The goal - Secure a spot in the top-6. I know it may seem a little under-achieving considering we were at 2 for a long period, but looking back to where we were previous season, ending at 5 or 6 is still a great improvement. In order to reach this goal, we need: 1. Jalen Green and Amen getting back to their shape from January. 2. Bari and Fred healthy again. 3. Tari and Alpi healthy enough (they both need some load management to avoid season-ending injuries). 4. Beat the next match vs the Warriors!! For f*** sake, these 3 losses were so frustrating. Especially the one last week. Even our win at the cup quarter finals was ugly. I want us to fuc*** destroy them by 30+ in our final match of the season, and I’ll be really glad if giving them this L will push them down from securing a play-in spot.
It's really incredible that the entire team minus Brooks is shooting poorly, and Jalen Green is averaging exactly what you want him to average in the future, and your instinct was to think Jalen should improve his shooting. He was above league average at the actual midpoint of the season (41 games) before the injuries shooting 36.3%. He's only 0.9% away from league average right now on double the league average volume. Even though we are desperate for Tari, Sheppard, FVV, Cam, Amen and Sengun to make their 3's - i.e. the actual shooting problem on our team that you're asking Jalen to fix. Even though Jabari should be taking 3PA's off Jalen, we're asking Jalen to save everyone by mastering 8+ attempts? Jalen Green is not only averaging what you want, but he's taking the 20th most attempts in the NBA while doing it. He's doing better than you can ask for. No NBA coach in his right mind would have given 8 attempts to a Jalen-calibre shooter. and when he's a hair below league average you're unhappy with it? Who on earth promised you that Jalen Green would be a better shooter than that? Why do you think it's owed to you? Here are the 4 players who are just below and 4 who are just above Jalen in attempts: Norman Powell Klay Thompson Ant Simons Tyrese Haliburton Jalen Green James Harden CJ Mccollum Lauri Makkanen Trey Murphy III One of these things is NOT like the others. Jalen shot 33% for 3 years, it's simply bad coaching that he's taking this many, and we have heard Udoka defend it multiple times. Jalen's doing a hell of a job not letting it drag him down and just improving gradually despite the hate and fake rush.
Absolutely because as far as shooting goes, Jalen is the most important cog and when he shoots .270 or lower on the highest volume on the team, he's shooting you out of the game 42% of the time. 23 games between .000 - .273 <-----42% 8 games between .300 - .360 24 games above league average, between .375 - .833
Sir, that's just made up and it is the false assumption that's making you confuse your opinion with fact. I'm not sure why you expect me to understand the idea that you made Jalen the most important shooter in your mind AFTER you knew he's been a bad shooter his entire life pre and post NBA. I don't even understand it.
man, your thin skin about Jalen is really starting to undermine your arguments. Please stop taking up the victim card for Jalen. I said I’d like to see him finish the season at 35-36%. I’m aware he’s shooting 35% at the midway point. But the midway point is not the full season and the shooting has been inconsistent through the midway point (way up and way down for stretches). Stop with the fake outrage. No one is attacking anyone. People are entitled to their opinions. For the record I hope all of your assertions about how great Jalen is come true, because believe it or not, we are all actually rockets fans.
Everyone just hit threes at a 35% clip or better. Everything else is just overthinking it. Hard to screen on ball or off ball vs every team switching everything defensively. Little better vs zone, buys some space to get off a shot.....sometimes.
Uhh no one is attacking you. I'm just ridiculing your statement. Feel free to attack my skin or whatever body part as much as you like. Of course you're entitled to any kind of opinion, though it's pretty damn obvious you're using my skin to ignore the actual data in the post. I'll let it slide. I don't have an issue with you saying where you'd like him to finish. I just pointed out how it's so odd that there are 7 people shooting poorly in the rotation and you just had to keep a strict eye on Jalen's % and I'm only pointing it out because it's a funny pattern. He was not 35% at midway. He was 36.3% at the 41 game mark. There are only 28 games remaining so you - by mistake - are catching him during a slump as compared to his entire first half. This slump for once in his career is coinciding with real issues - we have major injuries, he's played the most minutes on the team, everyone was fatigued because they had outworked the entire NBA up until injuries made things rough. We had a major losing streak. If I'm being honest? I believe most Jalen critics will be happy when he succeeds, but not all. I've seen a man hated by many on this board while averaging 40ppg for a month and while almost beating the most talented team in NBA history to a title. This board from what I'm told had a significant contingent wanting to trade Hakeem before the titles. I'm under no illusion that production will cure hatred for every single person and that everyone will see context. I have no idea why people are acting like they just joined the board and this is some happy go lucky place. On this board and any basketball board, some people just have human problems. If you'll be happy, I'd be very happy.
