How Can The Wizards Build Their Youth & Salvage Jordan Poole?

How Can The Wizards Build Their Youth & Salvage Jordan Poole?

[Applause] the Wizards ultimately don’t stand completely Pat at the deadline but they make one move that was kind of unexpected Daniel Gafford of all people winds up getting traded Gafford uh gets moved for a first rounder in Ran Holmes pretty good return uh he then promptly scores 16 and grabs 17 boards against

The Wizards the other night in Dallas’s win uh is as Kyle kma said afterwards that dude’s got the easiest job in the world right now just wait for Luka to get D run towards the rim and know that find you and then grab every rebound

Available um but uh I think a lot of wizards fans were upset because tus Jones D Wright Kyle kosma amongst others uh don’t get traded and we learned from Josh Robbins in the athletic that in fact there was a deal on the table for kma that the Wizards go to kosman and

Are like hey like we’ll do this but we’re not like it’s kind of your choice on this it’s not like a blow us out of the water deal and KZ was like no I’d rather stay um so are are you in that group of like what are they doing or do

You like the the attempts at chess that this office or this front office is playing I like the way you put it right it feels like there’s a little bit of Chess going on the kozma thing just to add a little bit more to to Josh’s reporting and I also obviously talked to

Josh about this as well as late as like Wednesday night like into the we hours of Wednesday night they had a deal on the table with Dallas to to send kozma there and I believe that’s probably when that conversation ended up happening and they decided to Pivot the next morning

The big question mark though is like you just mentioned you still got Ty Jones on the roster who was going to be a free agent this summer you still got delone Wright on on the roster who’s going to be a free agent this summer it makes me

Kind of scratch my head a little bit as to like why they didn’t move off of those dudes in tas’s case and I’m sure youve you’ve hit on this already Craig I think he’s highly regarded throughout the league that there’s a big sign and trade potential there to where maybe you

Get better picks than you’re getting right now at the deadline but I don’t know man we were talking about it during the break I just feel like Tai is being on the roster not so much delone sham it as well like they’re taking shots away from dudes and like that’s more of my

Thing especially with the emergence of Cory kissper and Denny AIA here over this last like month and a half two month stretch like those guys need the ball in their hands more and I understand the conversation of tus being a tremendous setup man and like having

Gravity to get these guys shots but at some point I think we need to like maybe revisit the discussion as to what the ceiling is for Danny AIA and Cory Kiser because I think we look at them as like Fringe starter rotational players Cory kisper may be a starter in this league

On a championship team Denny AIA may be a starter in this league on a championship team I think you’re getting a lot of good stuff out of them now but imagine if they had a little bit more freedom on the offensive side of the ball to really show who they could you

Know eventually develop into so you just hit on a couple of things there that they think are interesting um first is that let me just work in reverse order Denny and Corey are fourth or fifth starters at Max on a championship team and when you’re the fourth or fifth

Starter that doesn’t mean that you need more opportunity you need to learn how to become a star in that role right like so opening it up and seeing like hey guys be the second best player you feel that way I don’t feel like like if Denny

AI is taking 18 shots a night for you you’re not going to win a championship and so Denny needs to understand on a championship team I think now that doesn’t mean that during the regular season he can’t have nights like that uh but like playoffs like what is what is

His optimal role I think he devotes most of his energy to the defensive end he gets out in runs and gets you easy buckets in transition he can handle the ball a little bit but like in the half court I’m not putting the ball in his

Hands I’m just I I would love to see him continue to develop that part of his game I think he should work on that but the idea that like this dude needs more shots he needs to be a featured part of the offense so that we can figure out

What he is and it’s like you you you think he could be the a second best player on a championship team because if not why are you give him a bunch of half court possessions right so that’s that’s part of it and I think Corey is a guy

Like I think Cory’s ultimate side style is someone like a JJ reic who you actually do run a lot of offense for but you run it in part because of his gravity and his constant motion that creates things and opportunities for others he’s very very smart he can

Attack off the dribble like his numbers are tremendous from an efficiency standpoint this year um to the point that I wonder if could be a Hu like if I was the Lakers like I would I would probably give up a first- round pick for Cory yeah you got so that that’s the

Kind of thing that I think we need to think about but I I here’s the analogy that I’ll use when it comes to belal when it comes to these other guys when you have a you’re baking a cake how much how much baking do you do Leno not much

Craig I like cookies but here’s okay so we can bake cookies instead and if the recipe says Bake at 400 for 20 minutes we know that if we try to bake at 800 for 10 minutes it’s not going to work right and that is what a lot of fans I

