Tag: Incredible

If there were one word to describe Jalen Green’s NBA career so far, it’d be “inconsistency”. Throughout his three and a half seasons now in the league, Green has had quite the fair share of ups and downs. Whether it was the sudden 30-40 point outbursts or the couple game stretches of great offense, they’d almost always be followed up by poor, inefficient play. Not once have we truly seen Jalen thrive for a long amount of time, but of all his small stretches, the one he’s on right now seems the most promising, the most believable.

So far at the halfway marker of this season, Green has had a career year efficiency wise as he’s averaging 21.6/4.4/2.6 on 43.8 percent from the field, 36.3 percent from beyond the arc, and 87.6 percent from the free throw line. While there’s some clear positives and some slight negatives, I think the best part of it all is the fact that the numbers are only getting better as the season progresses.

After a very strong first few games of the year, Jalen went back to his ways of inconsistency right after, just struggling to truly get any real offense going. To put this into a larger perspective, in the first five games this season, Green averaged roughly 28 points on 43/41/82 shooting splits. It had almost looked like we were going to finally get the consistent scoring out of Jalen, until it didn’t. In the next 16 games following the hot start, Green would show off the inconsistency we’ve all grown used to, putting up disappointing averages of 16/4/3 on extremely poor shooting. For the stretch to be called disappointing would be selling it short of how bad it truly was. In those first 21 games of the season, only three times did Green shoot 50 percent from the floor or better, and when you can’t shoot the ball well, it’s hard for you to succeed if you’re a guy like Jalen Green.

However, if you’re Jalen Green, that also means you can get hot at any moment, in any game, at any time, which is exactly what happened. After weeks of poor play, a game against the Kings turned Jalen’s season around, as he’d go off for 28 points on some of his best efficiency so far this season. Despite the loss, it was clear that this was a much needed performance, one that would raise the confidence level of Green for the foreseeable future up to now.

Since that first quarter of the season, the first 21 games, it’s been nonstop scoring and a dose of consistency that has lasted longer than any other streak in Jalen’s career. In his last 20 games now, Green has averaged an outstanding 25/4/3 on a tremendous 48 percent from the floor, 41 percent from three, and 90 percent from the line. The efficiency is excellent and has only continued to improve during this run, and the scoring is rapidly increasing more and more, making this stretch look even better. To say that we’d see Jalen average nearly 25 points in over a 20-game stretch in the first half of the season would’ve sounded improbable multiple times this year, but something clicked in him and he hasn’t let off whatsoever.

To make matters even better, it’s been these last nine games that have truly defined this stretch, all of which Green has scored at least 20 points in. His averages in those games? Roughly 30 points to go along with 4 rebounds and 3 assists on an outlandish 53 percent from the floor, 49 percent from three and 93 percent from the free throw line. He’s looked unguardable, been unguardable, and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down at all.

But, as we ask with every Jalen Green hot streak, is this one going to stick around? Is this going to be the start of consistency for the fourth year guard? Well, I believe it will be. The Houston Rockets’ record is 8-0 when Jalen scores 30+ points and are 14-6 during these last 20 games, it’s clear that Jalen’s success is leading to great team success. So having those numbers to look at should only be more reason for Houston to continue to let Green do his thing, to let Jalen fly free and play loosely within the offense.

Am I saying he’s going to average 30 for the rest of the year? No, but he most certainly can lift himself up to around that 24-25 point mark by the end of the season if he just continues to play well like he has been. It’s always been a consistency issue for Green, but if there’s ever been any hope that it’d change, now is most certainly the time.