Don’t look now, but Green has a 4.5 win share for the season. He’s playing both offense and defense effectively and efficiently. He is turning into the basketball player at SG that teams search high and low for their team basketball. Green is not out of control like he used to be, besides a few plays here and they’re he is cutting that wildness out of his game. I think Green is starting to win even the very most skeptical rockets fans! There is still much to do, but Green is looking like a very positive part of the team.
He's better when he's not looking to predictably score. He looks more serious taking spot up shots than before.
As a skeptical of Jalen long term, Rockets fan, what’s going to win me over is consistency over a season. He’s had month long, even multi month long stretches of excellence before where he looks like he’s put everything together before, but they have always been overshadowed by his following, longer, cold spells where he barely looks worthy of a rotation spot. He has yet to have a season where he’s averaged league average efficiency, and as a go to stat scorer, that’s about the minimum bar for success. Him becoming a more consistent, higher level passer / facilitator will also be vital as a player expected to handle the ball a lot.
Inspired by @J.R. I decided to ask ChatGPTs most advanced model who it thinks is the franchise player. Behold, in all it's glory and expertise -
This is the Jalen Green I expected a year ago......I've been preaching team spacing being the key. (last 5 games) Aaron Holiday....2.2 (3PM) / 4.8 (3PA)......45.8% (3P%) (last 6 games) Jeff Green..........0.7 (3PM) / 1.5 (3PA)......44.4% (3P%) (last 6 games) Dillon Brooks.....2.7 (3PM) / 6.3 (3PA)......42.1% (3P%) (last 6 games) Jalen Green.......3.2 (3PM) / 8.3 (3PA).......38.0% (3P%) Losing/Sitting Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore for Holiday and Uncle Green has been huge. Last 6 games......wins
Green is 3 minuscule adjustments away from blowing the roof off this thing: - Stop taking midrangers from the side. The FT line midrange is your last resort, otherwise just pass the ball. As a team Udoka allows way too much midrange. I'd like to see him become obsessed with things like this rather than 1% more effort. - Take fewer 3's and attack the rim more. This is not really something he needs to improve, it's more something we need the team to improve. When they get better shooters around him, he won't need to take as many - taking him to 37-38% range on fewer attempts without needing to improve at shooting. That will open up LOTS of drives for him. If you look at our team's drives, you'll be shocked at how low Amen and Green sit in the league given their talent. - Add muscle like he does every summer. Honestly if he works as hard on his 3pter this summer as last summer, he might just create the space for himself and everyone else and solve all these issues.
Did anyone catch the Jalen post game where he was asked what he thinks about the rebounding and he gave a very diplomatic answer? If I had to guess, it's probably about Udoka telling all 5 to crash the glass again so what about transition offense/defense? If that's the case I agree with Green here. 1 rebound is less valuable than 1 points, 1 assist and even 1 steal or 1 block. It's less valuable than transition defense or transition offense for sure. Glad Green didn't share what he thinks publicly, that's a conversation to be had in private with the coach (take note Cam).
Jalen really must get to the line more. It's a glaring weakness that's been covered up by beating 6 straight weak opponents. He must begin relishing contact and play with the mindset that drawing a foul while shooting = mission accomplished. On the other hand, from my own personal "eye test", his floor vision and passing have noticeably improved in the new year. Same for his handles, which seem tighter. 14+ games to go.
Agreed. There are many times where I want him to take it to the rim and to be honest his handle has improved so, so much. there are times where the spacing is an issue and he can’t get there, but I still think there are opportunities that he isn’t taking. One more year of a slightly upward trajectory, and he should be able to get a few more star calls. I think there have been a tremendous number of missed calls this year in regards to times he should’ve been sent to the free-throw line.
He must get there more, but it's not a weakness. At worst we can say we don't know. He's been to the line 6+ times as a far worse and skinnier player with way worse teammates. He's done better than Cade When the paint is THIS packed you have 2 options: you transform into a better shooter and stay out of the paint like Jalen OR you attack anyway and watch your TS% collapse like 6'10 250lbs Paolo Banchero. He's right to stay out of this mess. They asked him to play good defense and somehow he did it even though none of us expected it. They turned him into a shooter, and he actually became league average on stunning volume, which is wild to me considering his previous seasons. This one (getting to the line in this offense) is just too much and setting ourselves (and him) up for failure. It's Udoka and Stone's turn to fulfill their part of the deal. If the team is near average on 3PT% next season, we'll see his 3PA go down, his 3PT% go up and his FTA go up automatically. I guarantee it. Honestly I've never heard a coach tell his players so much to avoid the "Crowded areas" i.e. the paint because with this offense teams are packing the paint most nights. The situation is just garbage for it. There are exactly 0 teams in the top 15 TS% who are starting two non-shooters as bad as Amen and Sengun. The 16th placed team is the Pistons, and Cade Cunningham takes 20 shots and has way higher usage than Jalen in order to achieve 1.3 extra free throws. 13 of the top 15 in FTA in the NBA play for teams in the top 15 of 3PT%. It's not a coincidence. Trae Young and Demar Derozan are the 2 exceptions. Trae is really the only outlier - he gets 7.5 attempts and Hawks are 20th, Derozan is a pretty pedestrian 5.6 attempts and Kings are 16th. I can't stress this enough: spacing is a big deal in the NBA such that players' stats are deflated if it's severely lacking. Neither is Jalen a power player like Lebron, Harden or Luka to bully and skillfully slow down in the paint. Amen Thompson was drafted as a PG/SF, is tall, jumps high, runs super fast and is very strong for a wing, and he's averaging roughly the same amount of FT's as Green (slightly better). Packed paints are for people with ELITE handles and grown man strength OR for skilled post players - that goes for the entire NBA not just us. It's not for the Ja Morants of the league who are speed demons. For speed guys you unpack the paint. We gotta cut Jalen some slack. The league is not calling fouls on these drives as much as the past, making it even more difficult. All teams are complaining about this for their drives from the perimeter. The paint is truly horrific for us, no exaggeration. Literally and forcefully pulling down TS%'s and making us take way more 3's than we should. Best to stay out till the team decides on direction (are we building around Amen/Green or Amen/Sengun or Sengun/Green?) and improves the shooting. Follow coach's orders in this case.
Would cfans.net trade Jalen for Giannis? Honest question. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba...ive-jalen-green-swap/6ff668da1b0a88e6ebfbd2f5
