Especially since most of those games came against some of the worst teams in the league. Jalen's averages for this year are pretty pathetic. Imagine if he didn't have that hot streak...ooooofff
The reason is 22 year old guys are often not very consistent. The point I was making is against the whole 'he quit' thing. This idea that oh now THIS is the reason he'll never be this or that because he didn't feel like playing in what is a meaningless game. Which is funny to me because up to this point people were saying he only plays well when the games don't mean anything and now the argument is flipped. This is really all I'm saying. If you're down to get rid of him because of his inconsistencies that's another thing but this whole quitting thing is being overplayed. I could see if it was an important game but lets be honest most of the fans have quit on the team. Popovic used to sit Parker (and a lot of his guys) the moment he thought they weren't playing hard. It happens. These players are human. Jalen might have slipped up, did something the night before, and might have just mentally checked out of the season. This isn't about if Jalen is a superstar or not though, he's not, but he definitely can be. That's why I've been saying all along most guys are not superstars at 22 or younger. That's not most guys. That's why I said the problem with many on this board is they think a superstar comes in and dominates throughout their entire career when that is rarely the case. Many guys fail and fail a lot before they get it.
I think it's too easy to just assume March was just a hot stretch. Teams have been doubling him harder and he has had issues again beating it. I don't think someone displays the skill he did that month and for it to just fizzle out into nothing at all because even when his shot wasn't on in March he was still scoring. I think the combination of more defensive pressure AND realizing that he wasn't playing for anything anymore did it for him. But its fair to have these concerns but its one thing to have these concerns and another to go "Must be garbage!" Because people also forgetting that like post January Sengun was out there playing poorly too and people didn't have this same "Get off the team!" attitude they have for Jalen.
Sengun stats by month October(3 games) : 19.3/9.0/6.7 TS: 57.8% November(13 games) : 21.4/8.9/5.3 TS : 61.2% December(14 games) : 21.2/9.6/4.6 TS : 58.2% January(17 games) : 22.7/9.2/5.0 TS : 58.8% February(11 games) : 17.3/8.6/4.2 TS : 58.5% March(5 games) : 24.4/12.0/5.4 TS : 53.6% Have to admit there might be a reason for that, right? A whole different level of consistency for Sengun compared to Jalen even if there were some months a little better than others.
Someone who plays consistently well and has a cold stretch is going to get more grace than someone who plays consistently poorly and has yet another cold stretch. Not to mention that Sengun has had growth year over year in counting stats, advanced stats, and role. Jalen has shown far less growth over the course of his career and that's putting it very gently. I was a big proponent of Jalen and had very high hopes for him coming into this season. I've watched about 75 games this year and he's been frustrating to watch in most of them. I was excited for his March run but outside of that he's largely been terrible. If you want to give him more grace that's fine, but I don't see why it's so unfair to judge his season as a whole and be disappointed. He's not a rookie, it's his third year and he's eligible for an extension in like three days. I'm not even on the "he's garbage" bandwagon, but his game hasn't shut up those that are.
There is nothing wrong or garbage about giving him a more limited role or more limited money...... He shoots way too much at times when he is not hot.
But that's the thing Jalen isn't even a star yet. He also played bad for majority of the season already so he already met his quota for the season.
