No they wouldn't, only delusional Jalen cultists would have said that before he turned his season and potentially his career around. I get that you are one of them, so it makes sense this would be your take. If Jalen maintains the level of play from the past 8 games, he's in the MVP conversation, but it took until halfway through his 4th season for him to look like he belonged on an NBA court.....so let's give a rookie and a 3rd year player a bit of leeway.
Baloney. For half the season, Jalen is an above average defender (Defensive Rating) and scorer (56.7 TS%) at Guard among starters in the NBA. That's not a streak that's the whole season. What he's been doing in January is a hot streak. Everyone has a hot streak during a good season, there's nothing unusual about getting hot and it doesn't mean he has to maintain those numbers. For this season, he's just going to be a good SG among starters in the NBA by developing slowly as he's done. The fact that he can randomly score like Michael Jordan for a month here and there is just an omen of the future.
For the season Green is right at the league average threshold for scoring efficiency while being a 22 year old guard who scores on high volume almost all through self creation against point of attack defenses. That's for the entire season.
I guess I could have expected you to be dishonest. Here's the truth. If you look at his numbers from the first 33 games 19.4 points per game 31.6% from 3 40.8% FG% 52.8% TS% O-rating 104 D-rating 109 The last 8 games 30.8 points per game 51.3% from 3 54.1% FG% 70.4% TS% O rating 140 D rating 120 He was on pace to have his worst offensive season ever until 8 games ago. Since then, he's played like an MVP....so dishonest people like you attempt to dilute that sample to make it seem like he has been good for longer than he has. It's very predictable since you did it last season too, trying to turn that 8 game hot streak into more than it was. This time, it feels different, not that he's going to maintain his current hot play, but that he's doing it differently so it's more sustainable than last season....but we'll see. As of 9 games ago, Jalen was looking pretty awful.....so just maybe the crazy cultists who had blind faith for years despite all evidence, shouldn't be the people giving up on rookies who haven't been allowed to play much or a 3rd year player who has been better than their hero was through 2.5 years.
I'm too lazy to provide my links, but I did a rough thing where I filtered out starting guards who have taken more than 15 shots per game and played more than 20 games. Among those guards, Jalen was a hair above average in TS%. To be clear that includes PG's. Defensively advanced defensive metrics still leave a lot to be desired but it's clear he's been average or better in the last 70 or so games. He's had dips but overall since post ASB last season he's been a pretty good defender. Happens to play on a team full of elite ones so it's never going to look good, but you can stick him on some faster guys who need screens, Jalen can be very disruptive if that's what the team needs. He's genuinely in a really solid place right now. It would be nice to get a slightly better and less chaotic second half than first, but otherwise I'm happy with the progress and the contract. I just want some more assists and free throws and maybe 1 fewer 3PA per game for his 3PT% to improve and to truly be respected. He should be able to manage 2 more FTA's and 2 more assists as his fitness reaches peak. Happy with the rest of his game at this moment.
He still needs to stop his habit of lazy passes that are easily intercepted. He's due for like 2 of those a game still. He doesn't really get turnovers from being stripped while driving or a loose handle as much as before. I think tonight he got one turnover from being stripped at that rim but that is happening exceedingly rare these days. Most of his turnovers now are from lazy passes.
The main thing that's happened over roughly the past year of Jalen's basketball career is that he's increased the proportion of good games versus bad ones dramatically. From his rookie season up until the ASB of his third year the bad games significantly outnumbered the good ones, over the past year it's been roughly 50/50. (I actually went through his game log and counted, it's very close to half of his games that are over an arbitrary line I set at 14 GameScore). If there's one sign of a possible breakout it's simply that, he's almost doubled his frequency of being a very positive contributor as opposed to bad-to-mediocre. Now, not all of those positive games are like, 30 bombs or close to it. Some of them are just reasonably efficient 20 point games or so. I'll take that though.
Yup and it seems to be popping up more recently. That's why I say between Fred and Dillon, we definitely will need FVV for a while as Amen and Jalen polish their handles and get used to maximum pressure in the NBA. Even as the backup, Fred is the right guy to pair with these two. Another major issue is honestly everyone is taking more shots than they naturally should be taking. For us to be a contender basically Jabari and Jalen have to be on. Jalen is getting there but Jabari is not yet close to the 38% on 8 attempts I'm expecting of him in the near future. If we have a big off ball jumpshooter at the 1 and 4, it would dramatically reduce the pressure on Sengun/Amen/Green all over the court. If we're not acquiring any help then it might just be patience we need at this point. Pace was one avenue I knew we could optimize our offense. Rebounding and turnovers pretty optimized given the personnel. Not sure what else we can do at this point (outside of swapping Brooks for a streaking Jabari of course).
We'll see. There's a future where Jalen is the best player on the team. I'm just not in the camp that will say that's for certain. There are people that are banging their drum right now that were nowhere to be seen when he was playing terrible in November and December. But now since Jan 1st....no this is the "real" Jalen. This isn't the real Jalen. Since Jan 1st he has averaged 29.7 pts on 53% from the field and 50% from 3. I'm not sure how anyone with a straight face can look at those splits and say "yeah he's for sure going to do that from here on out". Does anyone want to do the splits from November + December? The "real' Jalen plays really well for a 2-3 weeks. Plays bad for a few months. Then plays well for a few weeks....and so on. Until he proves otherwise. He hasnt yet. Let's hope he does.
Jalen shooting splits are now up to 43.8 FG% and 36.3 3PT%. Very similar to Booker's splits of 44.1 FG% and 34.6 3PT%.
Poor Bobby. “Lets just focus on the worst parts of Jalen’s season and ignore the best parts.” pretty sad hater stuff.
With all due respect... This is SILLY bruh. There's no logic to why he'll shoot any of the percentages at any of the volume you threw up here. Remember Jalen had better prospects as a shooter than Ant Edwards. You don't put artificial caps on developing 22 year old perimeter scorers with superstar potential.... ESPECIALLY when we've seen what his efficiency is when he scores 30 or 40 for his age... Those performances are near the top of the list for most efficient EVER.... ESPECIALLY when we've seen Jalen have multiple large stretches(20-30 games) in multiple seasons going back to his rookie year where he's shot very well 39+% and 38+% on a high volume(8 attempts) of 3s.... It's pretty clear that Jalen is a "rhythm shooter" and a key to unlocking him is giving him more "on ball reps" to get in a flow... He's likely a player that's a relatively more efficient shooter with more volume... Him improving and processing how to attack and be an elite finisher is also important here as it helps keep him engaged and focused. Another thing... Look at Jalen's own words... He's been transparently honest when talking about his inconsistencies... He's essentially said that his issue has been a mental one... Staying focused and his mindset... Not just "floating" out there when he misses a couple shots. Being engaged and focused has been his issue... I'll even come back to something I said earlier in this thread... "JUST FOCUS" when talking about his career best 87% FT shooting. guards who shoot THAT well at the charity stripe also generally end up being good 3pt shooters.
It's coming so long as he keeps getting more primary reps.... I think he'll probably be a Donavon Mitchell level playmaker.
Don't forget that this idiot also pushed his narrative that KPJ was a far better player than Jalen too. He will circle the drain forever.
This is funny for 2 reasons. 1. You are clearly a window licker, because I highlighted both the bad part of his season (first 33 games) and the best part of his season (the last 8) 2. Why would any Rockets fan be upset that a Rockets player started playing at an MVP level for 8 games? Honestly, we're going to need to start requiring IQ tests before allowing posting privileges.
