Jordan Poole on pace, Pelicans fans at SKC 10/26/2025 | New Orleans Pelicans

Jordan Poole on pace, Pelicans fans at SKC 10/26/2025 | New Orleans Pelicans

encouraged by the piece y’all are playing within these first two games and just consistently, you know, find the transition opportunities. I mean, extremely encouraged. We’ve been playing good early in the season, first two games, we got some things we can like clean up a little bit, but in terms of just like our effort, our flow, um the spurts that we go on, obviously we got to string together uh more spurts and longer ones, but pretty encourages from the way we played the first two games. new team, new group. So, it’ll take a little bit. Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask about. Just what’s the the process been like for you just figuring out, you know, how to make your impact with this group of what they got going on so far? Uh, yeah. I mean, it’s just that I mean, I feel pretty comfortable. I feel pretty solid out there. I feel like you got good flow, good chemistry. Um just some small things that you still are learning about your teammates, where they’re going to be, where they like to be in certain moments of the game. Uh some play calling down the end of the stretch. Uh just small things. Seems obviously very fixable. Uh really good though. So really encouraged. And JP, are those things actually shown up late in games? You guys were right there in two games that are winnable, but you couldn’t close it out. And is that like if you guys were more on the same page those may maybe that would have been a win or even two. I mean you can always say that it’s just the first two games though. Uh and new team and we’re we’re a younger team too. So we need to go through these close moments these uh crunch time moments last two minutes four minutes of the game. Um and also know how important other possessions are throughout the course of the game that’ll prevent us from even, you know, going down to the wire. But I think it’s good for us. It’s battle testing us early, very early on in the season cuz these are going to be uh things that we can rely on and we can go back to uh later down the season when it’s time to um you know put strings of wins together. What was it like playing the Smoothie King Center? I loved it. Oh my god, I loved it. I went back and I told all my people like it feels so good to be in an environment where the fans are engaged and you can feel the electricity in there. You can feel the positive energy. You can feel the fans chanting. the last three years dead in there. It was dead in uh Capital One. But I mean, this is up there right now. Obviously, it’s just the first game and you want to see how the season goes and hopefully our fan base can just keep supporting us, keep building into this team cuz I feel like we’re pretty special. But, um definitely reminisce of uh my first four years, just how electric the crowd is. You can feel it. Um and I think we have players on our team who feed off that. So, if we can find a way to keep that up, that’ll be huge. Saw that emotion a couple times with big plays, a bunch of different players. Yeah. Yeah, huge. I mean, I feed off that. I feel like especially people who kind of know my game and watch NBA the last, you know, six, seven years, understand how like personally I feed off of like big energy players, transition through, you got guys like Z who can go get a big dunk or Trey who going to get a big dunk. So, um, we’ll be a team that feeds off that crowd of energy and I I want other teams to know that it’ll be a challenge coming in to play in Smoothie King cuz it matters, um, with our 41 home. So, we talked a lot about a lot of these players, everyone being kind of around the same age. Uh, now DeAndre into that situation, how has he been so far? Good, good vet. He’s been in the league for a very, very, very long time. He’s been at the highest level. I think he’s going to bring a lot of experience to our team. Um, obviously we’re kind of bodies right now with our fives, but he’ll help us. Uh, he’ll be vocal, good vet, a lot of NBA experience, and I think it’ll be good to kind of integrate him into this his team, this role. Um, I think it’s a big pickup for us for sure. How impressed have you been with the rookies in 20 to be able to come in and produce and contribute the way that they have already? Huge. Huge. I think it’s been amazing. I think uh we’ll need them to sever all season long in order for us to you know make a really good run but they’re learning and we got to give them grace too. So as good as they’re playing right now and um you know the positive impacts that they have there’ll be times in the season where maybe a little bit tougher or they’ll go through a little bit tougher of a stretch but those are all things that come with every rookie playing and um just going to try to put them in positions to be as successful as possible. And I just want to single out Derek just for a quick second. He played 35 minutes in that last game. Didn’t play in preseason, barely played in that previous game. So, what stood out to you about his play? Yeah, I just told him it was just impressive to see uh how he was able to just to come in and play two games and have big minutes and have a big impact um so soon and so fast. So, credit to him. It just showed us how he is as a hooper, as a gamer, um as a baller. And it’s just something that we got to continue to uh just make easier for them, you know, to make their rookie lives a little bit easier on the court. Um when it comes to time, experience, and reps. Z’s put up big numbers in the first two games. What stood out to you about what he’s doing so far? I mean, he’s just being aggressive. He’s being dominant. I mean, he’s getting in that paint. He got shooters around him now, uh which allows him to have more spacing on the court. Um allow him to get downhill. So, continue to play his game. Be aggressive. Um like obviously we need that we need Z to play like that going to be a good team. So um you know it’s all just a matter of time before everybody every piece of our team and in this uh you know machine that we have until everything gets going properly functioning and then we’ll get on a nice little roll. What’s that been like just kind of sorting out ball handling responsibilities? You guys got a lot of guys who can make plays with the ball just figuring out you know when to have let this guy do when you know that type of stuff. Yeah, I mean we’re still figuring it out now. Obviously, uh we got guys who are experiencing the move who’ve been here for a while who know who knows what it takes. I think it’s more so down the stretch that we’re trying to we’re going to get figured out. Um who the ball whose hands the ball needs to be in, whether it’s me, whether it’s Z, whether it’s the guy who’s feeling it, whether it’s a matchup problem on defense. Um but that also goes to just being in two close games, the first two games of the season. A lot of teams don’t have to experience that until a couple weeks maybe um and figured it out. So, it’s good that we were able to see that and uh there just a couple things we can learn out that will make it a little bit smoother down that stretch. Pete, do you feel like one of the things that can be helpful key to a success down the stretch is running in actions with either Trey or Z? I remember I think it was about three and a half minutes to go into OT, brought the ball back out, ran a pick and roll with Z, found him and he got an easy two. Uh I mean, you want to put the ball in your best players hands down the stretch. I think that is what it comes down to, especially when it comes to playoff basketball. Um, you don’t want to get too lost in running a specific action unless it’s something that’s been working all game. Um, but you use the first three quarters to kind of set that up to figure out what you want to do in the fourth. Um, I think last night it was really good when me and Z down the stretch got into a couple ball screens. Um, just because I know the coverage that I’m going to get. I’m going to get two on me every single time, but it’s hard to put two on me when you got somebody like Z also in the action. So, that’ll be a strength of ours. Um, but me also coming off being aggressive to score, but just playmaking. I think I found Z in the pocket one time for a roll and then I got Herb uh Herb got a wide open three on the left wing, which is a great shot. There’s a big shot that he’ll make, you know, 90% of the time. So, those are good looks and good actions. I don’t think it’s more so like a, you know, specific player, but we’re we’re we’re wrinkling those out right now. I think it’s good that we were able to see those the first two games. Did you see last two minutes you got to stay? Yeah, man. Man, I didn’t have to wait for the last two minutes on court. I knew in the game it was off his legs, bro. And I knew he The ref didn’t look at me though, so I knew he probably didn’t want to, you know, go too too much into, you know, in too much with that last last second play. But, I mean, I feel like I just made a good point in the ball. The game’s really not over to the last whistle. It could have put us in a position to um, you know, make a play, but, you know, that comes down to earlier plays in the game, not just the last one.

New Orleans Pelicans guard Jordan Poole speaks with the media after Pelicans practice at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Sunday, October 26, 2025 ahead the team’s game against the Boston Celtics on Monday, Oct. 27.
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