Rockets' Jalen Green Needs a Permanent Home in the Paint Jalen Green is a high-volume shooter from the mid-range and three-point line. However, his skills might be better suited to establish himself as a slashing threat. Trenton Whiting | The offensive struggles for the Houston Rockets have reached the national discussion after two rough outings on that end during the highly-publicized NBA Cup. One of the team’s main issues is its lack of consistent perimeter scoring from its starting backcourt. Starting point guard Fred VanVleet was always meant to take a secondary role in the offense, organizing sets to create opportunities for his teammates. The bigger issue is with his backcourt mate. Jalen Green is a shooting guard that could potentially benefit from shooting less. Green’s most efficient shot is in the paint. According to shotcreator, a site that aggregates detailed player percentages, Green is shooting nearly 70 percent in the paint. His overall 3-point percentage is around 31%; not a great mark for a player that shoots more than seven 3-pointers a game. Green is absolutely capable of a hot-shooting night from beyond the arc, it just hasn’t happened often enough to be a consistent weapon. The natural counter to a bad shooting night is to get more shots in the mid-range; another area where Green struggles. His shooting touch from just outside the paint is about 25%. That’s the area where guards traditionally take floaters and runners to beat help-defenders who slide over to stop layups. Green doesn’t have a consistent floater in his game at this point in his career. From even further out, Green is shooting an even worse percentage. He attempts a lot of moving and stepback shots, which are difficult and inefficient. He doesn’t hit them at a high enough clip to use as a weapon in his game either. His explosiveness in attacking the basket and his added creativity in his finishes explain his efficiency close to the rim. However, his numbers are significantly worse any further from the basket than a layup. Green is a high-volume deep range shooter. Unfortunately, his three-point shooting is often one of his weaknesses outside of his rare hot shooting nights. His only efficient three-point shot is in the right-side corner with a 47% clip. He hasn’t hit a single three this season from the opposite corner, and he’s shooting just about 31 percent on threes that aren’t in either corner. The problem is, it’s clear Green has worked on finding moves and counters to create shots for himself on the perimeter. It may work more in his favor to focus solely on how to increase his ability to get to the rim. Players like the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are two elite guards who don’t depend on a jump shot. Morant might be a strong model for Green’s game as they share elite athleticism. Green has a slight frame like Gilgeous-Alexander, and could benefit from learning his combos and counters that give him leverage, especially against physical defenders. A combination of both players’ abilities to get to the rim could culminate in Jalen Green if he committed to becoming a star slasher instead of forcing it with his jump shot. The paint is where Green is most efficient. Developing his skill set to get to the rim at will could recover the perception of his game in year four. https://www.si.com/nba/rockets/news/houston-rockets-jalen-green-needs-paint-vs-perimeter-offense
Should JG take more touches in the paint -- he is shooting nearly 70 percent in this area... now that the frontcourt offense is ineffecient as well -- the BULK 3point experiment/training of the Rockets offence should size down and explore other offensive approach -- slashing maybe, with Green and Cam... don't know -- can't comprehend what the Rockets' management are scheming
These guys need to take accountability but this is kind of on Ime too. He just doesnt know how out together a coherent offense. This was his problem in Boston too but he got bailed out by his superstars. When the new coach in Boston took over he completely redid the offense.
we're 17th in open threes. problem is the clank bros are shooting the most threes. either Jabar / Dillon should take more threes or Amen / Tari more cuts to the basket
There is little practice time during the season. He will not be developing new moves in the paint until the off-season which may be too late for the Rockets.
4th year uber athletic speed and vertical freak needs more practice in the paint/rim maybe Stone and/or Silas from the beginning convinced JG he'll be the next Klay or JG convinced himself. Even 6'2 Curry is better in the paint/rim
This is exactly right. Ime has turned the Rockets around, but in order to take the next step he will have to become a better offensive coach or turn over the reigns over to an assistant. I'm really sick of Ime getting a pass while he b****es about his players even though they pretty much do everything he asks.
Anyone better at compiling stats than me can show what Jalen's stats are whenever Amen is starting? Gut feeling is that playing Jalen next to Fred & Sengun just isn't working and it's more of a fit thing than anything. All 3 of Jalen,ALP, Fred are some of the most inefficient players in the league, there has to be a conversation about long term fit amongst those 3. Have we ever seen a game where all 3 had a good game at once?
https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/t...de=Totals&dir=D&slug=traditional&sort=FG3_PCT https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/11/lineups#tab-four_factors
Lamelo threw more lobs in 1 game than FVV had thrown to JG all year … long as we have FVV slowing the pace letting defenses getting setup - JG is going to have difficult time getting to rim (with or without Adam’s setting screens) We could use more motion and cutting in our offense - by a PG who can actually make layups over someone taller than a Toddler
SGA takes 46% of his shots as 2s from outside the restricted area. He's 48% in 3-10ft range. 51% in 10-16ft range. 41% in the 16-22ft range. In comparison, Jalen is taking 41% of his shots as 2s outside the restricted area and making 37%, 22%, and 26% from the same ranges. If someone actually believes SGA doesn't have an elite jumpshot, he clearly has never seen the Thunder play in the past few years.
Jalen's midrange is worse than Amen's, not even close. I have more confidence watching Amen than Jalen shoot jump shot in the paint.
I’m not arguing with you at all on this point…just wanted to say the other night against OKC there was a play where Amen caught the ball at the FT line in rotation and put up a shot from there. No one even took a step out to try to contest it. He missed it. Man, that’s disrespectful when a defense doesn’t even feel like they have to step out to defend you taking a shot from the FT line. This team desperately needs shooters.
Yeah, that's my point. Amen's jump shooting is a very low bar. And Jalen is shooting even worse. Granted, it's not a large sample size because neither guy shoots a lot from that distance. But man, we can't even punish teams of letting us shoot from the FT line.
Jalen takes over 16 shots per game, so no, the reason he's a dogshit player isn't because he's not getting enough shots.
