No bro it's a coincidence, there was something urgent that came up since the start of January and they haven't had much time to come tell us they're so happy the Rockets are doing well and Jalen is contributing heavily. They're not like that. They told us earlier that they would love to see Jalen succeed and would celebrate just like anyone else. It's just a coincidence.
I'm probably considered a "Jater." I'm here to announce that he's officially turned the corner (and I don't think that will jinx him). He is playing fundamentally different basketball than before. To my eyes, Jalen has almost totally removed the awful stepback from his game and that's helped a lot. He drives and passes out when he recognizes that the paint is stacked. He used to force up shots at the rim and hope they went in our get a foul call. Now he passes if it's not there. The shooting will cool off at some point, but taking better 3 point shots gives me hope that he can finish the season between 36 and 38%. I have confidence in him making open threes now. It's not just that he's making 3's (thought that's a big part); it's that he is playing differently. I don't know if it's Amen in the lineup or what but there's a real change here. His two point percentage has reached a respectable level and I think that helps a lot. [Can anyone find 2pt% in a gamelog or box score anywhere?]
JG's 2P% this season is 50.3% (career average: 49.0%) so yes, up a little bit. He's made bigger improvements to his shots closer to the basket (66.3% -> 71.2% from 0-3ft, and 36.9% -> 44.0% from 3-10ft) but his overall 2P% is being dragged down a bit by him actually shooting worse on all other midrange jumpers, which is probably just a fluke given his improved FT shooting and 3P%.
I don’t know if it has been mentioned, but Jalen seems to have succeeded in standardizing his three-point shot. the body motion over the last two months has become a lot more consistent and he seems to jump lower than ever. It’s almost a set shot at this point. it just looks very good coming out.
JG looks like he's playing under control now. Let it flow from there. And, it's on both sides of the ball.
Appreciate you recognizing the change you see in his results. You are right - Amen's larger presence overlapping with Green's minutes does impact his effectiveness. I queued up this specific clip from Sam Vecenie recently to see how having a player who knows spacing and more importantly how to use that spacing to create opportunities for himself or his teammates creates open looks. Guys like Brooks and Eason don't do this as much and Jabari rarely does it and you see how it creates a lane for Jalen to hit Fred that starts a series of events that gets us a very open shot that Amen directly impacts twice in the same play...and check out the very next play Vecenie analyzes where Amen gets Jalen the most wide open 3 by just being an explosive playmaker. That being said, Jalen didn't remove the bad parts of his game overnight - he made marked improvements last year and has improved as well this year in a number areas so "the process" has been changing for a while now - you just missed it watching the results. It's why the stats guys can be wrong if they don't watch the games because the stats alone don't provide the full context to how those plays happened. To Udoka's credit, he has been supportive of players playing with the right process even if they make mistakes or miss plays from it. It's probably one of the reasons why Brooks doesn't get benched more than people here want because the effort and intention that Brooks plays with is a huge part of what Udoka values over the results. The message he sends is - we can miss shots, but as long as we are playing hard, executing, and taking good shots - we will live with whatever the results are. This has been HUGE with Jalen's development. A couple of places where he has seen significant growth as the year has progressed: - he's not just taking the first open shot that is available - he is quickly reading through what he can do to get the best shot. Take the first shot here - he comes over the screen and the old Jalen fires up a shot as quickly as possible before the defender can get back into the play but here you see him stop and evaluate the situation for a split moment and take advantage of how deep the help defender was playing him to create a more comfortable shot. I've noticed the 3pt shot attempts with 15+ seconds left on the clock are WAY down as the season has progressed and they were the biggest possession/efficiency killers to start the season. - he's playing with more pace and specifically slowing down to give himself time to process the situation. Here he is later in the quarter - similar play, he gets a high screen from Adams and the old Jalen is off to the races trying to run as fast as he can to the 3pt line or to the hoop but you see him slow down here to evaluate the defense for a moment and opts for a nice layup taking advantage of a slower defender attempting to step up and then he slows down a bit at the end as well to make sure he finishes the play after he bursts around the flat footed defender. Here is a bad play when Jalen doesn't do this and he sees a mismatch with Sharpe in the paint(not a shot blocker) and Grant on the perimiter but he misses identification that long defensive specialist Robert Williams is the other off ball help defender who eventually gets the block. - he is doing a better job at relocating off ball. Watch this play here where he creates more space for himself off ball by sliding down from where the help defender thinks he is which simultaneously has him coming to the ball and makes the defender take a step the wrong direction to where the closeout is. Against a longer/taller help defender, that ended up making the difference between an easy rhythm shot and a heavily contested one. It's only a small step but for NBA guys a small step is like 3-4 ft on the court. - one last one - here he is using better angles off of screens to find open spaces and the way he steps into this shot feels comfortable. It's a miss, but is a pretty good open look with 8 seconds left on the shot clock. You can see here that Sharpe plays the DHO and Green and Sengun correctly exploit the bad read - Sengun puts the ball in a pocked of open space and Jalen does a great job not running to the ball this time but letting that space open up for him. I don't feel like Jalen used screens very well at all early in his career and has seen significant growth in taking advantage of them.
Only Jaters can say good things about Jalen without jinxing him. Jalen fans have been jinxing him repeatedly without knowing how much damage they have done.
Sengun and Jalen have both attempted to lose this game about as much as they can today. BAD basketball.
And games like this are exactly why two weeks don't turn around a player's outlook. Jalen has proven time, and time, and time, and time, and time again that he cannot be considered a changed man until he puts 40+ games together like his past two weeks. Jalen of old returns, and his draft mate absolutely embarrasses him. We can only hope Jalen's confidence hasn't once again been flushed down the drain and this is the Jalen we can again expect for the next month.
Some of y’all are just basketball stupid. A players season is not always at the same level consistently for the entire season. If a player isn’t averaging 30 on 16 shots every game they terrible players that are draft busts.
You can take those 2 attempts out bc one was a halfcourt shot and the other a pass from jock with like 2 second left. But he will bounce back against the cavs
40+ games is asking a lot. His last two weeks have been at a level that very few players in history could manage over the course of a season. He had a bad game. It was early, the ball just kinda looked flat from everyone...not just him. Happens. He's earned the right to have an off game.
And there it goes. First bad game in, what, two months? Somehow, he's regressing and his confidence is shot. This right after dominating enough to win PotW over every other WC player. You guys give everyone else on the team the luxury of suckling occasionally. Green does it and he's proving that he sucked all along. Perhaps we should send him down to the Vipers for a stretch so he can find his mojo?
