#2 option Julius Randle is averaging 22 points on 16 shots with 6.4 assists in the playoffs. With the exact same single coverage: #1 option Alpi 21 points on 19 shots with 5.3 assists When Edwards is being schemed out of the game, the other 4 players are punishing the 3 defenders, forcing the warriors to stop scheming him out of the game. Our non-Jalen starters failed at that, the HC flat out said he wanted that outcome and we were not able to punish that enough. We lost because Udoka's game plan - unlike Finch - was for Jalen to pass off and trust in the 4 other players to beat 3 defenders. It failed. Finch's reaction to Warriors defense on Edwards was the opposite: he wanted Edwards to force the issue and not be passive. Let us know when you find someone on the Rockets who performed well in the playoffs. Alpi had a 49 TS% on single coverage and Jalen had a 48 TS% while being aggressively double teamed. Our most efficient offenive player in the playoffs was Amen at 15.7 points on 12 shots. That's really good for Amen personally and a total disaster for us as a team if you think that's the limit of these 3 players offensive ceiling. Amen is better than that. Sengun is better than that. Jabari is better than that. And Green is better than that. Finch is highlighting that Udoka made the wrong choices over and over again. The Wolves would be f*cked too if Finch told Edwards to be passive while playing two non-shooters next to him. There's not a single non-shooter in the Wolves rotation other than Edwards PnR partner (Gobert). Gobert only plays 26mpg in the series and he's the ONLY non-shooter in the rotation. They're 4-out or 5-out at all times because it's the year 2025 and Finch is not nostalgic about 90's basketball. He's not accepting midrange jumpers as though they're good enough shots. He's forcing the opponent between two options that are 20 feet apart: the rim or the 3. Let the monkeys keep being in denial. If we weren't outcoached, then the whole core is hopeless offensively. Udoka is 5-8 in the playoffs against Kerr despite having the talent advantage every single game. Keep telling yourself the problem is that Jalen didn't ignore Udoka's orders. Sure.
They do not care about the details of the game. What matters only is the box score. What matters to these people is points on the board. I said it many times before if you placed Edwards in that Rockets lineup he would struggle similarly as Jalen with Sengun’s man constantly coming out to trap or double him. Their personnel is different. Their sets are different. There’s laters and details to why Green and the Rockets played poorly.
I have been saying this FOREVER. You have to spread the court for Jalen to be successful, when they pass it down low it stagnates the offense. Additionally, it clogs the driving lanes. People saw how effective Jalen can be when the lanes are spread during the 11 game win streak at the tail end of 2024. Ime has to change the offense
My point was stated quite clearly—he was inefficient up to that point and has struggled in the series due to Warriors defense. You are too small minded to grasp what I was saying and clearly attempting to agitate. And your emotions led you to keep responding to my comments despite the fact I wasn’t even responding to you. Re read your response. You are a liar as you repeatedly spew hate against Green and those who analyze the game more intelligently than you. But as I always say you have no value. You are worth nothing on this site
As long as Sengun is there it won’t happen. Let’s imagine if Edwards was a Rocket. Let’s imagine him coming off a Sengun high screen only to get doubled . Let’s imagine him dumping the ball to Sengun on the high post getting a dribble handoff with the player switching immediately or a zone with 3 players camping in the paint. Exactly. He won’t do shi+
What other SG's were on the roster? Jeenathan Williams. No one else. Not like Ime had a whole hell of a lot of choices. We've been having this conversation for 4 years now .... At what point do you admit you've been wrong about him from chapter 1. (I know the answer - It's when they ship his ass out and you can finally tell us how much you hated defending that guy) As for the defense he faced against GSW and their trying to take him out of the game - Every team does that to the opponents best offensive players - I don't think I've ever in almost 6 decades of watching the NBA seen a player so completely and totally shut down over the course of an entire series. Yeah, dudes will struggle some, maybe their averages go down a point or three. The playoffs are where stars are made ...
Where in the world are you getting your information? According to nba.com tracking in these playoffs Ant has averaged 77.6 touches per game. Jalen averaged 55.4. https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches?dir=D&sort=TOUCHES Always and I mean ALWAYS double check people who just say numbers without posting links. People on clutchfans will say anything and just hope you believe it.
it's just wild that even after one playoff series with clear stats showing just how bad Jalen performed his homer fans still make excuses for him. The man shot 8 field goals in an elimination game playind 30 minutes. He had the ball in his hands many times but he was SHOOK and decided to defer rather than take shots. And people are going on about how the system isn't suited to him. GTFO of here, he had OPEN SHOTS that he literally played hot potato with. I'm declaring Jalen a bust.
