I honestly think Cam has lit a fire under Jalen’s ass. I love it. Hope he continues to play smart and confident
Jalen with the perfectly timed statement game. Everyone on all sides of the discussion understands Jalen’s future needs long consistent stretches of good basketball and that we’re pretty aware he can have a great few games. Having said that, this is probably his best ever performance as a Rocket, especially when you consider he’s never been this level as a passer, rebounder and defender. Deserves an unconditional “Well Done” for that. Without the “but”. The kid knows how to keep a story alive. Kudos to Udoka for recognizing the starters are slow as f*ck and Jalen needs to run more often especially against old teams. Also Cam Whitmore is a beast and I’m 100% sure he and Jalen have some friendly competitiveness going. It’s going to make both of them better.
Maybe he was working too much on one on one midrange jumper moves, which are inherently lower percentage for most guys. He needs to work on standstill, catch and shoot 3s, and his balance so that his "on the move" shots are better squared up and not fading all the time.
Great point. They should just tell him to cut out everything else. Simple 3’s, transition and simple drives should be over 90% of his shots. Otherwise pass the ball. Middies (41%) and longer range 3’s (28%) are annihilating his efficiency numbers. I don’t even know about his high-difficulty 3’s efficiency, he’s not good at stepbacks either. In the highlights I remember a couple of plays where AD is switched into Jalen and there’s no rim protector in the paint (maybe Prince was near the paint). He made his 3pters on those possessions but those are dumb shots. Those are exactly the kind of shots that drag him down and make his shots unnecessarily difficult. Jalen Green must get an easy 2 points in that situation by just driving around AD and dunking hard. Shooting over Anthony Davis guarding you closely is the most difficult shot available on the court. He’ll get there.
Playing Paw Paw basketball with brand new Ferraris was dumb to begin with. We should be able to run any team off the court.
I think I disagree here. I think the 15-20ft midrange is open for him everytime because of his speed and it's necessary to keep defenses honest. He has proven not to be a great 3pt shooter so I think maximizing the consistent elbow jumper will be crucial for keeping him efficient.
Literally the epitome of iron sharpening iron with Cam and Jalen. The same can be said for Bari and Tari.
Fair enough. My view is: he’s less than 2 years away from being a good 3pt shooter while by my estimate easily 3+ years away from being a good mid range shooter. Going from 3 consecutive years of roughly 41% to 50% in midrange is something few have ever achieved. Improving your 3PT% is now routine in the NBA. With his frame+defense he will never ever be worth the max without a good 3pt shot but he can easily be that without a good mid range shot. IMO if his 3’s are not efficient, take fewer 3’s cutting down his overall volume. Don’t replace them with mid range because that’s not giving us space or wins or beating his average efficiency. I’d rather he just pass the ball in those situations, we have way better options than a 41% 2pter with no FT’s possible. I’m also willing to bet anything his scouting report says: crowd/bump him at the 3pt line and in the paint because he shoots under 40% combined everywhere else. It never gives us more space even when he’s hot on a few mid range shots. 3’s and Paint 2’s are non-negotiable parts of a star scoring guards skills. They come before any other shots. Without one of these, there’s a hard ceiling on your future as a star scorer. Also they have the highest trade value. No one needs midrange until they have the other 2. Everyone needs the other 2 immediately. Let’s hope he develops both.
One thing that's always been a problem with Jalen is that every single part of his game relies on his shot falling. When his shot is falling his dribbling gets better, his creativity with the ball is better, his passing is better, his rebounding is better, his defensive effort is better, it's literally everything. It seems like he loses focus and becomes disengaged when his shot isn't falling and that's always been a problem all the way back to his rookie season. It's probably a confidence thing but I can only speculate. It's why he is such a huge negative on nights where he doesn't have it going, and why he looks like the best player on the team when he does have it going. Udoka recently said they sat him down and showed him a ton of film where he loses focus and gives no effort on the rebounding end, I think he used the phrase "just stands around", and it looks like Jalen's responded really well to that criticism. Even if he doesn't improve his scoring efficiency/consistency at all, but can consistently be the best version of himself in all those other areas, he's a completely different player. That's what I'm looking for from him, and I hope Udoka can get it out of him.
