Pelicans Have a Serious Jordan Poole Problem

The New Orleans Pelicans need more from Jordan Poole.

Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

The New Orleans Pelicans are in the midst of a disastrous season. There are plenty of reasons for this, ranging from front office incompetence to injuries. The challenging task of incorporating two rookies into the starting lineup while remaining competitive has proven to be too much to overcome as the Pelicans are stuck at the bottom of the Western Conference with an 8-29 record.

A big but under-the-radar reason why the Pelicans have struggled so far is Jordan Poole. The 26-year-old combo guard has been nowhere near what the Pels were hoping for when they acquired him in the offseason in exchange for CJ McCollum.

Jordan Poole's Struggles Are Hurting the Pelicans

Poole suffered a quad injury earlier in the season that forced him to miss 19 games, more than he has missed in the last three seasons combined. This has certainly thrown off his rhythm, but it has been over three weeks since Poole returned to action, and he has yet to get going. In the 11 games he has played since his return, the dynamic scorer has yet to shoot over 50% from the field in a game.

So far this season, Poole is averaging 16.7 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 27.7 minutes per game. All of these are the lowest marks of Poole's career since his second season in the league. The worst of it all is that he is shooting 36.9% from the field and 30.3% from downtown. As a result, he has a 53.6% True Shooting, four percentage points lower than the league-average efficiency. This is only helped by his impressive 91.4% from the free-throw line, but anything other than the charity stripe has been a major struggle for the former Warrior.

Poole has the second-highest usage rate on the team with 25.7%. When your second offensive weapon is a highly inefficient scorer, this puts a hard cap on your offensive ceiling. Add the fact that Poole is also putting up the lowest assist percentage of his last five seasons, and he becomes a difficult player to build around, especially when his defensive shortcomings are well-documented.

The Pelicans already have Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, whose defensive issues are a challenge for the team. As a veteran, Poole has to be better on that end of the floor to make up for the rookies' shortcomings. That hasn't been the case so far and is a big reason why Poole is coming off the bench even when the Pels are short-handed.

To make matters worse, not only has McCollum been healthier than Poole, but he is also playing at a higher level. He is averaging 18.6 points per game on 44.9/39.2/80.0 shooting splits with a similar usage rate for the Wizards. Since his contract expires at the end of the season, McCollum would have been a better trade asset for the Pelicans ahead of the deadline. Now, they don't have a choice but to hope that Poole starts playing better, since they have no way of trading him with the way he has performed as a Pelican.