Jalen Green is the Western Conference player of the Week

I hope he keeps it up so I don't look like a total idiot with my signature.

 

So if a player gets better at managing their peaks and valleys during a season, what would that season look like?

 

More like Luka/Wilt/Jordan/Dream/Wade etc vs. Poole etc

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/bulls-finding-ways-to-win-try-to-solve-rockets-next/

"When he's taking those shots without thinking about it, reading the defense and being aggressive, especially in the pace that we've played with, (the results have been favorable).

"That faster pace, that gets him in the open court and he sees some easy ones go down and the basket opens up for him. He's really been aggressive, and you can see his confidence skyrocket when one or two goes down."

 

Jalen Green doing what he did the first 2 years. Closing the season strong to give you hope that he's going to take that next step. Not fooling me a 3rd time.

 

Or SGA

Dude has had exactly three (3) games under 20 points this season
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gilgesh01/gamelog/2024

And two of those were 17 and 19 points.

Ridiculous how consistent the man has been.

 

So he was leading the team in +/- while the team is having a .700 record the previous seasons?

He was playing plus defense during those previous stretches?

I'm more confident than ever that Jalen Green now can have a positive impact on the game even if his three pointer isn't falling. That's probably the biggest difference with him now compared to the previous seasons. He already puts fear into opposing teams with his downhill ability and is becoming a positive defender.

 

Plus defense? I'm not sure where you are getting this. The team gives 7.3 points LESS on defense when he's off the court compared to on. In comparison, Sengun's 4.9 points worse, FVV is 3.9 points better, Jabari is 6.6 points better, and Brooks 2.9 points better. All these numbers mostly line up with the eye test too. Among our young wings of Amen/Jalen/Cam/Tari, it's pretty clear Jalen's the worst defender among them.

Look, if you want to drink the koolaid again that Jalen has turned the corner, and this stretch of great scoring is somehow indicative of his future, go ahead. I get that having some hope is better than earlier in the year when he looked like a lost cause. But Jalen never has and likely never will be a plus defender. At best you just hope he's not a liability on D, and his efficient offense can make up for it.

 

I would say he's been a positive NBA defender half way through the season where he was still struggling on offense.

 

@The Cat

 

People keep citing this, but wouldn't you expect his +/- to be better on a better team? That's kind of the core flaw with using that statistic, especially in comparing a decent team to a bad one. It's not a great individual statistic, it measures entire 5-man lineups that include the one player.

He's now playing on a team with Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, Uncle Jeff, Aaron Holiday, and Amen Thompson, under a better coach, and with leveled-up versions of some of the players he had in previous years. If his +/- was still bad, it would be a damning indictment. That it's good is inconclusive, maybe mildly positive.

That said, I don't disagree that he's a better team player this season, I'm just not reading too much into this one stat.

 

For a media member, Du Bose is too much of a homer, I do not mind it normally but it is like he never posts anything that is close to negative.

He is like the next mouth piece, even Feigen does write more objectively.

 

The 1996 Bulls' team +/- was also +12.3, not +7.1

Again, I'm not denying that Jalen is a better team player this season, I just think implying that he's nearly 11 points better is a deceptive use of a flawed statistic.

 

Then use your eyes.

 

You were saying the same stuff the first month of the season.

Jalen Green is shooting 47% & 38% from 3 in March/April for his career. Maybe he should have gone to college so he could have been a March Madness star, because that was clearly his calling.

 

I remember looking at his stats early in the season when people said he turned a corner on defense, and even back then he was worse than other rotation players on the team. Obviously the numbers were better than his rookie/2nd year self, but when you're on a better team obviously your numbers should be better even if you are the same.

But even if he was playing positive defense early one, as with everything Jalen Green related, he just can't be consistent so it's kind of a moot point until he can do all this consistently.

 

Yeah, the 1996 Bulls did it for an entire season. And they were nearly as good the year after, and the year after that. This stat on Green is for 14 games. Hell even Linsanity was a better and longer run than this and Jeremy Lin only got MLE money from us the next year.

 

Jalen needs to start knockin' up more gold diggers. The plan is working nicely and he's playing WAYYYY better!