Jalen has this weird on/off switch ... last night he just seemed off .. aloof. Something had his attention other than basketball for most of the game and then POOF he won the game. Crazy.
This is becoming a pet-peeve of mine. These stats aren’t really Points Per Possession. So, we need caution in calling one PlayType better than another merely according to these stats. These stats aren’t possessions. They are part of a possession. These nba.com PlayType stats are defined as the *ending* action of a possession. Therefore, the PPP is inflated versus the way we measure Team ORtg/PPP. Further, when a playtype is defined as what happened only at the end of a possession, what does that even mean in multi-action possessions—ie the movement possessions all fans want and love. Example: we like to run Zoom a lot. The key components of that is a sideline Get screen into DHO from a big in the slot. Now, this action can result in a Cut without ever a hand-off, a Shot immediately from hand-off, a DHO drive/shot, DHO drive/pass, a Keeper, or a reset (often for us, into side PnR, ISO or passive pass to weak side). Only one of those outcomes (DHO Drive/Shot) actually gets recorded as DHO at nba.com, whereas, the vast majority of times, the defense takes away the DHO drive/shot from that action. Only the successful possessions resulting in a DHO drive/shot are recorded. For all we know from this DHO stat, Luka only shoots off of DHO if the action worked; that is to say, for all we know, DHO don’t usually work, so he passes or resets the possession (wasting time), and the DHO part of the possession is no longer logged in the PlayType stats, because the possession didn’t end with it.
I was really happy to see some cuts to the rim for JG. He had one he fumbled and one he dunked. He is too fast to not be used as a cutter. That's easy offense for us and will bring up that TS%. (I was also stoked to see an inverted pick and roll with Alperen and Amen...) Hopefully, the coaches are adding more and more wrinkles to this JVG offense.
Jalen has played well in every game except Golden State (and a little bit Knicks). He's still not shooting well from 2 (41%) but his increase in his 3P% (38%) has single handedly vaulted him into a plus offensive contributor. He's still not what we need him to be offensively but it's definitely a step in the right direction. He's also having a knack for clutch shots. My only real concern (gripe) right now is he doesn't seem to have much chemistry with anyone else on the team. His passes to Sengun dont seem to come in the flow of his game and the other night Sengun got on him for making the wrong read and going iso into a yolo 3 he hit. I think it was the Knicks game. Just details. He reverts to "bad Jalen" from time to time but it's much better than it used to be. He's still teeter tottering a bit for my liking (3 pt %s tend to decrease as the season goes along) but so far so good.
One thing people forget about Sengun and Green is how they're both huge film junkies, borrowing Steve Smith basketball moves, having Titanic as their favorite movie, watching other teams. Students of the game.
Jalen cutting and Jalen shooting set 3s from a receive pass are absolute money this season. If he plays within the team system he can up his ppg an TS% by alot. He can still do heroics when needed, just wait for the right moment that calls for it.
I mean it's good if he gets a healthy bunch of easy looks like cuts to the rim, catch and shoot polls etc as no player with great scoring efficiency does it purely by just creating their own offense 100% of the time. Having a decent volume of easy buckets is definitely a must for Green to be a high efficiency high volume scorer. It can't all be highlight plays of crossing dudes over with a up and under lay up. But him sharing primary uses ball handling duties with Fred is not playing heroics. So ya he still will run non heroic mundane possessions in the middle of the first quarter as a primary ball handler for certain possessions while Alpi and Fred will for other possessions. Alpi and Fred had abysmal starts to the season and the past few games it is obvious that Ime wants those two to get into a positive rhythm to start out games to get out of their early season funk and it seems to have worked. But this means the past few games Green has been more stationary off ball for the first half. But this is a inherent problem of Ime's offense as he runs an offense that seems to create conditions where players believe there is a zero sum competition for buckets.
Just an fyi. But 9 of the 12 games they have to start are against team giving top 10 least points in the nba. This team should continue to improve through the year because of several factors. The schedule should eventually get easier defensively at some point. Some better days for the offense should hopefully be ahead.
This was a great watch, very entertaining. Loved hearing Fred confirm what we've been seeing regarding Jalen's work to improve the change of pace and balance in his game. Still want Fred to play more off ball and less minutes but I'm sure it's coming.
