[The Athletic] Jalen Green’s defensive improvement is more than just hot streak

A lot of defense is about trying on defense. As they say, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. But when talent works hard..?

Watch out.

 

Time to change your dumb avatar, @Downtown Sniper.

 

When Jalen gains 20lbs its wraps for the league on both sides of the court. He will be able to manhandle offensive players and he will finish through contact and put defenders into the rim on a nightly basis.

 

This is true but haven’t you noticed he looks NBA-sized for the first time in his career? He looks like a regular skinny NBA SG rather than a rail thin SG. To me he looks bigger than he did at the start of the season and even bullies smaller players sometimes. Has put on quite a bit of muscle since arriving.

No doubt adding even 10-15lbs would help him. It will notably help him if we want to slow down the pace and grind it out more often. I think he can put on that amount of muscle over the next year or so. Would help him get to the line and finish more which would make his efficiency more consistent.

 

For sure. Go back to his rookie season and its a noticeable difference. That new "Dad Diet" will help him gain some bulk while hopefully converting it to lean muscle in the gym. More strength and lower body development will help him over the course of a long season and in the repeatability of his jumpshot. If he can get strong enough he can add some post moves to his bag. Go work with Dream just like Kobe did.

 

Feels like an article that was proof read by Stone before it was published. Green has made notable improvements defensively but yesterday was more "bad Jalen" than "good Jalen". Thats what I'm watching for. Limit the dumb **** (like that stupid no look 3 that he proceeded to brick) and play to the opponents weakness. He's gotten better for sure, especially defensively. His handle seems much tighter as well.

 

Entering closer to Corey Brewer stratosphere every day now.

 

You'd think he'd be posting on Clutchfans non-stop since he's got an Aussie jock to ride.

 

Well, that's Kelly Iko for you.

Jalen has definitely been better overall on defense. Still takes some plays, sometimes even entire quarters, off defensively. But I'm just happy he's shown he can lock in and be a decent defensive player now, not a liability like he was under Silas.

 

KUDOS to Jalen Green!! The talent is undeniable, the effort and consistency have been his Achilles heal until now. Hopefully the tide has completely turned and it becomes completely obvious that he deserves the max extension! I hope the Rockets brass don't screw the pooch either way with this young man! I'm not going to say I'm officially on the Jalen bandwagon, but I definitely want to be on it!!!! It would be a HUGE victory for the Rockets if they picked a diamond with the #2 pick!!

I truly am salivating at the prospect of having Alpi, Jalen, Amen, Tari, Bari, AND Cam all becoming studs in the near future! They all have shown flashes of greatness. If 2-3 of the 6 become alphas, we are in for some beautiful moments in the near future!!


Go Rockets!!!
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Honestly, I think the animosity built toward Jalen during his admittedly lengthy slump was greater than was warranted strictly by his poor play. It seems like some people (not saying you, @MystikArkitect) factor the off-the-court stuff or some of the on-court/non-basketball stuff into their take on him being a bad, non-NBA-starter level player.

Last night the kid took some poor shots, sure, but that's how a young player learns which shots to take and which to avoid. All in all, his play last night was solid; he scored enough to lead the team (yeah, his efficiency could've been better), played above-average defense, found and passed to open teammates, and stepped up in the second half, dialing in his shot when the team needed to assert itself.

Just as Silas was the worst possible coach for Jalen in his first two years, Udoka seems to be the perfect guy to help him correct all the mistakes and learn to play the way he needs to play. He held him accountable without trashing his confidence.

 

So bizarre how can you be so bad for so long and then become so good.. that in and of itself is concerning lol
Regardless, he's balling out and that is the best case scenario bc there is no way to get great value back with not extending or trading him.

 

Ime is the best coach possible JG4 could ever have in this stage of his basketball path

 

He's bought in to the Ime idea of "I don't care what else is going on, play hard defense". So great to see.

 

Him and having VanVleet to show him what ball control looks like. He's become much better as of late in that regard.

 

Yeah I get it. I was championing Green for a long time and even during this year I still said I'd have taken him over Evan Mobley. But was also tired of waiting around for a 3rd year player to figure it out. I'm happy about his current play but I'm not buying it either. I've met people like this before that turn it on when their seat gets hot and then turn it off again when they feel like its safe. And these are just normal people who can still get fired on a whim. Not someone like Jalen who gets a fully guaranteed contract that a fanbase has to deal with for 3-5 years.

The sample size isn't big enough. Especially to offset the much larger sample size of shitty play he had this year. No extension this offseason. Let him earn it for a full year.

 

I just got totally fed up with the 15 shot nights on bottom-5 efficiency, that's all really. I was ready to have at least mediocre play from the position. If he can keep giving us even 80% of his March production moving forward I'm fine with staying the course with him.

Yeah, if he is expecting max money or anything close to it I definitely wouldn't extend him yet. If he's willing to do a team-friendly deal, maybe it's worth it to us to take the gamble though?

 

That's what I was wondering. You could end up with someone outperforming their contract. Not sure. I feel like the leak the other day was from Joe Tsai to create some animosity between Jalen and the Rockets as well as giving a very public reason to fire the GM. Potential issue there on any sort of deal getting done this summer due to some bad blood. I'm not stressing about extending Jalen to be honest. I'd still stay the course and see who is more efficient of him and Cam Whitmore next year. Then you can just match anything in RFA whenever the time comes if you even want to. Sengun deserves the extension having dragged this team on his back for so long. If Jalen didn't want to wait he should've taken the first 2.75 years of his career a little more seriously. Like Sengun did.

 

I hope it’s something under max and maybe Sengun as well. Not perhaps a ton under for each of them bet a decent amount. Letting them each know that hey do you want to play with mediocre players in your prime. Or do you want play with some killers and have them get paid as well.

This is on the caveat that Green continues improving like he has shown lately. Then pick up the conversation a 1/3 or 1/2 into next season.

Maybe there is a good Chinese guy to draft soon and start dipping into that fanbase again and get all of these guys paid!