Dude is 22 yrs old. Some people figure it out from an early age like Kobe, Jordan, Lebron or even our very own Sengun. Some people take almost a lifetime to get it for example Rasheed Wallace or Wiggins. Some people looks like they will never get it like Ben Simmons or Zion. Jalen looks to be in the middle for me. You are seeing these flashes of greatness and it comes with more and more regularity every year. This year people expect him to have a great game on the nightly and thats different from last year when people were praying for an average SG game. At the end of the day we arent even paying him as a superstar so whats with all these high expectations? As long as he plays above his 30M contract we should be happy already. As long as Jalen continues to work hard on his defense and as long as he keeps playing defense then I dont give a crap what he does off the court. We didnt pay Jalen to do public speeches and PR interview, using that to judge his play is honestlg dumb AF.
I am generally skeptical about this kind of list without linking to source. And even if they have some kind of metric behind it, any individual defensive stats should be taken with a grain of salt. Quantifying individual defense is extremely difficult.
It says “min 313 picks” which is a very weird number but also a very high number. How many people have defended over 300 pick and rolls this season? This is probably “top 10” out of like 20 total qualifying players or some nonsense.
Good observation. I guess that's pretty impressive by itself that he's doing well at such a huge volume and Ime is trusting him. Why is Jalen guarding so many I wonder.
Love it BUT despite his obvious improvement, the fact that he has only been under a TRUE head coach for 1 1/2 yrs, and that he's only 22yrs old, our own Pundits, Podcaster, etc. still have him as the #1 piece available in trade. Starting around the 8:30 mark AND he put Tari and Jabari ahead of Jalen! SMH And what really gets me is that the main parties who are critical NEVER picked up a basketball!!
Jalen should ALWAYS get the rock at the end. Let him do as he pleases with it. Keep it or make a good shot for someone else. But it has to be him and no one else. Atleast for now.
I dont know about always, but in a game where you are down 1 and there is more than enough clock you have to give the kid the chance to take that shot. Hitting a game winner would be HUGE for Jalen. He thrives on confidence.
In the Cavs game, they cleared out the middle by spacing Jalen, Alpi, and Dillon out, giving Amen the room to go downhill in the paint. Last night, the middle was so crowded Amen couldn't drive and had to pass it back out to Fred who couldn't shake his defender with only a few seconds left.
My problem with the play last night was FVV being the in bounder. Just switch roles with Jalen to inbound and fred being the off ball spot up guy. Memphis stone-walled Amens attempt to drive baseline so he gave it back to fred on a DHO. If he is handing that back to Jalen on a DHO we are getting a much better look because there was an oppurtunity for fred to drive into the lane, he just lacks the speed and skill to get it there. Jalen would of got there no problem and either a) had a FT line pull-up, b) pass to Amen on the roll because hes being doubled or c) pass to fred for a spot up 3 as the final release valve shot
I don't think those plays were meant to be clear outs. Those plays were meant to be DHO plays where Amen is the hand off guy with Fred or Jalen curling to get a hand off. Obviously the dho hand off player can make a decision depending on how his defender is playing him and decide to turn to the rim and attack if he feels the defender's weight is shifted towards anticipating a hand off. You see Sengun make this decision often and he often makes the correct decision also in these situations. Amen decided both times to go to the rim instead of doing the hand off. He made the right decision against the Celtics because Brown was backpedaling because his weight was shifted in anticipation for a hand off and Amen made the wrong decision against trh Grizzles and got stoped from going to the rim because he read the defender wrong.
Luke Kennard would cry if he had to be guarded like Green is guarded. Green was face guarded all night even when he was far away from the ball.
