It’s baked in that he’s a streaky player. The reality is until there is someone more consistently scoring like an all star guard available to trade for or that develops behind him then you still stick with the guy who can occasionally going on a tear and score 40 some nights. You just need to have an offense that doesn’t necessarily need that on a nightly basis to win and have a defense that can win tight games when players like this have disappearing acts. He’s a much different type of player but in terms of role as a scorer, importance, but having a role that isn’t reliant on you being hot nightly… I think about Jason Terry with the Mavs back in the day. Guy was very important when he could go off it would change the game, but he wasn’t a nightly basis reliance for them to gameplan to run their offense solely through. JR Smith on Melo’s Nuggets teams is another example. I’m sure the Mavs and Nuggets back then would have loved to trade either guy for Kobe but that just wasn’t a reality. Same here currently with Jalen. Luka, Ant, Tatum, etc.. those superstars aren’t coming here anytime soon. So you roll with the best you got and we know that like Terry and JR you gotta give yourself that upside on a nightly basis is there’s that opportunity to have a burst of scoring even if it’s not something you are relying on with your schemes.
He's always capable of going off like this, the question is can he sustain it? If he can continue to play aggressive and cut back on the three point attempts like he did tonight, it's possible. I liked that he only took 6 three point attempts instead of like 8 or 9 and the rest of his attempts were mostly around the basket. I think 5 or 6 three point shots per game is the sweet spot for him. That puts him around the range of other players with his general archetype (speedy athletic smaller guard with a mediocre jump shot), like Ja Morant and De'Aaron Fox. I think that's one of his biggest problems--he should be modeling his game after guys with similar strengths and weaknesses, it feels like instead he models his playstyle after Curry, Harden, etc--guys who are much better shooters but don't have the same level of quickness and leaping ability. The other problem is that his rim finishing isn't usually as good as it was tonight. To fix that I think he needs some combination of greater physical strength plus more ability to change his pace rather than just diving full speed at the rim every time. But maybe learning to drive better is partly just going to involve doing it more often. Definitely think that's step one so I'm glad Ime's trying to get him working in that direction.
It‘s great that he hit his shots, but I think something else is even more important that he did tonight: getting to the free throw line. Let‘s say he would have missed two more threes to get his percentage to 33% and one more 2 to get his overall percentage under 50% - that would still be 33 points on 20 shots. A player like Green should feast on the free throw line every game, averaging something like 10FTA per game. He can get by basically any defender. Stars have figured out, how to get fouls. Even if i dont like all the arms flailing around, it is extremely effective and almost essential in todays NBA. Plus it helps shooters to get their shooting touch back. Green would be a lot less streaky overall, if he would get a good portion of his points from the line. I think this is the next step he desperately needs to take - and I think it is not too unrealistic that he can.
One thing's for sure he shouldn't take 56 threes a game. He can't shoot and when he misses those 3s it ****s him up mentally. He should attack the rim and hope that refs call those fouls. That's the worrying part those fouls will not be called in the playoffs. That's why we need a reliable shooting guard who will contribute us in the playoffs with his shooting when the defences are set.
This team goes where Alpi and Jalen takes it. So he was very good in this game, hope this will be beginning of consistent performance from him.. One night great, other 3 , 4 nights bricking balls.. This is not good... We need Jalen.. l hope.he becomes consistent...
Getting him downhill is what I like to hear from Udoka. You gotta find a way to get JG and Alperen comfortable, because the roof on this team explodes If you fully unlock those two players. They both seem uncomfortable to me still.
These long twos annoy me. Missing shots is one thing; knowingly walking just inside the three-point line and taking a long two early in the shot clock, ignoring teammates...that's bad. The other interesting thing here is that he is actually the best free throw shooter in that group and somewhat ok on catch and shoot threes. But the worst on pull-up threes. This should to a large extent be fixable with more intelligent shot selection.
Not Caruso obviously but if you’re bringing an MVP caliber mostly offensive player as a comparison, you should compare it to a similar caliber defensive player. Nash can control a game offensively. Caruso cannot control a game defensively. It’s half the game, no matter how you manipulate the game roughly half the possessions are defensive and the people winning the championships seem to have to be in the exact same range offensively and defensively (top 10 defense and top 10 offense is over 90% of NBA champions IIRC). They can swing a series or two by protecting scorers in the playoffs but overall… it’s roughly 50-50.
No one wants to listen, they think it’s excuses if we think about creating space in the paint for an obviously not-so-good shooter who has previously shown for entire season he can get to the line 6+ times a game as a skinny teenager. They want to whine about how Jalen is not a good shooter instead of accepting the reality of the situation that he is not good enough to take almost exactly as many 3PTers a game as Damian freaking Lillard. I don’t know how they were ever expecting that. I wanted him to improve his mechanics AND take fewer 3’s this season in favor of more FTA’s. “Why should we do anything different for a person who is dipping way below his career stats?” Because you might get 20-30 efficient points out of him way more often - which helps our offense. Jalen has to get to the line to help you. It’s how he should start every game then only punish them from 3 if they sag too much (4-5 attempts per game max). When FVV/Sengun is not working, Jalen and 4 shooters has been very successful for us when it’s happened. That should be our plan B and I think we should definitely stagger Jalen and Alpi’s minutes. Brooks/Landale Jabari Tari Green Sheppard On 3PT shooting I’m very disappointed in Green and to some extent Sengun for how they’ve done so far this season, it was clear to me the problem with their PnR is no one respects any of their 3PT shots and they haven’t fixed that. We have to split their minutes if Green keeps starting. Amen and Tari are better off overlapping with FVV/Sengun and get hustle points off them. That way I can see Green actually helping our offense. He wouldn’t need to take nearly as many 3’s to get points and I’m sure it would improve his efficiency and stabilize his production. He can focus on getting to the rim where he has a higher FG% than Sengun when less than 5 feet from the basket.
Preach!! I've been saying the same things. This game was obviously a guards game, the floor was spread and he was able to maneuver, get his shots, and get the fell of the game.
If he can't play with Sengun then he should come off the bench. A second unit of Tari, Green, and Landale with a mixture of Amen and Jabari could give him the spacing he needs to help this team on a consistent basis. If last night was the anomaly, then find a way to make the anomoly the norm. FVV has always sucked at scoring at the rim, but he is doing it better and more often than Green this year. I hope he can have more games like this one and more efficient games where he is getting to the line and taking less 3's, but count me as skeptical.
