Sir, put the narrative down! Sarr IS a good player who had a bad game against Houston (who has a really really good defense). He's not a scorer by any stretch of the imagination, but he's already an impressive defender at 19 and I don't think it's unreasonable at all to think his floor is a Serge Ibaka type player as he adds more muscle to his frame which is to say a DPOY candidate and a solid off ball offensive player. Sengun did to him the same thing he did to Wemby last year - took advantage of his size and backed him down to under the rim. That won't continue to be a weakness for Sarr in coming years but pushing around a 19yr old -even a high level athlete 19yr old, is often not hard for people who are starting to find their grown man muscle. The narrative on him has always been wrong but you really know who watches the games and who doesn't by who repeats them.
Tbh, I think the league is still adjusting to the fact that Jalen Green has decided to make himself into a defensive presence. In previous seasons, the book on Green was that he’d be lost or couldn’t move fluidly on the defensive end. He wasn’t able to stay connected and could be overpowered at the rim. Today, he’s in the right place, doesn’t gamble all that often, and can win individual matchups when someone attempts to take him on a straight line drive. His habits are so much better. He’s taken a lot of coaching and internalized it.
They left out the most important stat - that he is shooting 41% from 3 on volume and has made over 4 a game.
Dudes who are this naturally gifted at basketball as Jalen and also very coachable are going to be stars in the league eventually. More and more confident that Green will be at worst like a one or two time all-star in his career.
Its more so the "its easy to look good defensively when everyone around you is good at defense" or, "the on/off numbers show we are better defensively when hes off". Like, sure to both, they can be true AND Jalen could be a great defender also now. So much of the defensive +/- noise is our 2 best defenders came off the bench most of the year. Jalen isnt a top 5 defender on this team, but he is 100% an above average defender now.
Not sure what this has to do with what i said (or what the narrative on him is). I think he's a super talented guy who will be a good player when he's older, but he's a 19 year old rookie and those guys are almost always horrible. He has a sub 50% TS right now and isn't in the top 400 in EPM. He's currently a HORRENDOUS offensive player, though i expect him to improve with age of course. Saying that he's a good player right now is ludicrous, even if you're the biggest wizards fan in the world.
It feels different this time, so maybe he has finally figured it out... but given his history of streaky play well have to wait a bit to see for sure. Last year he made it to 8 games before turning back into a pumpkin, if he makes it to 15 or 20, I think we can start making more definitive statements.... but no matter what happens, it's fun to see.
One or 2 more good games and Jalen may finally be in the actual shooting improvement territory. FG% 43% 42% 42% 42% 3pt% 34% 34% 33% 34% TS% 55% 54% 54% 54% The consistency is wild, even established players have some variation in their year to year percentages. Not this dude, you are getting exactly these numbers.
Bobby doing pro-Jalen posting might be a bigger positive indicator than anything Jalen has put on the court
Late in the fourth quarter, Jalen guarded ja morant on a key possession and slid his feet incredibly well to stay in front and pressure Morant to go a little laterally into help. Eventually morant was stymied …. Either into a bad shot or turnover. I can’t recall the outcome. I just specifically remember being impressed with the effort athleticism and toughness in a key moment, when everyone has problems with Morant, including Amen.
Agree - Jalen just needed to give effort in isolation matchups and otherwise learn how to leverage help defenders in our schemes. To your point, the job of "being a good defender" is easier when you learn how to funnel the offensive players towards guys like Amen, Jabari, and Dillon.
Depends which soccer forum you are on, I'm on a Liverpool one called RAWK and its less about hating the players on that one but Liverpool are currently the best team in the world
1) This edit is awesome. 2) The 1st play is amazing as he weaves the entire team for the finish. 3) Shows how bad his whistle is, because he got fouled like 3 times and stilled finished with no foul call.
Isn't Green's next mile marker in maturity to end plays with less chest-thumping after every made basket? I mean, you scored. Great. We expect that. He should expect that. It's an emotional game, and it makes sense to celebrate or prance/dance occasionally, but why have the habit of ending every possession with some antic? Let's focus on the next play and waste less energy trying to pump yourself or the crowd up. I'd also like to see the Rockets spend less time looking around for a whistle. It's not a good look.