What a silly silly thought. That role is for a catch and shoot role player and we had plenty who could fit there - Whitmore is in his 2nd sesaon, Reed was just drafted as a combo guard who didn't get enough minutes because we were "too good", Brooks can guard 2's and catch/shoot, plus they could have done what they eventually did: gone bigger. Could have started Adams or Tari and move Amen to the 2. Most important of all, they didn't acquire anyone in the summer and gave him the most shots and the 2nd most minutes. Absurd of you to say there was no other option but to give him the start, the 2nd most minutes and the most shots. No, not every opponent takes someone out of the game that aggressively. That's the dumbest thing I've heard this week. Teams try that sometimes and it may work for a while but coaches then bring in shooters and they torch it. There are no coaches who counter that with bringing in another non-shooter lol. The reason other dudes don't see this dramatic a reduction in points I stated and you conveniently ignored: there are no coaches who tell the guy to just pass it to the next guy without attempting to break it. In fact any star would simply refuse to be marginalized that way and Ime wouldn't dare do that to an established veteran. Any star player if they pass off and we lose, the player's agency is coming for Ime's ass and Ime is put on the hot seat in the news. Jalen Green just obeyed his stupid ass instructions. That's why the attempts are way down. Chris Finch came out and told Edwards to force the issue, put him on notice publicly. Exact opposite of Ime's strategy. You are acting like there's a hierarchy but there isn't. Ime doesn't want it. You want it. The truth is Ime wants to play the "always us" style where a role player can end up a hero. If there was a hierarchy and this team was on Green's shoulders, the starting line up would be designed to suit him. That's not the team we started at all. Our #1 option was Sengun. The double big lineup suits Sengun. Slow pace suits Sengun. FVV PnR suits Sengun. Crowded post least affects Sengun. Stop acting like Jalen Green was the guy this was hinged on. That's our #2 option that the other team treated like an MVP for some reason (and he's NOT good enough to beat that single handedly regardless of circumstances, he's flat out not nor did I expect him to be). You're such an idiot, the one game they didn't do it to him he won us 1 of out 3 of our wins practically single handedly. He put up 38 points on single coverage - something no one else was able to sniff on single coverage. Why in the F was no one else capable of punishing them 4 on 3 except FVV for a couple of games?? There's no criticism anywhere for him being unable to pass, all the criticism is why didn't he go against his coach and force the issue. That's because the other 4 failed at punishing the advantage that Ime wanted to create. If we needed Jalen to break that, then we should obviously surround him with shooters exactly as Finch does. As any reasonable offensive coach would do. Don't act like you wouldn't be sitting here going like "why didn't he just pass off to create the 4 on 3 advantage instead of forcing the issue??". I said 2 weeks before the playoffs if we go all in on 48 minutes of 2 non-shooters he will average in the mid 30's FG% and that's to the dot exactly what happened. He averaged his contested jumper rate and barely ever got to the rim. The only thing I was shocked by was how stubborn Ime got with doubling down on less and less spacing till we took what 18 3PA in the final game? That's a f*cking joke, no amount of midrange mastery could have made up that gap.
Our players did not perform in the playoffs and nobody really thought they would. The FO and Ime were satisfied just to make the playoffs. Stone’s lack of action at the deadline and Ime sitting his starters the last 3 games even when we had a week off should have tipped us all off. Ime and Stone were solely focused on making the playoffs. A good coach and FO would have recognized that the West was historically weak and that we were going to make at least the play-in and with just a few moves or better preparation could make some noise. Ime did nothing to prepare for playoff basketball. Even the dumbest of fans knew that other teams would pack the paint and dare us to shoot. What did Ime do to prepare for that? What did Stone do to prepare for that? Nothing. They were satisfied just to get there. What is disturbing to me, is they seem content to just run it back again. When they re-sign FVV the writing is on the wall and we will have another wasted year of slow plodding basketball that will get you to the playoffs (probably a lower seed) and then bow out in the first round again. I believe Stone has turned over roster construction to Ime, God help us. Look for a Marcus Smart signing, LOL.
