Just eye test but it seems like the first handful or two of games Jalen was seeing a lot of drop coverage bigs, content to let him shoot from 3 off of screens and he was absolutely blistering that coverage. Now the adjustment comes and we're waiting to see the Rockets, his adjustment. They mention playing like Ja or SGA, valiant ideas. That would definitely require him to upskill a floater, some playmaking, and handles. Super definitely, in no way is this take deferring the immutable fact that he's not on that same level... ...however... Unlocking something of that ilk in Jalen is going to require sitting Fred. You wouldn't tell Ja Morant to go be Ja Morant and also have Chuck out there barely beating the 8 seconds call and dominating the rock. And then do the WHYYY JAAAAA bit when he doesn't score 25ppg either lol... Fred's driving the car still. Right off a cliff I might add. It doesn't mean other players are not going through something too but it's hard to ignore how particularly, singularly bad VanVleet's performance this year has been. And maybe sitting Fred wouldn't unleash the hounds? It damn sure isn't gonna do it with him stinking it up like this either. I'll take a maybe over a damn sure. Jalen should develop a floater either way.
People turning themselves into pretzels trying to figure out why Jalen isn’t performing is hilarious. Just watch 4 seasons of him and you will see what is obvious. He cannot shoot and doesn’t finish well at the rim. His handles are also subpar. Not sure how it’s possible to not improve your shooting or finishing through 4 seasons of nba basketball when that’s what you were drafted to do, but that’s what has happened with Jalen. At this point I’m done asking why, and focused on 1). Is there a way to improve the shooting? 2). Can we acknowledge who he is and move on from him?
The problem is there are things you don't know that you don't know. For example, you don't know Green is one of our best finishers at the rim (almost 70% in the restricted area). Now knowing that you don't know this has led you down this bizarro echo chamber >> WHY CAN'T HE IMPROVE HIS SHOOTING? It's really weird, you were tracking, following and ultimately disappointed by something that never existed. He was never a shooter. You're mad about a thing you made up (most likely you heard it from Sam Vecenie though). Green was always a downhill player. You're basically sitting here asking why a Giannis archetype isn't improving at shooting while he himself is complaining to you about no spacing to go downhill. Congratulations, you know who you are? You're Jason Kidd and you have Giannis taking what the defense gives him (open jumpers). That's how he got fired. FIX THE SPACING. We don't know what ANY of our young guys can do offensively outside of Sengun. We have had extreme bad spacing for 4 straight years and this year is the most talent we've had and the worst spacing we've had. It's not acceptable. Go create an acceptable offense for the players then come make your assessment.
I respect your opinion, but I just don’t think your arguments are credible. One only needs to watch Jalen consistently to be frustrated with his play. And the statistics actually bare out how poor he is at playing basketball. But statistics be damned, I sincerely don’t enjoy watching him play. His iso poor IQ AAU style and lack of fundamental improvement on the offensive side of the ball is so painful to watch relative to his peers…I don’t have words. It wouldn’t bother me so much if he could actually make shots. Sengun…improvement. Bari…improvement. Amen…improvement. Tari…improvement. Jalen…not much improvement. I watch a lot of basketball and have been supporting the rockets for decades. You are entitled to your opinion, but don’t assume folks don’t understand basketball just because they disagree with your takes. Your steadfast Jalen appologist tendencies don’t hold up watching the guy play. I don’t like coddling. I hate lack of accountability. You cash the checks u need to play. So many other prospects have actually earned their opportunities. Jalen has had every opportunity and still underperforms. Let just be honest. No one is rooting for him to fail but he’s not the guy.
Giannis is a really good example of someone who needs a specific infrastructure to be great. His 4th year at age 22, he was putting up 23 ppg on +9% efficiency. His 5th season, at 23, he put up 27 on +8 efficiency. Those are the last 2 years Kidd was coaching him. When Bud came in and they got him the shooting center and built everything for him, is when he went from finishing 6th/7th in MVP to 1st. He was CLEARLY a guy who made it worth building the whole system for him. I think if you built the entire thing around Jalen, meaning you dump sengun and play 5 out, i think Jalen would look better. The question is, do you think Jalen is worth doing that for? Can he be a giannis, a harden, a lebron type of offensive engine where it's worth building it all for him to maximize Jalen?
Unfortunately I am missing the optimism when other prospects are mentioned, those that are not named Jalen.
Giannis was way better than Jalen before they built around him. You have to be good already for a team to build around you. Its like the Kings keep trying to build around De'Aaron Fox and he cant shoot the three and it just doesnt work. He isnt the guy you build around he's the third guy on a chip team. Jalen is likely a sixth man. In 2010 we tried build around Trevor Ariza that was hilarious lol
I mean obviously i agree Jalen isn't good enough, just curious if there are still people who think he is. If i was the kings i'd trade everyone, they are as hopeless of a team as there is in the league. I'd rather be the wizards than the kings right now, fox and sabonis are pointless if they're your best players.
Come on now, don't compare Giannis' situation to Green's. Giannis was a poor immigrant ....who did not even have enough food in his childhood. Green played the same AAU type in his childhood till now, nothing much changed, he just got better at the wrong things.
Some Jalen stan said to me in this post "I glad youre not our GM" because I said i would have tried to trade Jalen or made him sixth man by now. Funny thing is, if I were Kings GM I would have never traded Halliburton for Sabonis. If I were the Rockets GM Sengun would have started day one and KPJ never would have been a pg and certainly would have been traded when he threw a temper tantrum and left the stadium in the middle of a game. Jalen would have been trained as a point guard day one. And anyone can go look it up I said these things years ago. My point is some people just dont see things until its too late and thats often the case when emotions are involved. Thats why jalen stans or stans of any kind seem so irrational. They are too connected to their dream of what the guy could be instead of looking at what he really is.
You already know the answer to this is no. Giannis was a 7 foor giant and most physically gifted player in the league. Jalen is not that. The reverse to this question is can we win by dumping Jalen and getting Sengun some shooters so he can actually have space to operate.
I don't think sengun can be the driver of a championship level offense no, but it's not impossible. Maybe a 10% he gets there?
Define driver? I think he can drive the a championship level offense but he won't be the highest scorer on the team. He really needs that second guy to play off of and we just don't have that guy.
The Kings' offense are pretty good. It's their defense that makes them mediocre. If the Kings could play defense like the Rockets do, they'd be among the top teams in the West. But I get your point. If both your top two scorers are non 3pt shooters, it's very hard to build an offense. But even though Fox and DeRozen are bad 3pt shooters, they are very competent at scoring from the midrange. They aren't bad shooters. They just don't have great range. Jalen is simply not a good shooter. The only place he can score efficiently is within 3ft of the basket. It would have been okay if he was a center. As a guard, he has to work extremely hard to get to the spot where he can score well. And defenses know that and make it even harder for him by crowding under the basket.
The best offensive player, doesn't have to be the leading scorer. We'll see, i think he's got a chance. If he's a complete non shooter though, it's tough, and if he can't do it against high level defenders, that's also tough. Like he had ZERO chance to do anything against draymond at the end of that game, he got bailed out by kerr putting looney on him for whatever reason.