He's for sure a confidence player and one that heavily relies on rhythm.. One thing that I'm not sure anyone has really pointed out that Ime has routinely subbed Jalen out around the 6 min mark of most games. This has been drastically different than the last two seasons where Silas would have him play nearly the entire first quarter. I think Jalen is the type of player you leave on the floor more times than not because he struggles to impose himself onto games, and the extra run helps him get into the flow of things. Obviously if he's garbage don't let him back into the game as easily, but the more uninterrupted burn time, the better for him. Contrast this with a player like Tari Eason who you know what you are getting anytime he steps on the floor.
Definitely true but don’t underestimate the power of our eyes and minds to paint things a different shade. It’s an actual scientific fact that we humans do that; when we are mad at something our 5 senses will put a microscope on all its weaknesses. I’ve caught myself doing that earlier in the season. On the plus side, when we tell ourselves we’re happy with something, our senses automatically look for more things to be happy about (I.e. more opportunities). We can use these two modes to our advantage depending on what our goals are. On a significant proportion of occasions this season, his +/- is not the worst in the main rotation even when his shot is not falling. I think he’s much much better at this than last season. I think he’s had more such games in half a season than he did all of the last two seasons. I don’t remember him having a competitive +/- on a bad shooting night before. Of course just having a better PG, vocal leaders and team defenders will aid that as well.
I was thinking he better play like SGA.Shoot less drive more.I think coaching staff also thinks like that as he was told more aggressive.
I like what I see recently he needs to keep it up not even the scoring but the rebounding and effort . the cynic in me says that jalen is about to find out it’s harder than he thinks to bring focus and effort every game it’s easy to stay healthy and feeling good when you aren’t sacrificing your body . We’ve seen tari , bari , and Tate and brooks miss time . Those guys are warriors . Now that jalen is boxing out let’s see how he feels in the morning . Hopefully being 21 and a great athlete mitigate this
Go snag the rebound and FLY down the court for easy baskets. Every one of our young players who is capable of that should be given the green light. Look for outlets and leakers on any rebound actually. We should get 10 points per game just on hustle and awareness.
True but how come we have an amazing big man passer (usually great for transition outlets) and an amazing floor general…. But we’re asking our guys to grab the rebound AND beat the entire other team down the court if they want transition. This is working and hopefully it inspires FVV/Sengun to feed our guys more often. Ideally we wouldn’t rebound with ALL 5 guys and let one player leak out while Sengun/FVV send them a perfect outlet. Brooks is one of the worst rebounders I’ve ever seen for his position and useless in transition. Maybe he should be helping rebound more and Jalen should be leaking out more. Perhaps there’s some tactical reason why this doesn’t happen which I don’t understand.
Hes currently shooting 50% in the free throw upper half circle. Its a decent look for him. Albeit outside that circle in any direction drops his efficiency. Left, right or forward. But that FT line pullup is pretty good. He shoots the bottom FT circle at 41.9% and this is almost always where he stops and fades away. Www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/jalen-green-shot-chart
From what I can see the strategy on rebounding is for Sengun to box out the other teams biggest offensive rebounding threat (typically the center) and then let others grab the rebounds. I couldn't tell you why this is the strategy but it seems pretty clear from watching the games that Sengun is told not to prioritize rebounding. Maybe it's to push in transition? Although that would be weird...because we rarely do. Or maybe it's as simple as this was determined to give the best chance of getting the rebound.
Neither Sengun or Fred can throw a lob to save their lives. If they could we could tap into unlimited potential with the athletes we have. The youngsters will have to take matter into their own hands regarding pace. The Fred/Sengun PNR has its place, but it should not define us. Our wing group as a whole are above average rebounders. Dillon is typically the point of attack defender so he is hardly in position at times to fight for rebounds, but I might agree that its not his forte.
