serious question: why with all his "explosiveness and athleticism" can't or don't he attack the rim more often though? right now his 60th in drives per game. just ahead of reeves and PG13. FVV is 51st. even slow unathletic cade is 4th and washed up out of shape harden is 11th. does the special athlete need a special coach and teammates to have a clear wide open runway?
I really want to understand how these 3PT shots we're getting are being called good shots when practically everyone is struggling from 3PT range as well as there being random dips/swings in 2PT% (Sengun/Green/Brooks/Whitmore down, FVV/Tari/Amen up). When almost the entire team is struggling, you have to wonder if it's systemic. I think we're accepting 3PT shots way too easily for the players we have. I would rather see more drives and bringing the ball up faster even if it means a couple of more TO's. Our offensive improvement since last season is almost entirely on the back of Amen/Tari's potent new impact on the game. The team is a historic rebounding team, so the team is working their a$$ off for Ime. They deserve some slightly better spacing to do their thing on offense more easily. When Jalen reduces his 3PT attempts, the pressure mounts on the others and I think they're all maxed out in terms of # of attempts they should take (FVV/Jabari/Brooks/Sengun). If Green takes a ton he struggles. If they take a ton they struggle. We're just juggling this problem. Green is not good at taking more than 4-5 mostly catch and shoot 3's. The only time we seem to be able to handle the volume of 3's we need to take is when we play Jabari at the 5. Ultimately we need a trade and the right one for us will be something like Dillon Brooks (if his stats dip and normalize) for Duncan Robinson and Josh Richardson. On top of that we need to use only Jabari and Landale as Sengun's backups - spread the floor as much as possible with what we have. In that way I think we can maintain a top 3 defense but make a significant improvement to the offense. Sengun/Jabari/Landale Jabari/Robinson/Tari Tari/Amen (or vice versa) Green/Richardson/Whitmore FVV/Sheppard That's a much more competent team of shooters plus we've replaced our worst transition/rebounding player with one of our best so we're bound to benefit a ton from that. Could probably achieve league-average spacing with this set up. Would love to see Sengun/Amen/Green in that environment.
It's not just Jalen - it's with Amen too who is also one of the fastest, most athletic players in the NBA. We are one of the worst 3pt shooting teams in the league - teams can help('dig at the nail' is a common defensive scheme used to deter guys who can easily beat the first defender) on Jalen drives immediately and mostly it just means they surrender bricked 3pt Houston shots. This is why I keep talking about Reed finding a way to be a confident shooter to start establishing gravity for himself because most of the guys on our team currently have never been particularly strong 3pt shooters so none of them have earned he gravity that can make defenders stick to them and allow the lanes Jalen and Amen need. This is ALSO why it's important that Alpi develops more range because otherwise there is always going to be a help defender sitting at the rim that guys like Amen and Jalen have to shoot over and around. It won't solve all of Jalen's problems but he probably gets 6-8 more points and a handful of extra fouls on the defense if he has better shooting around him. Similarly Amen would see more of those opportunities on a better shooting team.
Great post - love the connection you draw between Jalen's 3pt shooting struggles on volume vs those of the rest of the roster - someone has to take those shots because teams are giving them to us by design. I don't know if Robinson is the guy because of his defensive struggles but 100% agree with a need to bring a shooter with gravity in to unlock both the shooting but also to give guys like Amen and Green more room to drive without defenders helping off our 3pt shooters.
OKC is shooting 34.5% from the three but Shai is 1st in the league in drives Detroit shooting 35% from the three but Cade is 4th in the league in drives SAC is 25th in 3FG% but Fox is 7th in drives
I mean there is a reason Jalen Green walks into a wide open three pointer after almost every screen until he makes like row in a row which the. Teams start blitzing hom NBA team defenses are just flat out more worried about Green attacking the rim than making a wide open three point shot he walks into. You see ridiculous amounts of drop coverage when teams defend Green and Amen. With Green they'll start blitzing when he makes a couple in a row but will take their chances with Amen even if he makes a couple in a row.
This specifically has to do with our offensive scheme the past month that freezes out on ball reps for Green for entire quarter stretches. You need the ball in your hands to drive to the rim. Those other guys have the ball in their hands a lot more. Not saying it's a bad or good decision by Ime. Green was struggling and the coaching staff decided to get he ball out of Green's hands by a lot over the past month. Maybe they overcorrected but they've been winning games so it's hard to complain about that decision. Green also this season seems to have regressed in ball security when driving to the rim. The ball seems to pop out more often now when he attacks.
Not sure if it's bait or Jalen and the coaching staff wanting Jalen to "get gud" at those open pull up threes from a screen so teams stop playing heavy drop coverage. I think the goal was to make teams stop playing that type of coverage. And the only way they stop is if Green consistently is hitting those type of threes at a respectable rate.
I see "the bait" as the '17 seconds or more left on the shot clock wide open 3 coming off a screen' shot. That seems to be the shot our coaching staff is trying to discourage Jalen from taking more recently because the odds are we can find a better percentage shot in our set.
That metric speaks to construction of your offense. When we dump the ball down into the Senhub - we limit the opportunities for drives. Jalen and Fred both drive about as much as other guys who operate with ball dominant bigs like Jamal Murray in Denver. Ultimately there is some relationship to who has the most usage on your team.
