Wolverines in the NBA: Jordan Poole a huge piece for new West favorite Golden State

Along with former Kentucky standout Tyrese Maxey, former Michigan Wolverines basketball guard Jordan Poole is a top breakout star in the 2022 NBA Playoffs.

Poole started out the postseason on fire, with star Stephen Curry coming off the bench following an injury that held him out of the conclusion of the regular season. That gave Poole some room to show off his skills, as well as play alongside Curry and Klay Thompson in what fans are calling the ‘3G’ (three-guard) lineup — which has been lethal, especially early in the first-round series against the Denver Nuggets.

Poole scored 30 points in Game 1, 29 points in Game 2 and 27 points in Game 3, combining to nail 13 three-pointers in those contests. It even got to the point that, after the second game of the series, Thompson called Poole, “like a baby Steph Curry, with his ability to stop-and-pop with the ball in his hands.”

“The best part of that lineup is we all do things so uniquely different,” Thompson added.

Finally, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr went with Poole and Curry in the starting lineup for Wednesday night’s 102-98 Game 5 victory to advance to the second round.

But in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game, Kerr went mostly with Gary Payton Jr. in the game over Poole, who struggled a bit in the last two games, totaling a combined 19 points on 6-of-20 shooting from the field.

“This is what’s so great about the playoffs — he has three monster games to start, [then] a couple tough ones; that’s how it goes,” Kerr said of the former Michigan guard postgame. “Steph’s felt it. Klay’s felt it. And now the next couple of days, I’m sure those guys will talk to him. I’ll probably talk to him. You just try to win the game, that’s it.”

The Warriors are still confident Poole will be a huge piece of the team’s success the rest of the way. The Warriors are now the favorite to win the West, over the once-favored Phoenix Suns, who are dealing with an injury to star Devin Booker.

“So for JP, like, it’s the playoff experience of understanding he really helped us get off to a great start in this series and we needed every bit of his energy and his offense those first two games — three games, really,” Curry said. “These last two, I’m just proud of the way he’s competed on the defensive end, took that big charge on Bones down the stretch in the second quarter. Like, found a way to be impactful.

“And then the lessons you need to learn in terms of fouling and game plan stuff, that’s the evolution of that playoff experience. So like I said, we’ve been saying this all year, he’s built for this. He understands who he is and what he provides for us and Game 1, next series, you start it all over again.”

Here’s a look at the playoff bracket, before our rundown of each Michigan player in the NBA postseason.

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Chaundee Brown (2020-21), G, Atlanta Hawks

The former Michigan guard not appear in the eighth-seeded Hawks’ first-round playoff series loss to the Miami Heat, after signing a two-way deal late in the season.

Trey Burke (2011-13), G, Dallas Mavericks

Michigan’s former national player of the year has seen 14 minutes of action in three appearances in the Mavericks’ series against the Utah Jazz. Burke has totaled 10 points and two rebounds this postseason. His team has a 3-2 lead and will play Game 6 at Utah tonight (10 p.m. ET on TNT).

He averaged 5.1 points and 1.4 assists per game in the regular season.

Tim Hardaway Jr. (2010-13), G, Dallas Mavericks

The former Michigan guard underwent foot surgery after a late-January injury, and hasn’t returned to the court yet. It’s unknown if he’ll be able to come back should the Mavericks continue to make a run, though he did say the longer the team plays, the better chance he has of coming back.

In 42 games during the regular season, he averaged 14.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists per outing, while connecting on 39.4 percent of his overall looks and 33.6 percent of his triple tries.

Jordan Poole (2017-19), G, Golden State Warriors

The former Michigan guard scored 30, 29 and 27 points in the first three games of the series, respectively, before posting 11 and eight in the last two contests. Poole is shooting 17-of-31 from three-point range and adding 5.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds per outing during the playoffs. His third-seeded Warriors team disposed of the sixth-seeded Denver Nuggets in five games and will face the winner of the Memphis-Minnesota series.

He started 51 of 76 games during the regular season, registering 18.5 points, four assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. He shot 44.8 percent overall and a 36.4 percent from long range, with both marks standing as career-highs. He led the league with a 92.5 free-throw shooting percentage.

Duncan Robinson (2014-18), F, Miami Heat

The former Michigan sharpshooter has come off the bench in all five of the Heat’s playoff games, averaging 13.2 minutes per game (down from 25.9 minutes per contest during the regular season). He made eight of his nine three-point attempts in a blowout win in Game 1, but connected on just two triples since, and went 0-for-5 in the final outing of the series. The Heat will take on the winner of the Philadelphia-Toronto series.

He recorded 10.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per outing, while connecting on 39.9 percent of his overall looks and 37.2 percent of his triple tries, during the regular season.

Nik Stauskas (2012-14), G, Boston Celtics

The former Michigan Big Ten Player of the Year did not play in the Celtics’ first-round sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, after seeing action in just six regular-season contests for his new team that signed him to a two-year contract. The second-seeded Celtics are set to play the defending world champion and No. 3 seed Milwaukee Bucks. Game 1 is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. in Boston (ABC).