Yes, I've watched Jalen be unreliable and make low IQ plays when the team needs them the least. His inability to execute off-ball plays at a consistent level, and his tendency to freelance weird iso shots that have next to zero chances of going in. Yes, Green is a great driver to the basket but at the same time he's a horrendous finisher especially when it comes to contact. You mention the top guards in the league and their touches, well Green hasn't sniffed at mastering the fundamentals yet so to suggest he's a "top" guard deserving of their touches is a bit early. They earned their touches by being good at their job. Look at where the top guards are in their PER, OWS, and OBPM and look at where Jalen is. He's nowhere close. I don't mind Green having the ball in his hands so long as he's a consistent and efficient shooter, but right now he isn't. And he is a detriment when he can't score because his defense still isn't good enough to where it makes up for his deficiencies in scoring which should be the easy part for him. Credit to him though, he's making improvements in defense and is at least trying on that end even if he isn't a natural defender. I've said all along that Green deserves at least a year under Ime, and I'm sticking by that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore his weaknesses when I see them.
I'm more focused on his consistency over his numbers. Jalen is streaky which means we'll win when he's on and lose when he's off. That's a bad type of player to hitch your wagon to. But your comment got me curious to see how many times both Booker, Edwards and SGA had <15 points in a game in their 2nd and 3rd seasons. Jalen Green : 2022-2023 - 76 Games Played - 16 Games Less than 15 Points (1 in every 4.75 games) 2023-2024 - 17 Games Played - 6 Games Less than 15 Points (1 in every 2.5 games) Devin Booker : 2016-2017 - 78 Games Played - 16 Games Less than 15 points (1 in every 4.875 games) 2017-2018 - 52 Games Played - 8 Games Less then 15 Points (1 in every 6.5 games) Anthony Edwards: 2021-2022 - 72 Games Played - 15 Games Less than 15 Points (1 in every 4.8 games) 2022-2023 - 79 Games Played - 9 Games Less than 15 Points (1 in every 8.77 games) So naturally the bigger the game sample it takes to get a less than 15 point clunker, the better. Edwards in his 3rd year would put up a stinker one in every 9 games. Booker was once in ever 7ish games. Jalen is on pace to put up a stinker every 3ish games. It seems that all 3 of them had similar stats in their 2nd year. They all put up a stinker 1 in every 5 games. This year though Jalen has really sucked. He would need to score less than 15 points exactly 3 times for the rest of the year to be on pace with both Edwards and Booker. I don't think it's entirely Jalen's fault. He's struggling to figure out where he fits with the team and Udoka is handcuffing Sengun to FVV and is leaving Jalen on an island to be primarily ball handler during entire stretches. Often with bench players like Aaron Holiday and Jaesean Tate. We'll see how Jalen and Udoka adjust to put him in better situations. I stand by where I'm at with him though. I know bad Jalen is in there and I remember vividly watching bad Harden come out during the *worst* times in the playoffs. But Harden was a regular season savant and was so much more efficient than Jalen in his 3rd year that the comparison is straight up unfair.
This is not a very smart take. Do you mean a portrait artist working in the street, providing for his family every day, is a semi-pro compared to, say, David Hockney? Do you mean a musician who can pay his rent and afford food and clothes on bar gigs and weddings less of a professional than Justin Bieber? Do we rate the degree of professionalism by the money people make for their work? Nah, man. By putting quotation marks around "pro", you lost your argument with yourself, to yourself, by yourself.
People were saying this about Sengun's deficiencies last season, "he's only a kid, let him learn". But Jalen doesn't get the same excuse? Interesting
It was never about the age in reality, it was how fast can he acquire fundamentals and those are just hard to come by...... Some guys cannot get it when they did not have in their childhood. Basically he also chose to do the flashy play instead of the easier but boring play.
People are on Edwards' bandwagon (rightfully) but SGA is going to be the MVP candidate for years to come. That dude knows how to work on the stuff that works for him.....meticulously. Barring injuries.
I'd trade him for Malik Monk without hesitation. Monk's career TS% is 55.7%. Jalen's 54.2%. This season Monk's TS% is 59.1% while Jalen's TS% is 54.5%. This season Monk puts up 10 shots to average 14 pts while Jalen puts up 15 shots to average 19. Monk with a bigger role on offense is a better player than Jalen. If he takes 15 shots, considering he's a better 3pt shooter than Green (.413 in 6 attempts) he'll easily average 20 and his TS% will still be higher than Jalen's TS%. Monk is athletic too and he actually makes his layups. I would even go as far as to say that he's a better shot creator than Jalen.
Interesting comparison. I'm curious about what you would attribute Jalen's declining games-per-stinker this year to. His degression has to have a cause, and it would seem that in Silas' old system with the same personnel as last year, he'd be around the same 4.75 games as last year, even if he hadn't improved at all over the summer. In my mind, that drop is because so far there's an issue with Udoka not yet having found a way to utilize Green to the best of his ability, along with Jalen himself not yet being able to fit in the way Ukoka has employed him so far. I seriously doubt Green has regressed in skill, and I also find it hard to imagine that Udoka is somehow worse than Silas at creating a system that puts him in the right spots at the right times. I'm comfortable that this will be worked out over time and that Green will be more consistent as the season progresses. What I'm not so sure about is whether he'll ever do enough to justify that high draft slot. And of course, this would all be moot if we hadn't idiotically gone all-in on KPJ, because this thread would likely be discussing Mobley instead of Green.
And you lost your reply by calling Justin Beiber a musician. (yes, I'm kidding). Let me state it a little more plainly. IMO the levels of skill in the various basketball leagues are too varied to be combined into a single designation of professional. Better? It's not apples to apples. And yes, having been someone who made a living playing music I'd consider myself a semi-pro compared to the best in the world. (skills, not pure wealth).
Lol him and KPJ could do whatever they wanted in that funny system of his. (Stephen) Basically Udoka wants a balanced team......but he would not curb Jalen's output ---- I am suspecting the opponents are just game planning against Green more than in the past, would make sense.
I also used to make money playing bass at bar gigs and festivals, but it was peanuts; therefore, I kept my day job which paid about 20x more. I treated the gigs like Wednesday night poker: Just a fun way to spend an evening with friends. I could never have made a living on music only, so even though I was getting paid, I've always considered myself an amateur. On the other hand, you say you have. That makes you, by definition, a pro. Now whether you were good at your job or not is another matter.
The reason Jalen has been more inconsistent is simply that he doesn't have the ball in his hands as much and they aren't running ISO....he is an ISO dominant player, doesn't really know how to play in a system. He struggles with that - and it takes a while to learn.... DD
In some countries there is the term half pro, I am not so sure what constitutes that. I guess real amateurs do not get paid per gig, only prize money when they win a contest...etc.
100%. Pro is pretty clearly defined but I just have a hard time giving equal weight to experience at lower levels of competition. I have no issues calling someone a pro when they are, it was just the way it was used to make a point that I disagreed with.
Aside from getting stronger, which would obviously help with finishing layups in traffic, I think he needs to rework his jumpshot. It was always kinda ugly but no one talked about it cause it worked. Now it doesn't work. He's a lead scoring guard shooting free throws at a power forward rate. That should be up at 85%.
