Wolverines in the NBA: Jordan Poole, Nik Stauskas set for NBA Finals
Five former Michigan Wolverines basketball players — more than any other school — were in the NBA’s conference finals, and now a pair of former U-M standouts will play for a world title. Jordan Poole and the Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks in five games to advance in the West, and Nik Stauskas and the Boston Celtics won a back-and-forth series over the Miami Heat in seven contests.
Only three schools have two former players in the NBA Finals, with Vanderbilt and Florida joining Michigan. No program has more than a pair of athletes still representing. The Wolverines will have their first NBA champion since current head coach Juwan Howard (Miami Heat, 2013).
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Stauskas, who was picked up midseason after impressing in the G League, played during garbage time of four Eastern Conference Finals games. In eight minutes, he totaled eight points, two assists and one rebound. He shot 2 of 6 from the field and 2 of 5 from three-point range.
The Celtics fell behind in the series 2-1 before rallying to win three of the last four games. They led by six points at halftime of Game 7 and fended off a few second-half Heat runs to survive. Down 98-96 with 16 seconds left, Miami star guard Jimmy Butler missed an open pull-up three to take the lead.
Poole is a much more significant contributor for the Warriors, and could be a reason why his team wins the title. Serving as the team’s sixth man, Poole averaged 16.4 points, 3.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game last series. He shot 62.3 percent overall and 39.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
According to NBA Muse, Poole posted the highest true shooting percentage in conference finals history for a player with 15-plus points per game — 79 percent. True shooting percentage is a measure of shooting efficiency that takes into account field goals, three-point field goals, and free throws.
During the postseason, the former Michigan guard has registered 18.4 points and 4.5 assists per outing. Both marks rank third on the Warriors. Out of the four Warriors who averaged 10 or more shot attempts per game — Poole, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins — Poole has the highest playoff field goal percentage (53.1). He’s also second in three-point field goal percentage among Warriors who attempt five or more triples per contest, 39.3, behind Thompson. He also leads the team with a 91.7-percent mark from the free throw line, where he paced the league for the regular season (92.5 percent).
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The Warriors have now made the NBA Finals six times in the last eight years. Coincidentally for Poole, his first two NBA seasons after playing at Michigan — 2019-20 and 2020-21 — were the two years the franchise didn’t play in the final series, mostly due to injuries to Curry and Thompson.
In a Sunday press conference, Poole reflected on his first season in the association and how it helped him develop.
“It was a bit different. Obviously I didn’t know what to expect coming in,” the former Michigan guard said. “I knew the organization and the standards that they had, but obviously with Steph going down and Klay being out … the best thing I can do is learn. More so about the culture than anything.
“Because obviously there were moving pieces. I think there were so many people that were moved my first two years here. Even though it was rough, we continued to have the joy. You came in and you worked and we weren’t only building for that season, but the next season and we were building for this moment right here.”
Game 1 of the NBA Finals is set for Thursday night (June 2) at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
