Russilo’s podcast with JVG was a good listen. Interesting point about Jalen: he’s top ~40 in the league in FGA within 5 ft of basket, but FG% is bottom 4, along with Russ, Rozier, and Oubre. Russillo went on to talk about Barnes struggles as well as that draft class generally. Hopefully it’s just youth and trying to make something out of nothing. I wanted Mobley and am kind of kicking ourselves, but Jalen is obviously a world class athlete. Hopefully he figures it out. You can see on some drives why he’s top 40 in that area. Russillo said he thinks KPJ is better than Jalen which I think is trolling.
The “generational” top 4 of the 2021 draft class all look rough in their sophomore seasons. Cade played like hot garbage in 12 games before his season-ending injury. We know about Green’s struggles. Mobley hasn’t taken the leap. Barnes is getting Ben Simmons treatment offensively, and has regressed efficiency wise.
KPJ is the #1 option for this team, this whole offense is designed around KPJ. We drafted a shooting guard to b our primary option, but set him up with an incompetent/newbie pg to help him develop.
Actually we set everything up for Jalen to be the #1 option....but he sucks right now. He takes the most shots on the team, has the highest usage....everything is set up for Jalen Green to do well, he's just not good at basketball right now. Of course, you want to blame that on anyone and everyone else, but the longer Jalen Green continues to suck, the harder that is going to be for you.
This year compare. (data changes over time link) Snapshot as of today, As someone who dislike Giddey; it pains me Green's TS% is basically the same as Giddey. Green has worse eFG, but TS is about the same at ~53%. (.528 and .529) Green is focused more by other team's defense. But as people scout him; he has to find his counters. He added a high floater this year; which is a start. + Green's also getting more calls now; the free throw adds to his points; offsets the bad shooting. - Our team as a whole has been bad at 3pt shooting; so that lane is going to be clogged. Nailing the jumper is key. - Far less off ball than last year. I don't mind Green having the ball more; but team can still run off ball plays for him. Not everything has to be such a difficult shot. If their defense loads up; Jalen should move the ball to an open teammate.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a play take more difficult shots on a consistent basis—and a lot of that is not on KPJ, either. Jalen just seems to want to make things harder when he’s at his best when he does a simple pull up or driving to the cup aggressively. I don’t know why, maybe it’s bad AAU habits, maybe it’s Kobe-itis, but once he removes some of that from his game I think his shooting splits will improve dramatically. But asking someone to completely change their offensive approach is a big ask, and I don’t know if he’s up to it right now
Yep. He takes some absolutely ridiculous shots and it’s killing his efficiency. The sooner they get that under control the better it will be for everyone else. The problem is they don’t seem to be doing much to fix it. There is never any accountability for anyone not named Sengun on this team.
I love JG, but people gotta stop with this bs. We set him up more than anyone on this team and it’s obvious. I’m also tired of Silas and KPJ getting the blame when he’s playing like trash. Crazy how he gets a pass, like it’s okay to hold him accountable.
I think this is a good point but it does miss something important imo, which is that I don't agree this current structure (or lack thereof) makes things easier for him. He does have a lot of leeway to do whatever he wants on the court, nothing is a bad shot, the ultimate green light, he gets to dribble as much as he wants, etc. But especially for a young player, I don't think that translates to "everything is set up for Jalen Green to do well." Hypothetically if he was on a team with a veteran point guard and other scoring threats, that would be a much better set up for him to do well. Like if you just swapped him out for Devin Booker on Phoenix, just as an example, I think he would look a whole lot better. Right now the way he is allowed to play definitely gives him a big opportunity to shine, but right now, as you said, he sucks at this. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm trying to shift the blame to everyone else, I'm just trying to say that I don't think letting him do whatever he wants whenever he wants is the best way to set him up to do well. It's really only showcasing his ability to play like...Kevin Durant? I don't know if he's the best example, but it's like, can this guy get the ball any time he wants and get a good shot from literally anywhere on the floor with any defender on him. Just create something out of nothing over and over from all three levels, and drop 30 on elite efficiency. And that's what we're seeing Jalen Green try to do, and that's what he currently sucks at.
I think if Green was more talented, he'd thrive in his current situation. Since he's not very talented, he would be better in a situation where he wasn't allowed to do very much. I'm not sure he'd be happy in that situation, but I do agree that it would probably be better for him. Perhaps if the Rockets can bring in Henderson, that'll create a scenario where the ball handling responsibilities are taken away from Green completely and he can focus on learning how to shoot a basketball or MAYBE playing a bit of defense every now and again.
Picking a tunneled vision empty scorer over a genuine foundation piece who will be a defensive player of the candidates for the next decade( will win atleast one) and a real foundation piece like Mobley will go down as a epic mistake.
We seriously could've had a dominating defensive front-court in Allen/Mobley which is the hardest thing you can find in the league. Volume scoring streaky guards are a dime a dozen. Sucks we let that slip through our fingers.
When LeBron join the Cavs he took a team similar to rockets to winning 17 to winning 35, 41, next year's. Jalen is not a superstar he is stat padding on terrible team, yes he's got skills offensively but he doesn't have a complete game. I like to see him on a playoff roster and see what he scores per game. He seems 1 dimensional like Lavine, can only score. Doest pass or play defense. Chucks the ball up and takes questionable shots.
I don't think Jalen stat pads. And that's because he would rather sooner quit on plays than get stats. Thank goodness they drafted Sengun that draft, otherwise it would've been a disaster.
Mobley is a foundation piece . Out of that Draft, Mobley, Barnes, Wagner and Sengun are all better prospects and potential players.
