I do love all of the "in defense of really stupid basketball" takes, but the math on this one is settled and literally every team has converted. Stupid basketball can sometimes win and smart basketball can sometimes lose, but the flukes don't mean stupid basketball is the way to go. No team is going to win anything these days taking a high volume of midrange garbage. The league is soooo much more efficient these days than it was in the 80's and 90's when that trash was most popular.
In addition to posting a -35, Green's defensive rating in last night's game against the Spurs was a ghastly 157. His immaturity was on full display, and I'm sure Coach Silas was tired of his being on the court. Had Green put out this kind of effort for any NCAA coach, he would have played even fewer minutes. I hear others saying that Green needs time on the court to develop. In my opinion, sitting on the bench and thinking about how you've played can be good medicine. It's about time Green got to taste just a little of that. After all, Sengun, JC, and Garuba have been force-fed the bench all season. Rather than sulking, Green should take the time to get with the assistants and review his game performance. I can only hope that he spends more time looking at the video than I did in writing this post because this game put all of his ridiculous habits on display. The NBA tracks a stat called "defensive assists." It pulls together blown assignments in which a player's efforts/non efforts directly lead to baskets. I can deal with Green being overpowered or not being strong enough to finish the right play. But these defensive assists, which are primarily effort and mental letdowns, have to go. Green had five such assists in his slender playing time last night. (Can someone embed them and share them on the thread? It might be helpful to pair the visual evidence with the analytic stat.) One of Green's greatest attributes is his quickness, but his tendency to ball watch and be unaware of his assignments leaves him flat-footed. The Spurs specialize in moving without the ball, and they made Green look like less than an amateur. If Green will flip on the game film, and use his mind, he can immediately transform his game. Until he does, I'm fine with Garrison Mathews and Armoni Brooks taking a few of his minutes. They are bench players that need to develop as well.
I wanted to smash my screen that one play where Green just stood there and watched Johnson drain the 3 in the 3rd. Think that pretty much sealed the game. Especially Johnson just hit on the last possession. Now that might be Woods assignment to close in on Johnson but they both stayed back non chalantly on Poetl. Zero care, zero effort
I'm not, I don't think Jalen Green is in any trouble of being traded. Also, I wouldn't care if Green never gets a triple double. We didn't draft him expecting him to be a triple double guy anyway.
Finally - people are calling for accountability....... I don't give TWO ****S where you are drafted, if you are not efforting - you sit - if you are not playing defense - you sit, if you are not moving off the ball - you sit. Somewhere there has to be TEACHING and accountability? Pressure creates diamonds.....what Silas is doing is making it comfortable to be a loser.... I honestly HATE how they are doing it......players that compete should be playing over those that are happy to be there.... Draft position doesn't matter......BUILDING BETTER HABITS does. DD
I don't think it's a very good stat for individual players at all. It's great for lineups...but like I said +/- stats has Love being a top 10 player this year even over Ja. But the knocks on Green are...his defense and his consistency. Yes. That's the average rookie. That's why good teams don't play rookies. That's why the Warriors bench theirs and they don't see the floor much because the Warriors are trying to win games now. I think people need to get it out of their mind that we're winning games. We're not. We're in a state where we are trying to find our next franchise player first of all, that means we have to watch guys learn through their mistakes and learn to play on this level. Just how it goes. Green is going to look good some nights and terrible some others, consistency is what makes stars, well, stars. If he was consistently dropping 20+ppg he'd be an all-star and we'd be competing for the playoffs. If he were doing this at 19 we'd be talking about a generational player. That would be nice...but he's not that. He could turn into that or something close to that or just a really good all-star level player...don't know. I just think we should give the guy his 3 years before starting to make final decisions about him. That's just me though.
Looking at team rather than any individual, losing by that much in that way to the Spurs is embarrassing. It's a reflection of players, coaches, management, and ownership. Franchise rot. Find an NBA adequate point guard, get a real coach, kick the failson out of the front office, and sell the team. I'm all onboard with a high draft pick this year, but I'm not in favor of dumb basketball, lack of effort, and ego-boosting without accomplishment. If we're not winning, we should still be starting to see the future through effort and learning, but even glinting hard I can't make it out save for maybe Christopher. Even Sengun seems to be making mistakes he didn't make at the beginning of the year and his hustle has definitely declined. Coach and ownership are a lost cause. I'd like to see what Stone can do without someone looking over his shoulder and reporting to Daddy.
i get you 100% but i dont think nba business model incentivizes this...eg a team may profit more by featuring a player who paints his nails than from a player who hustles imho this is a business in the first place... its kinda wwesque and bottomline it doesnt really matter who is really the strongest but who generates the clicks
Sengun bumps Primo a little, right before blocking his shot. Sad but true: that's a foul, albeit rarely called against many other players.
yeah i also saw that from the other angle...whatever i am encouraged by his activity on the defense this game
