This is incorrect. On shots within 5ft of the basket March - 67% on 4.9 FGA/game April - 52% on 3.1 FGA/game As with all other aspects of his game, Jalen's at-the-rim efficiency took a huge dip at the end of the season.
He finished better at the rim during the 8 games he shot 47% from 3, then it fell apart because he went back to being the awful player he has been his entire career
I personally just attribute to him playing playoff caliber teams instead of tanking teams late in the season. He wasn't nearly as good against opponents who bothered to scheme against him. s
I don't even think it's that, he's a terrible shooter, the 47% from 3 fluke simply couldn't hold up for long and when his shooting crashed back down to earth, the rest of his play that was elevated by that fluke came crashing down too
It may sound that way, but it's not. Even last year with his 8 game fluke that was so good it was enough to elevate a large part of the season and make it seem decent....at the end of the day he was one of the 20 or so worst shooters in the entire NBA by most measures.....and offense is the closest thing to a strength he has. He's in no way close to average. If you like inefficient, selfish, godawful chuckers, Jalen Green is your guy, if you like quality NBA performance, he's not.
its so annoying to have this look back and judge whether he had a good game based solely on whether he shot from 3 well enough, or even overall from the field as if its the only thing to the game. I am all for efficiency, and think its incredibly important, but holy shiit there is so much more to basketball. Players have GREAT games while being inefficient every night of the season in regards to their standards. This random blanket statement/cutoff is a disrespect to the game and any player you use this barometer on. Not in reference to Jalen only, any player. Its lazy analysis
You’re 1000% correct, but Jalen isn’t very good at any of the other facets of the game. If Jalen isn’t shooting well he gets benched. That happened repeatedly this season. He doesn’t offer enough otherwise. I’ve used the phrase “make or miss player” about Jalen here a lot. I think that’s a fair assessment.
Udoka has gotten one of the key things he wanted this off season - players that can shoot… Reed, Griffin and the Aussie can shoot…. No one will benefit more from that than Jalen Green. The spacing will be better giving Green more open shots and more room to operate in the paint. Green is being set up for a big year. I’m hoping for 25 a night with improving efficiency. The transition game with Green, Reed, Thomas, Jabari and Adams couple lead to a lot of good shots for Jalen.
This has been the case since they drafted him. Last year he did improve his defense somewhat and his passing took a big step forward.
He absolutely improved defensively. At the same time, he’s still not a good defender. When his shot isn’t falling he’s on the bench. Other guys can offer a lot more defensively and shoot just as poorly.
But he CONSISTENTLY got better and better as the year progressed at a multitude of things including defense intensity rebounding facilitating dribbling passing effort Things he was already really good at even tho he "sucked" seperation creating his own shot penetration This whole stupid narrative that he does nothing valuable is straight mularky. He has insane athleticism and a talent to use that to his advantage. He DOES NOT do it efficiently yet. That is the issue. he just needs to be efficient. Efficiency is his issue. But he improved vastly at all his "weaknesses" except being efficient.
He is absolutely ELITE at transition defense. He may not be great overall, but hes at least average now, and that doesnt get the respect it deserves. Especially considering where he came from.
I feel like we can do better than Jalen Green. Improvement on being not good doesn’t make someone good. He’s not a plus defender. I hope he becomes a better shooter and if not I hope we can trick someone into unloading some assets for him. I have no illusion he’s on a path to be a very good defender…the shots need to fall.
I think its obvious this fanbase just doesnt know how to handle a rebuild and stomach growth. We middled for so long and got absolutely blessed with Harden. After Lucking into yao and trading for Tmac. We just havent had to suffer through a proper rebuild even tho its what fans alwasy wanted.
Being great at everything but “efficiency” is pretty funny. “There is this guy down at my local gym who does everything great, but for some damn reason he shoots from half-court every possession. Once he finds his efficiency he will be a baller though!”
These are valid points. I wouldn’t say he improved "vastly", but there was improvement. He’s sill not a good player, though. May not be awful, but "bad-to-average" Let’s see how the season starts, he needs to improve a lot more to be a net positive for the team. The other thing that should help him is Adams, I mean this guy made his living clearing lanes for Westbrook. Which leads me to this: for the love of god, have Jalen come off the bench! It’s so obvious, having a potential scorer on the second unit, tag-teaming with lane-clearer Adams, playing against sub-par opponents, which is something he can do better… (this last point is not really sarcasm… A player like Dream for example, would not have a delta based on opponent, and in fact Dream produced better against better opponents. Jalen Green seems to be All-NBA against bad opponents… who are more likely to be bench players. It’s a no-brainer, really, he needs to come off the bench)
