
P oole, who was selected with the No.28 pick in the 2019 NBA draft stepped into a starting role this season after serving as a mid-level rotation player in his two previous years with the team.
Without Klay Thompson, who missed the first several months of the season recovering from an ACL and Achilles tendon tear, Poole was asked to ramp up his offensive output to help make up for Thompson’s loss.
From the onset of the 2021-22 campaign, the Michigan product has answered the bell. According to Pachulia, though, this transformation began in 2021 while teams in the G-League were forced to play in the bubble during the COVID pandemic.
“Seeing him in the bubble in the G-League, that was a game-changer for him,” Pachulia said. “Like with Klay, he has flashes but after the bubble, his confidence level went out the roof.”
Over the course of the last 17 games, Poole has become a cornerstone of the Warriors’ success — particularly without Stephen Curry who is rehabilitating a sprained left foot ligament.
“If you look at the last 17 games, he’s scored more than 20 points in all 17 games and there are only nine players in the history of the Warriors that have done that,” Pachulia said. “He proved in every category — the scoring, the rebounds, the assists, the field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage — he has made so much improvement from the previous year.”
It’s safe to say that if it were up to Pachulia, Poole would have already earned his vote for the MIP this season. But to the Warriors' exec, Poole means much more to the franchise than just that.
“He deserves it when you look at the stats and look at everything he’s done this year but forget about numbers, he’s just making and he’s just playing like a winning basketball player,” Pachulia said. “To me he’s a star already and hopefully everybody is going to feel the same. It’s incredible what Jordan has done and I love watching his game.”
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