Feel like want to do when it comes to Player Development is you got to get him shots you got to get him more more more opportunities more looks more with the ball in his hands more this more that more minutes and it’s like you’re just trying to burn the kid out yeah because

You can’t take a recipe that says Bake at 400 for 20 minutes find an an oven that goes to 800 those don’t really exist outside of like I don’t know like open fire but 800 Degrees and cook it for 10 and expect to get a a perfectly done cookie these

Things take time Player Development takes time and it takes ramping up the like the opportunities and and the experiences at a certain pace and level to maximize the player I know there’s a lot of numbers talking about usage rates at young age for some of the best players in the league especially when

They were teenagers but like a lot of these guys they had the usage rate because they were that great you don’t develop into that right and I think that’s where people get twisted with some of the numbers is they have their cause and their effect backwards I I

Agree with you’re saying I think an increased usage though for Denny specifically I’m curious to see what the what the outcome is because the jump he’s made from last year to this year to me is so sizable that you have to wonder H is he just now starting to get it and

We’re going to see another leap like that this off season cuz another thing about it that we kind of like omit is his jump has also come with Bradley Beal not being here more shots and the contract that he signed this offseason when you talk to him he constantly is

Talking about the confidence that came with that contract and you can see it when he plays I’m to the point where with him it’s like and I’m not saying he’s a point guard and the Luca donic comparisons were crazy coming out of his draft but like right I can see him being

A guy that starts for you and then is maybe your lead play initiator with the second unit so I I do agree ultimately what you’re saying they’re probably like fourth and fifth starters on championship teams but Denny is like hm he’s still young enough the shot has taken a tremendous step forward like

Huge step forward I mean he’s he’s shooting 39% from three this it’s nuts Craig like in the attempts obviously you want to see those go up so we know if this is real or or if he’s just doing it in the limited sample size but that’s kind of my argument for getting them

More opportunities I don’t think it would hurt them so I mean Denny’s Now 23 years old and we talk about this massive leap and he has he’s he’s four points per game uh his rebounding numbers are actually exactly the same like even offensive defensive rebound splits are exactly the

Same from last year per game um and then his assist number has jumped one per game this year um the transition points is the big thing and it’s kind of like an and and as as a result by the way his field goal percentage has gone from 43%

To 52% on the field and another huge part of that is he’s he’s taking a little bit less from three but he’s getting much higher quality and making them at a much higher percentage um as he is he is 39.2% from three when you read that it makes me smile bro yeah for

Sure and I like to be clear I think Denny obia is a really good player I’m really happy for Denny he seems like a great kid I’ve really enjoyed talking to him at all times and he’s doing this by the way in a season where I can’t imagine what he’s going through mentally

Considering what’s happening in Israel that’s why you’re the maning up his homeland um he’s got friends and family that he’s worried about all the time Conant um but with all of that said like we’re talking about a guy that’s averaging 13- six 136 and four like

We’re not talking about a guy who’s all of a sudden averaging 18 a game and I feel like sometimes that’s the way the discussion goes it’s like no he’s averaging 13 which is fine but like if he gets to 15 a game I’m psyched that’s

Who I want him to be is a 15 point seven rebound four assist shoot it really well from three be reliable but like that’s your that’s your third at best but probably fourth or fifth starter or I think optimally like true true optimization for Denny AI on a

Championship team he’s the sixth and seventh sixth or seventh guy maybe Clos his gam maybe finishes because of the defensive ability right for sure I think that’s very possible but I I do think that he’s he’s four to seven not one to three no and and I wasn’t saying that I

Just but there’s you might not have been but you know you know whiz Twitter a lot of people that doing on time I can’t believe we’ve gone this deep in the basketball season and you’re a basketball Junkie like myself what do you think about Jordan who I’ll on the

Record say and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying this I’ve gotten to gain a little bit of a rapport with him and trying to understand him as a person in relative to a basketball player because I think the mental psyche of everything that’s happening with him is let me

Before you get too deep do you have time to do one more segment yeah sure let do all right let’s do one more segment on that next that also gives me a chance during this commercial break to P furiously pull comments for never read the comments we’ll talk about pool cuz I

Talked about this with Robbins for a while yesterday and I’m curious to to dive into it with you we’ll talk about pool uh next on the Wizards front and then uh never read the comments at 545 here on the team 98 continu our conversation on the

Wizards and L I know that you have made it a point when you go cover games which you do um you go out to Capital One and try to get in the the locker room not try to get in like uh you try as and you

