Jordan Poole’s crunch-time turnovers haven’t shaken Warriors’ confidence in him

“I used to get benched down the stretch in big games my second year in the league and it was because I had a lot of careless turnovers throughout the course of the game," Steph Curry said.

SAN FRANCISCO — There are some lessons you can only learn through trial and error, and Jordan Poole remains in that stage of his career even after signing a massive extension last offseason.

Poole is 23 and in his fourth NBA season after making big contributions to winning the title this summer. But he’s far from a finished product, and his turnover numbers are a reminder of that.

Poole stepped up after the Warriors’ starting lineup took two hits in the last month — the first being the loss of Andrew Wiggins for 15 games with injury and illness, and the second being the absence of Stephen Curry, who injured his left shoulder last month.

Scoring hasn’t been an issue for Poole. He entered Tuesday averaging 27.9 points in the 11 games since Curry went down with a partially dislocated shoulder Dec. 14. During that span, he’s eclipsed the 40-point mark twice.

But Poole has struggled with the increased attention he’s getting from opposing defenses. The added pressure has led him to be frantic with the ball at times, rushing to make plays — a problem that’s only been exacerbated without Curry on the floor. As a result, Poole has had an uptick in turnovers over the last month.

Poole has committed four or more turnovers in 12 of his last 15 games as a starter, tallying a league-high-tying 69 turnovers over that span. The more glaring issue recently has been ball-handling late in games with the score in balance. Poole entered Tuesday tied with Draymond Green for the team’s most turnovers (8) recorded in clutch time, which is when the scoring margin is within five points with five minutes or less remaining in a game.

Andre Iguodala believes Poole should treat this stretch as a learning experience.

“It’s just a process that a ball-dominant guy has to go through in the NBA,” Iguodala said. “You’d rather go through it in January and understanding how important those possessions are so it helps you in June. So it’s not something that I’m overly stressed about and he’s a guy who’s really into the game of basketball, and he really cares, and he’s more upset than everybody else. So I’m not worried about that.”

Iguodala is among the choir of teammates who sang support for Poole as he grapples with his mistakes. Green came to his defense earlier this month, saying he doesn’t believe Poole’s turnovers are at all problematic.

Klay Thompson pulled Poole aside last week after the Warriors’ last-second loss to the Detroit Pistons — a game that featured a Poole turnover in the game’s final six seconds — and reminded the young guard that he’s a clutch player who was vital to the Warriors’ recent five-game win streak. Thompson also emphasized to Poole that he trusts him to have the ball in his hands during those late-game scenarios.

Meanwhile, Curry empathized with the growing pains Poole is experiencing.

“I used to get benched down the stretch in big games my second year in the league and it was because I had a lot of careless turnovers throughout the course of the game, where I wasn’t necessarily the most trustworthy guy at the time to close out the game even though I was slowly getting better,” Curry recently said. “Just that time period of my career I remember really well because it wasn’t necessarily given to me, I had to go earn it and figure out how to prove yourself trustworthy with the ball in terms of volume reps and whatnot.”

Curry’s mindset during those achy growing periods was to stay hungry and play unafraid of failure. He sees a similar drive and fearlessness he had as a young guard in Poole, who has responded to the miscues exactly the way his teammates want him to.

Poole has acknowledged there’s room for improvement, Curry said.

“Everything he’s done has been accountability and asking the right questions,” Curry said. “It’s a vulnerable position in that space when you have the ball in your hands and everybody is counting on you to do the right thing and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s the nature of the game. But the mentality and the right approach he’s shown that from the jump.”

That’s why the Warriors are going to stick with Poole in high-leverage moments for the time being and encourage him to continue to be aggressive.

“There’s a reason he’s an NBA champion. We would not have that banner without Jordan’s efforts,” Thompson said. “So it’s just about sticking to the process… the work will reveal itself, so I have no worries than Jordan.”