Jordan Poole under fire for boneheaded play against Bucks

May 2, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Jordan Poole (3) warms up before the start of game one of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan Poole was out there looking like JR Smith on Monday.

The Washington Wizards guard Poole submitted an early nominee for Shaqtin’ Moment of the Year in the fourth quarter of his team’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. With the Wizards trailing by ten late, Poole inexplicably decided to let the ball roll off the inbounds pass before picking it up (a move otherwise known as “walking the dog”).

That move is usually used by teams nursing a lead in order to bleed clock or by players hoping to save some seconds before the shot clock begins (usually in 2-for-1 situations). While Poole was right in the sense that “walking the dog” prevents the shot clock from starting until the ball is touched, in this situation, the game clock continued to run. As a result, Poole looked quite the fool.

Take a look.

Jordan Poole thought doing this stops both the game clock & the shot clock lmao pic.twitter.com/qiieC2zYHc

— Ball Junkie (@ImABallJunkie) November 21, 2023

This was probably a simple case of Poole not knowing the rules. The game clock only stops on dead-ball situations during the final two minutes. With Poole’s “walk the dog” moment coming with over four minutes left, he just ended running off over ten seconds of game clock that the Wizards could have used to help mount a comeback.

Washington would go on to lose to Milwaukee 142-129 to fall to a fetid 2-11 on the year. While Poole ended up with 30 points on the evening, he is still averaging a very inefficient 16.6 points per game as a main offensive option for the Wizards this season. This is not the first time either that Poole has made himself look like a dunce during his brief time as a Wizard.