So, shooting 10 points or more below league average being poor is .... arbitrary? Here's the list of 3 point shooting percentages for each of the 55 games played this season - You go ahead and draw the arbitrary line in the sand between not good enough and a passing grade. How many performances are just unacceptable / tolerable / outstanding. 1 .000 2 .000 3 .000 4 .000 5 .000 6 .000 7 .111 8 .111 9 .125 10 .125 11 .125 12 .167 13 .167 14 .167 15 .167 16 .200 17 .200 18 .250 19 .250 20 .250 21 .250 22 .267 23 .273 24 .300 25 .300 26 .333 27 .333 28 .333 29 .333 30 .333 31 .357 32 .375 33 .375 34 .375 35 .385 36 .385 37 .400 38 .417 39 .429 40 .444 41 .455 42 .467 43 .500 44 .500 45 .500 46 .500 47 .500 48 .500 49 .538 50 .545 51 .600 52 .625 53 .667 54 .667 55 .833
We drafted a poor shooter. Take it up with Stone, not me or Jalen. You're just projecting on me that you're mad you were wrong. Sorry I feel like you're just having fun rehashing things this week for some reason and I don't mean to be a downer, but it's no fun for me (please put yourself in my shoes) and I'm happy for you to keep acting like it's so so far for Jalen to be a good shooter. I know that if he hits 36% you can repeat that same exercise and hold onto the exaggerated idea that he's a lesser 36% shooter than other 36% shooters. You're going to be the only person on the planet complaining about the relative quality of a shooter's 36%. It's very very very very nitpicky and please don't take it as disrespect that it's not interesting for me. I will happily accept the least consistent 36-37% 3PT shooter of all time and team just gave him $100m after shooting the least consistent 34% of all time, so there's nowhere to go here with me.
So, you are content if he shoots great half the time and like shiit the other half? .... so long as the total equates to ~average.
If Jalen is shooting 36% on 8 attempts, I am content in the exact same way a Grizzlies fan would be if Ja Morant were ever able to achieve that in his life. It's beyond my expectations. I choose Morant NOT because Jalen is as good, but only because I believe stylistically they share a lot in terms of their strengths/weaknesses in shooting as compared to their speed. I believe smaller or lighter players who exert a lot of necessary or unnecessary force to finish at the basket commonly struggle with their 3PT shot. Iverson, Ja, Westbrook, Rose, etc. I don't believe that it's an issue in the age of positionless basketball, and that might just be different than what you believe. You seem to hold traditional definitions of positions and thus don't believe in positionless basketball. Of course my perspective won't make sense to you if that's crazy to you that a SG might be more about getting to the line and using his 3 as a counter to punish saggers. On the flip side, if he never exceeds 6 FTA again, I'm not a believer in his career. That's what I'm holding him to. I believe he'll do that as soon as we get near-average TS% as a team excluding him. I believe that's a far better thing to add to his game, and he has already proven he can do it unlike the 3PT shot you're dreaming of. I've told you we differ in this way, it's just a different perspective, but you want to keep rehashing it as if I'm content with Jalen being a mediocre shooter and nothing else. No one wants that.
Sengun needs to improve his defense & hustle. Too many times he is getting picked on in 4th quarters of games
Health, and no more 3 games in 4 days and 5 games in 7 days. Before those things happened (I thought the nba did away with that kind of scheduling), we were in second place, and while every game came down to crunch time and was a flip, we were competitive. Injuries to major cogs derailed us as of late. All about timing. All other things come down to talent, and grit. Defensive coaches always suffer on offense, offensive coaches suffer on defense, that all comes down to the players.
