Since the day Udoka got here, when we are spamming Sengun/FVV PnR (most of the time), we are one of the slowest teams in the NBA. When he went down last season, our pace improved. When we started this season with a high pace, he struggled. In both of those instances, Green and Amen played their best basketball. Not only do we have a slow pace with Sengun but the execution is slow too. We are not running Princeton. We are certainly not running it fast with crisp execution as a Princeton offense should be. Even in transition, we’re like 21st IIRC. We are slow, try watching other slow teams. Just visualize the 4 starters around green are Sengun, FVV, Brooks and Jabari. 4 of the least athletic and slowest starters in the NBA. It’s absurd. Fast means we are pushing in transition, we are executing fast, we move the ball around quickly. We don’t do these things. Nuggets are running a machine over there it’s not even comparable. I wouldn’t worry about Green. Udoka knows how to design the offense for him to score now. Just needs shooters and pace. The only area green is having a down year is inside the paint and no one forgets how to do that over one summer. Will obviously bounce back. FT’s and 3’s both looking good which is a great sign. Sengun can play any style, I’m not worried about that either.
His FG% is disgustingly low even for an inefficient SG and that's because he is a terrible iso player like he must be the worst in the entire league at ISOs.
I agree. It isn’t about Alperen Sengun, it is about Udoka’s offensive system. It is not the best system for either JG or Alperen. Udoka reminds me a lot of JVG. Great coach. Similar weaknesses.
we shouldn't worry about Jalen... Just let Ime give more exposure to the other young ones - to have the chance to earn their extensions too.
Yeah but a young Udoka can avoid JVG’s mistake of not learning enough about offense. Offense is not a side-weakness though. It’s half of all coaching. Can’t be weak at half of basketball and be a good HC. Coaches like that need playmakers who will act as offensive coordinator (Harden, Lebron, CP3 types) and basically do their job for them. That’s lazy. It’s how you end up being Tyrone Lue or Doc Rivers > one random championship with elite playmakers and then many many disappointing seasons without them.
The problem I have with Green is that he just takes so many difficult shots. Which results in inconsistency. At the beginning of the year he still took these difficult shots he just made them but that is not sustainable. Green is just not good at attacking a set defense. For an amazingly fast player he is very bad at getting past his man in an iso setting. Also he just looks for his own shot. How many pick and rolls do we have to see where he cannot make the pass to the roller after the pick, and tries to attack a defender multiple times when he cannot get past them. I do not understand why we do not play through Alpi en let hem start the offense and let Green attack a defense that is already recovering from defending Alpi. He would thrive in such an offense.
Couldn’t disagree more. If the paint is spaced, Green activates downhill mode and no one can stay in front of him. The packed paint means he’s thinking about 2-3 defenders to beat. The defenders recovering from Alpi are sitting in the paint. By the time Green receives that ball the defense is set and the paint is packed. The right shot will always be a 3PTer in this offense. Green like many similar guards just needs average spacing and pace. Not the best. Just average. That’s what you do for SG’s who are not great shooters. We need to design an offense that allows wings to succeed. Practically all the wings/guards are struggling to meet expectations when it comes to attacking the rim since Udoka got here. They can’t ALL coincidentally struggle at it. This is a systematic issue. You can’t have an offense that does not cater at all in any way to our perimeter scorers. They can’t live off a big man’s leftover catch and shoot opportunities. Most important fact of all: we ran the experiment of being one dimensional with Sengun/FVV last season. You can’t survive on one play with one guy, that’s a suicidal strategy. Teams crushed it by mid season last season, the efficiency dropped dramatically. What is the other thing you’re going to run when Wemby is clamping Sengun for example? Do you have to take Sengun off the floor is that really the only way? No, this team obviously needs something that utilizes all 7 core players better.
I agree that we need to utilize the core 7 better. Our offense is terrible. But do you feel like we are playing through Sengun? When we look at his assists it does not look like we are using him to set up his teammates. To me it is mainly one on one from the guards (Or is Greens case one on 3). Which they are all bad at, hence they all struggle. I am not saying post Sengun op on every possession. But use him in different ways. Sometimes posting up, sometime pick and roll and also as a connector like Sabonis is used. For example when you do play pick and roll and Sengun gets the ball at the top of the key, he can score of if the defense tries to help he will be able to pass to the open Green and then Green can attack the defense who is trying to recover. Sengun is a unique offensive player who can do a lot, he can score from the post, he can score from the pick and roll and he can pass. But in our offense he is used very sparingly in favor of a low efficient guard trying to do what he is actually not good at (breaking defenses down one on one). Green is not a player that you can give the ball to who can then break down the defense and can get his teammates good shots. But we are trying to use him like that.
thats the concerning thing though; Jalen didn’t earn his extension. We didn’t enjoy the ride the first 3 yrs, so we bought a more expensive ticket for another 3 yrs? We can’t even trade him on one of his upswings this season on account of the extension I guess after 3 yrs they couldn’t properly evaluate him so they gave him a shorter extension as a hedge. Some were hailing that as a smart move. To me if you have real doubts after 3 yrs you don’t extend prematurely.
That is crazy bad, and matches the eye test. Jalen can take whatever shot he wants - as long as it's in the flow of the offense - I feel nothing negative and ride with the result. His iso hog ball hero shots I shake my head every single time. And you can see them coming from a mile away.
Maybe you just don't watch Houston Rockets games. Maybe you're just blind and seeing what you want to see to hype your boy. Silly me, I thought the ridiculous abundance of wide open shots on the perimeter is actually doing a damn good job of catering to the perimeter scorers. It couldn't be - no, surely not - it couldn't be just the fact the perimeter scorers are just not that good. Even with all the wiiiide open shots they get. Nah, can't be that. The funny thing is, ask 1,000,000 shooters across the globe what they'd want on a basketball court - if they're scorers - 1,000,000 of them answer wide open shots. What a coincidence.
11 games in and Jalen is back averaging sub 40% from the field and a mediocre 34% from 3. I think the call of this being Jalen's breakout year after the first handful of games is still very premature. His defense might be passable but his offense is still incredibly hit and miss.
I think if he just plays the way he always played, the contract is still tradable after this season. Or you just accept him with his flaws - if Alpi, Amen, Tari continue to impress, he adds some dynamic (although inconsistent) scoring to that core. The one who got underpaid (but is ok with it) is Alpi, of course.
yeah but we need shooter. We need our shooting guard to be a shooter. If you are building around Sengun, Tari and Amen you need shooters. Jalen is not a shooter. You don’t pay $36 mil in today’s nba for a non-shooting guard. And the worst part is..,we didn’t have to. I just really can’t stand the AAU iso overdribbling bad shooting basketball. Like the defensive improvement but we all know, if Jalen can’t improve his shot he’s not a good fit on a team with a significant shooting deficiency.
Fair. He is more of a slasher than a consistent shooter. Would be so nice if he could shoot 40 % on threes. His 3-point shooting splits continue to be weird. He basically doesn't shoot any corner threes at all, I don't know why. The few he shoots, he is terrible at (he is also terrible at mid-range). And when he is wide open (no defender within 6+ feet), he shoots worse than when there is a defender closing in (4-6 ft range): 27 % - similar to FVV this year. With a defender within 4-6 ft, he is better, shooting 46 %: But when the defenders are within 2-4 ft, he is down to 28 %: Last year, it was similar - he was better when a defender was within 4-6 ft than when he was wide open.
Like why didn’t we do what GS did with Kaminga? I’d love someone to make a legit argument why the Jalen extension was a better approach than preserving the option to make a Giddy-type trade or let him hit RFA. I’m begging for sound logic here.
