I've been up close and personal with that situation ..... It really wasn't the lack of Foster but the injury to Schaub that led to that pick 6 streak. Schaub was never really a good athlete at the position, never had a great arm either. He was "just good enough" physically to execute when things went right around him. That lis-franc injury left him unable to plant / push off of that foot thus sapped him of the just good enough physical ability .... Gary knew this. Gary had been telling Rick he needed another QB for a while, post injury, Rick was of the opinion that anyone would do in Gary's system and that he could spend all the draft assets on other positions - particularly defensive backs.
I think we don't execute that initial action properly in all honesty. It stalls because we rush it more than we don't, and like you say if step 1 fails we don't know what step 2,3 or 4 are supposed to be (coaching issue) so we try and repeat step 1, but they shut it down the first time so they just repeat too and shut us down again. When Sengun's in the post, why aren't we running off ball screens for Jalen/Jabari to get an open look? When Jalen/Fred are at the top of the key, why is everybody else static when they could have several different off-ball actions instead of us just doing the same 2 looks with either a DHO or a simple screen and roll? We've just seen that Alpi's a legit stretch player now, so we better see him fade/pop more and not just roll to the basket, otherwise we're easy to shut down every single time. We only actually have 3 real actions we run and everybody not involved in those 3 simple moves is a statue outside the 3 pt line. It's silas-like.
Exactly. And he is in his 4th year, having recieved unlimited oportunities that other team mates have not received a single time in his career (say Jabari, say Whitmore, Eason) and everything seems to point that he still can't score those shots with consistency. His ability to make shots is just not good enough to be a winning a scorer. You can blame it on his shooting mechanics, you can blame it on his confidence... but with multiple opportunities he hasn't showed being capable of making shots at a good rate. My opinion, since the first day, very bad shooting mechanics. Other than that, I don't think he has a bad shooting selection or bad decision making. He has a scorer's mentality, as should have. Any good scorer can make those shots with ease and he can't, that's it.
I'm 3/4 of the way through reviewing the video of the Hornets game, and very happy to say: Jalen's defense and boxing out in this game are a striking improvement from the 20 or so games I reviewed in the second half of last season. I don't know what accounts for it, but the difference is remarkable. The focus, the footwork, the quickness, the effort. Something has changed.
The fact that Ime keeps Jalen in his single possession defensive units to deny inbound passes at the end of the game where he always pulled him out last season for someone like Holiday or Amen says a lot about his improvement.
I've said it elsewhere - Alpi needs to let the scoring set up the passing. He is getting a little too comfortable with forcing shots when the old Alpi was seeing his teammates more. He has to realize part of being a number 1 doesn't mean he needs to take most shots - its about using his gravity to create for others. That's the difference between a Julius Randle or a KAT vs a real superstar like Jokic. I wish Jalen had that more but he only makes very simple reads offensively - although to his credit he is getting quicker at making those basic reads.
Finished watching the game and am even more impressed. I've been down on this guy all along, but this is the kind of focus and intensity he needs if he's going to become an elite player. It's just one game, but a very encouraging start to his season.
What an amazing surprise it would be if Jalen could develop into somewhat of a two way player. If he ended up an above average defender he would have exceeded my highest expectations already. I've always said he will probably not average too many rebounds and assists but he carries some of the traits of old school SG's who were strictly attacking the rim, running in transition and playing serious defense (Gervin, Clyde, Jordan, Kobe, Wade, Butler). The jumper is just a counter move to these guys. That role is a play-finishing role (fewer assists) and they should be the first one running forward/back in transition so don't expect too many rebounds from them either. The opposite of the triple double factories, these guys care more about winning so they opt for defense over big stat lines. Udoka has been a blessing for Green. He's clearly bought into Udoka's mentorship.
Big facts. These are the guys (I'm looking at invocuck) saying **** like "Jalen needs to score a minimum of 37% from deep to be a playable shooting guard in the nba" whilst Ant-man shoots 35%
His defense has been legit good. Like good defender good. Its been awesome to watch. He couldnt hit a 2 to save his life tonight though. I think Edey is a good presence out there seeing as Sengun also struggled from inside.
Edey's going to be a problem tbh. It's not like Wemby where Alpi can out muscle him inside, Edey's a big ol' hoss mu****er. I have no fear that we'll be able to score on him because we'll just finesse him away from the hoop, but he's got the potential to be a legit rim protector and lock down the paint at a high level.
Yeah his height AND girth is what seemed to be noticeable out there. Memphis implored the same drop coverage and protect the paint while giving up the 3 defense that we seen from Charlotte. We just hit more deep shots tonight. As well as showed that scrappy, grit and hustle on the boards we were known for last year. Glad to see Eason back.
Tari back is the best, we really missed him last season. I love how scrappy we are, and with Jalen in that same dog mix of guys now it can only bode well for the rest of the year. Edey's just a massive dude, I don't rate the comparison still, but he actually IS big the way Yao's big. You aint pushing him around on that block at all.