What's really disturbing about it is they claim to be taking a wait and see approach as if this offense is going to reveal to them something magical. But what kind of test is this when Amen is going at the most packed paint in the NBA with the defense comfy while a Tyrese Haliburton is going against the most spacious paint in the NBA before the defense is set? Is that really going to tell you if Amen is ready to play PG? Don't you think Amen's handle is going to be under a lot more pressure and his assists/FT's become limited? Listen to Ime in the press conference calling Amen a swiss army knife as if he's a jack of all trades rather than one of the highest potential downhill players in the NBA. Jesus. Look at what Amen achieved with some pace in game 5 before they stupidly slowed it back down for games 6 and 7. Those guys were the tired old team and we rested them up voluntarily. If their DPOY is committed to Sengun, Jalen is being doubled to death (even if let's say he's being weak minded), how do you not then make the adjustment to get Amen downhill with multiple options to kick out to? Sengun was hitting his 3's at a WAY higher rate than Draymond in the series - why on earth is it possible for Draymond to stay out of Butler/Curry's way but it's not possible to bring Sengun out so that you bring Draymond out? So that we can go to the post where Draymond has shut Sengun down all season or so that we can beg for a miracle hot shooting night from midrange? This is allegedly a selfless team where we always share the ball yet we're dogshit at gathering assists? How? We have 3 passers on the court and we're unselfish and we're garbage at assists - how? My fear is Sengun/Amen/Green are too young to have a voice and Ime is running around unchecked. No lead assistant who would dare challenge him. No basketball guy in the front office. That's one extra reason I want Durant. He doesn't take the ball out of the playmakers' hands so much, he is a two way player and he will call Ime out if he's messing up. He'll have a voice with the front office, and he is obviously very fond of all our young guys. He becomes almost like the spokesperson for the core, which is great while they grow. I'll tell you one thing. Nook made a very interesting comment that Stone is very positive in public but not so much in private meetings with Ime. If it's one thing I've learned in life is that a person is who he is everywhere. If Stone is willing to be two-faced with Ime, then I bet what Stone tells Tilman is also not what he's sharing with Ime in their meetings. Normally that's devious, but for the purposes of this team it's a blessing. There I have hope that Stone is taking notes and can see that this coach is on a dead end path: there's no system where your defense is so good that your offense doesn't matter, there's no such thing in basketball. To have a good offense you're going to have to take some risks, let some good shooters miss a couple of defensive assignments and have a couple of more TO's to play at a crisp pace.
It's literally happening to him right now. he has Rudy effing Gobert... that guy is a negative on offense. He also has Julius Randle who isn't a great shooter. Wolves have no spacing. He manages cuz he's awesome. He is being blitzed and doubled and still manages to look 8 million times better than Jalen....
At this point they've moved on from hoping Jalen Green becomes the next Kobe to just defending their stance on Jalen Green at all costs regardless of whether or not it makes sense. I think they just enjoy getting people to react. Anthony Edwards has scored less than 20 pts once this postseason and is averaging 26.6 ppg including 36, 20 and 23 against the Warriors that Im guessing "trapped Jalen Green" way more than they've "trapped the Ant Man".
@jordnnnn @PeterKingX @Joe Rocket It is obvious to me all of you hate Jalen Green. And it is very clear you all have no interest in the finer details of the game. You have no interest in further thought or discovery on the topic. But it is unnecessary to attack my assessment that Edwards has struggled against this defense much like Green and my statement that he had an inefficient night. All which are substantiated by facts. To have thoughts is one thing but to do nothing but offer mere conjecture, emotional filled tirades, and insults instead of critical analysis using facts, observation, and knowledge of the game is pointless. I laid out exactly why the Rockets and Green struggled and why Edwards while struggling still has more opportunities than Green—to which none of you had an intelligent response. Yet like wolves you attacked with no rational thoughts but insults. Didn’t bother to read nothing further you all wrote since what you all put out is garbage. I do not respect this. Maybe one day your curiosity will lead you to learn about the game more to have more fruitful discussions. Have a great day ladies and gentlemen
Kudos, at least you have some kind of epiphany, what they hate more than Jalen Green is to talk about certain aspects of Jalen Green with you.
