My experience is that there might not be anyone on the planet who is better/more creative in highlighting the “positives” in Jalens game.
This is why literacy doesn't just stop at "ability to read sentences". Literacy includes ability to understand context, comprehension etc. Never did I mention anything about it being "positive". I was specifically countering a claim he never has good games against good teams.
Ya it's like the dude who was talking about jalen being a top 10 midrange shooter but when you look at the actual numbers....he's nowhere close obviously.
The reason they don't work is simple - its a matter of how teams defend him / them. Neither can shoot a plus percentage so they don't honor the outside shot, rather they pack the paint and neither of them can get to the rim. You can't attack the rim when teams are going under picks, and Jalen can't beat them off the dribble because they are playing so far off. Teams flat out invite them to take those shots - every time he does, it's a win for the defense. The only solution is for Jalen to shoot a better percentage and force teams to honor that threat .... otherwise, we're gonna get more of the same - a packed paint.
Speed doesn't matter when defenders have enough space to recover - a product of not respecting the outside shot. Compound that with another defender already in the paint .... and what you see is what you get.
I was trying to be nice to Jalen. He really is just Jordan Poole/Jordan Clarkson. I'd say Cam Thomas as well but he's a little more efficient. Morey would be salivating at Jalen Green the trade piece.
So what would happen to those players if they played under Ime and were demanded to play the minimum standard level of defensive effort according to him? All these guys are in chuck fest tanking teams with no expectations to try on defense. Remember when Jalen Green was 20 years old playing in a similar type team as those guys mentioned with no expectations to try anything besides "get buckets" he averaged 22 ppg... As a 20 year old. Ya, on the current Nets team Green would be averaging 25+ ppg easily
I remember watching a game like 10+ years ago (or at least it felt that long ago) with JVG as an announcer. Breen described someone as an "inconsistent shooter" and JVG went on one of his rants and concluded that a good shooter, is, by definition, a consistent shooter. So "inconsistent shooter" was just a more gentle way of saying bad shooter.
Ya that makes no sense. JVG is a NBA coach and doesn't understand the difference between "streaky" and "bad". It just seems like one of those rants that sound cool at the moment but you think a tad bit over the surface level and you realize it's just JVG spewing hot air.
Crazy, 1 more shot made and one less shot taken and he would miraculously be considered an efficient player by the metrics. I'd just cut to the basket for that extra made shot and dunk it. In my head: Reality:
No no....they literally think every game is a good Jalen Green game. Or that it should be it's just that everyone else was at fault for not doing the things necessary to not hinder him. Like....this is what they literally think and it's comedy at this point. He's such a weird player, I'm not sure I remember anyone like him. He'll score 38 and then 10, 14, 12 and average 18.5. But of course because of those bad games his average is like 40% from the field and 31% from 3. I mean that's essentially what he's done this year. So you have to mitigate him 75% of the time (or more) but that one little outburst is enough to make you hope that he's somehow figured it out. It's funny to watch him and Fred at this point. We're winning so it's all good but I'm struggling to see where we go from here and how we move on from these two.
Folks like to downplay the defensive effort one has to exert on this team. We could wish for a shiny new sg but would they b willing or able to play defense? Note how the jaters aren't btching about green being a cone on defense anymore. Green is still inefficient but it's such a dramatic improvement from his first year to this year on the defensive end.
It's an oversimplification but JVG is generally right. In baseball a .200 hitter is a bad hitter, regardless of whether there's high variance in how they get to .200 or just go 1 for 5 every game. I guess if the argument is that with a 40% three point shooter who has high variance then he's still a good shooter that is streaky rather than a bad shooter. But that's generally not how "inconsistent" is used to describe NBA players. It's more like Jalen where the aggregate 3pt shooting is bad but there's a great game here and there.