Make the effort not as like he fights his way in he’s got a credential people don’t worry um but you you’ve talked to Jordan P quite a bit this year and I I think that his place on this team is obviously pretty important it’s pretty fascinating and I think opinions are

Obviously they range not from like oh it’s great to like it’s a disaster it’s a disaster we all know that it’s just like where in the range of disaster is it how fixable is it and and how big of a problem is it for the Wizards it’s a

Problem because they have nine wins to this point and like he was supposed to be a lot better I remember the convos we were having when the Trad initially went down I was stamping him uh most improved player candidate penciling him in for 25 points a night it it just hasn’t been

That and I think it’s been like that for a couple of different reasons just from a basketball standpoint you go from being the third or fourth option in Golden state to now being the number one option on opposing team scouting reports he’s had to adjust to that um I think

There’s a mental part of it that he’s had to overcome being in a new city he a kid that grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin like he’s not a big city kid I don’t even know if the city was Milwaukee he grew up in Wisconsin was not a big city

Kid this is maybe probably new to him like Jordan is a pretty quiet reserved person the one thing being on Twitter and it’s not just Wizards Twitter which we admit is like a toxic Suess pool even like National outlets in their coverage of Jordan it’s kind of felt like there’s

They’re out to get my man and I don’t try not trying to seem like I’m like trying to vouch for Jordan but some of it’s unfair if we’re just looking at it from just a pure basketball standpoint he’s inefficient not playing well no there’s like no way to defend the

Basketball no no way to defend the basketball there’s just it’s impossible him as a person though I think is that’s what I’m kind of getting irritated with hearing some of the negative things that people have to say about him because getting to talk to him on a pretty regular basis like he’s

A very down toe dude that is also pretty like aware of what’s Happening there’s no one that wants to get out of this slump that Jordan pool is in more than Jordan that’s what I think it’s lost with all of this but for for him moving forward and like how it affects the

Wizards like we were talking about it off air Craig the contract that he has isn’t bad I think he’s like the 49th highest paid player in basketball right now which is like yes I he actually 50 50th so like that’s not bad at all to me I think and tell me what you

Think about this Craig I feel like he’s being used wrong I want to see Jordan on the ball more being in initiator and high screen and roll action like that’s that’s who he is I would say that is definitely something that I at times he at times he uh feels very uninvolved

And I think that that is a huge part of it where you’re just like can you can you get on the ball but I don’t know how much of that is Wes and then Brian Keefe versus does Jordan need to be more assertive and this this is my question

With Jordan and this is like if I got to sit down with him I think the conversation that I would like to have like I don’t know whether I would even ask this if it was over the phone like it would be like hey man I want to sit

Face to face that you see I can do this with a level of humanity that is not me like questioning your place as an NBA basketball player but like I’m really just trying to understand is like when you watch yourself on film what do you see right because that’s the thing that

I think is hard with Jordan and I think where other players you know when you see people you know making jokes around the league or whatever and like also where people even side with Draymond where it’s like well look at Jordan it’s like look at Draymond and how he

Competes versus the way Jordan does and to be very clear what Draymond did is unconscionable um and Draymond would by the way say that um and has said that he has has apologized for the way that that all went down um point is when you watch Jordan P play

Basketball it doesn’t match the description of the character that you hear about behind the scenes and that to me has always been the biggest disconnect and I don’t know what to make of it and it’s why I ask you about it as someone who’s been in that lock room

It’s why I asked Robins about it um if people want to check that out make sure you go check the podcast feed uh to to hear what Josh had to say about kind of this disconnect of this very good person who’s been great off the floor who the

Organization loves and this player who often just looks like he doesn’t care and again the key word is there are looks like it looks like he doesn’t care like watch Jordan P play defense and if I’m Jordan P watching myself play defense I’m going do I did I expect that

To work right like just this disconnect where I’m like I’ve heard how maniacal this dude’s work ethic is how great of a guy he is and he gets out there and he just has this disposition and demeanor of someone who is not engaged and is not willing to

Fight to do what it takes to win I do think it has been better since Brian Keefe has gotten here him and the rest of the roster for that matter Craig and I’m glad you brought that up I think they needed a new voice they’re fighting over screens harder they’re just playing

Harder right there’s like an effort to stay in front yes of of people on the defensive end and then it becomes also like offensively you know we watch the intensity with which Corey kissper plays and I use that word intentionally because it’s like oh he runs around

