You can’t put a price on instilling within the team the knowledge that you can beat great teams who have major “stars” even in a playoff-ish atmosphere. Back to back. I feel like we shattered a psychological ceiling with these two games. The whole team was clutch tonight and Jalen just finished it off for them. One of the most grown up games I’ve seen from the team since drafting Jalen. They had 0 fear of the Warriors and Oracle.
I echo your thoughts here. The Rockets were locked in from the tip-off in this game, but they have been in past games and the Warriors would still pick them apart. Not this game. Yes, there were defensive mistakes caused by the Warriors constant movement and our focus on Curry, but the Rockets stuck to their defensive game plan which led to a completely neutralized Curry and their dependence on their role players to win it. While on our side everyone contributed defensively and offensively. Jalen came through in the clutch and even when they blitzed him, he made the right decisions (had one early turnover but course corrected). An absolute master class on taking away the other team's strength or primary actions while feasting off what drives your team. Oh and a special shout out to Draymond for activating that "Dawg-Mode" in the Rockets. They were focused before he started picking on Sengun, but that cheap shot confirmed for all of us that what the Rockets were doing was working and the war was on. Great win!
Jalen has me believe ... again. This time feels different. It's like watching a kid grow up into a mature guy.
I love what I've seen lately from Green, but not because I necessarily believe he's on his way to "stardom." Rather, how he's played has significantly raised his floor in my eyes. Better efficiency, good defense, smarter decisions, decent volume 3 pt shooting. Maybe he becomes a "star," maybe he doesn't. But his floor is now a very good, complementary player IMO, and that's really exciting, because we don't necessarily need to build the team around his skillset.
Meh. I don't really trust stats like that. So Joker and Shai aren't top 10 in gravity? Ant - who is constantly doubled - draws less gravity than Green? Sorry, don't buy it.
The power of two non shooters with high usage roles does to a guy.... Big men aren't going to be on lists like these because they measure "gravity" by using the optical tracking cameras the NBA uses to track things like average distance of all five defenders to any one given offensive player at any given time and ball handlers who are their team's biggest scoring threat are usually going to top the list because you aren't going to face guard Jokic in a full court press like you would see defenses do to guys like Green or Ant. This is a very objective stat where there is no subjective analysis to create this list. It's pure data from optical tracking cameras. SGA has high level competent shooters like Chet and JDub next to him. SGA would be number one in gravity if you replace Chet and JDub with Amen and Alpi. Amen and Alpi are great cornerstones but people have to acknowledge that there are drawbacks to having two absolute non threats from the outside with large roles on the team.
Yup. Looks like that to me. Or "which player do opposing defenses believe they can bait into a TO," which makes sense given Jalen's poor TO/Assist ratio. Again, I'm a Green fan. I've been a big defender of his over the years. If it sticks around, I think he'll be our leading scorer for many years. But when you look at the areas Green has focused on developing this year - defense, volume 3 pt shooting, etc. - it is clear to me that he is focusing on becoming a complementary piece to Amen and Sengun. As the SG next to those two, you need to be a good offball volume shooter who also plays solid defense. Those weren't Jalen's strengths initially, but that is changing. I just don't see why this is an insulting proposition when it appears to be Jalen's motivation. If anything, it'll make him hundreds of millions of dollars over his career, AND it really helps our team dynamic.
When you use the term "complementary piece" would you acknowledge that Amen on the offensive end is a complementary piece then?
Honestly the belief that Jalen Green has offensive gravity because teams think they can bait a guy with a lower tov% than guys like Ant Edwards to get turnovers is rather unhinged and you should never call yourself a fan of Jalen Green if you believe they blitz, hedge and cut of his driving lanes, face guard him off ball etc because they think they can squeeze a turnover. In the past couple of months for every ten blitzes on Jalen, 1 maybe results in a turnovers, 3 results in a direct assist to the roller whether it's Amen or Sengun and 6 are Green timely releasing the ball out of the blitz creating a 4 on 3 advantage for his teammates that results in some form of open shot. Blitzing Amen due to a weaker handle would result in more turnovers, so why do they not do it to Amen?
I mean, I'm not even sure I would describe Amen as a "complementary" piece on offense yet. He's an efficient clean-up wing offensively with some decent handles and a high IQ. But I really don't think he'll ever be a 25+ ppg, #1 offensive option player, and that's fine with me. It's pretty clear to me that Amen's motivations lie elsewhere, and I love that about him.
Dude you are calling Green the dude who attacks POA defenses the most, has the most drives per game on the team, has the most PNR primary ball handler possessions and saying he's a complementary offensive price to Amen Thompson, a dude who does most of his work in the dunker spot... Are you insane dude? Amen is our defensive core and center but he is t anywhere close to being a offensive engine. Green and Sengun are that now. Why is Green dominating the ball in the fourth quarter. Why is t even when Fred grabs a rebound in the fourth where usually a PG when they grab a rebound doesn't look to pass it out and dribbles the ball up. But in the fourth even when Fred grabs a rebound, he's looking for Jalen to handle the fourth quarter offense during a 13-2 stretch and you consider Green a complementary offensive piece. Do you understand how unhinged you sound here?
They don't do it to Amen because his usage rate is like 10 points lower than Green's and he doesn't shoot threes well at the moment. Again, that list strikes me as guys who take a lot of 3s and turnover the ball a decent amount, so it makes sense to trap them (Green, Young, Ant, etc.). I'm just not sure it's a representative list for your assertion, which is who in the NBA gets the most defensive attention overall.
Sure, I sound like the unhinged one in this conversation. You've always been an odd dude, but you're really going off the deep end lately.