Screens and like yeah of course he does he’s a great shooter but it’s like anybody could do the movement part right and like and I’ve talked to Corey about this multiple times where it’s like they and I talked to Wes about this back in the day and he’s like yeah no you’re

Correct and I’m like thank you I’m glad that when I’m watching I see things uh on on some kind of level that is uh truth but like when you play basketball and someone runs into your area you also have to move right and so there’s a spacing element to When Corey is running

Around and like cutting and playing hard and doing these things he forces others to get involved in a way that they don’t where it’s very stagnant when he’s not on the floor and I do think like Jordan has that ability too and it’s part of what makes Steph Steph like the ultimate

Version of this is Steph Curry because he draws so much attention and and I’ve always put uh now getting super philosophical on a basketball sense not like in a life sense I think everyone can follow along this but like defense is solving a math problem right and it’s

A bunch of individual equations and Len if I ask you this is not a trick question please for the love of God don’t overthink it what is 1 plus one two plus one three plus one four and if I start all of a sudden going plus one

Plus one plus one plus one and all of a sudden becomes a lot harder to track because one switch of a screen is easy correct two is hard now all of a sudden I’ve got a split cut now I’ve got this by the way what coverage are we icing

Are we sending the sideline like you there that Rapid or rapidity of decisionmaking is what makes defense in the NBA really hard and when you’re stagnant it’s really easy to make individual decisions for help to be in the right place and that is where I think someone like Jordan could be a lot

More active offensively to put pressure on defenses the same way that Cory does and the same way that Steph was does in Golden State and some of the best players in the league do I agreee with you 100% And like that’s give you your flowers bro like you you said it

Perfectly for a guy that is so loved in the locker room and people Rave about the work ethic and what type of dude he is I’mma call this straight up and I’ve said this to Jordan like sometimes it looks like you’re he’s loafing out there right but like these are pro players

Like of course they’re not loafing but right 100% it it just it’s hard to watch and I think especially when you have a young impressionable team like the Wizards you can’t put bad stuff on tape consistently which is why I think what you said is spot on like I would love to

Like have a sit down comvo to where it’s like off the Record and he could like evaluate himself because I think if he watch love to watch tape with there just no way you going to tell me that that’s acceptable even some of the shot attempts and the shot attempts I’m a

Little bit more lenient on Craig because as you highlighted if you’re going to be taking 30 foot three-pointers you better be in the gym taking 30 put three-pointers 30 foot three-pointers after practice and by all accounts like that is Jordan Jordan was a gy rat this summer he a creative shot Taker and

Creative shot maker it hasn’t gone particularly great this year but like that is essentially what he do I think the other thing too and I know we’re running out of time here but like the other thing that I think is a mystery that I would love to like get Winger

Dawkins or someone to talk about or Kei frankly as a Player Development guy is like if he’s doesn’t have the athleticism the the twitchiness that he seemed to have two years ago and he had he didn’t really have it last year in Golden State either so like where did

That go what what happened and maybe he’s just not 21 anymore and like the twitchiness you have like we see this with NFL running backs they could still be explosive players but like they lose like this twitchiness that that a college athlete has and maybe that’s

Jordan’s just like in his mid 20s now and that’s that’s gone but like it’s hard figuring out how to get that back like if you watched people fans on Twitter did like a montage of his best buckets he just looked night and day from that guy yeah and I I just it’s

Hard for me to wrap my head around he turn it around I really hope he does turn it around if he doesn’t though I think it’s important to remember the cap is going up Jordan pool’s cap hit will cap out in year four at like 34 million

And in that year like Dame or Lebron if they’re still around by then will’ll be making like 78 I’m not kidding that’s like the real number so um or somewhere in that range so like a 30 a 30 million contract million dollar a year contract is not remotely in terms a percentage of

The cap what it used to be what you’re saying is me and you should have worked on our jumpers a little bit longer when we were kids I don’t think that my jumper would have been enough lenel but your tumer is not the problem though because you could actually stroke it I

Give you that I can I can shoot it all right not NBA all right but I can shoot it all right yeah the athleticism piece is uh it’s huge tremendously missing uh in the scope of NBA athleticism hey this is Da and you’re listening to the Hoffman show on the

Team 980 and the odys

How do the Washington Wizards handle their final 30 games of the season now that they’re past the trade deadline? Deni Avdija and Corey Kispert have shown growth….do they need more minutes? Plus, what to do with Delon Wright and Tyus Jones now that they haven’t been traded?

Plus, we discuss Jordan Poole’s disappointing year. Why is it so hard to believe, and what does Poole need to do to fix it?

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