From Promising to PROLIFIC: Jalen Green Set To FLOURISH With Phoenix Suns | Stephen’s Studies

From Promising to PROLIFIC: Jalen Green Set To FLOURISH With Phoenix Suns | Stephen’s Studies

Jaylen Green is set up for great success with the Suns and it’s in a way that’s going to counter the things that people saw him not maybe be the best at with the Houston Rockets. Let’s get to the film and talk to why. All right, so starting off with Jaylen Green looking at him in pick and roll. I want to start here with the dynamic touch that they’re getting into with them. So you see the quick pitch to Shangon and I think this is something they got away from as the series continued on. This is some of the flaw in process that I don’t think is going to be an issue with the Suns because they’ll work to get him dynamic touches so that it’s not just static. Bring it up the court, wait for the screen to come, defense loads up, and I got to go against the defense as they’ve gotten into their concept, whatever it is that they want to work out of in terms of coverage. So, this is the beginning of the entire series. This is one of the few reps where they did this. You see a little bit of a shallow cut after Shangon pitches it over to Dylan Brooks. And because of the screen that takes place from Shangon for Jaylen Green and then he comes off of the handoff from Dylan Brooks. This is important that I’m bringing up right here because look who it’s directly involving. So obviously it’s Stephen Curry that was initially guarding Dylan Brooks right here as you see the arrow coming into the screen. This is who they’re bringing into action because of the screen that took place from Shangon and now Moody being put in rotation in terms of navigating screens. Steph Curry because Jaylen Green is turned a corner and getting downhill has to ultimately commit to the basketball. And this is what you want. You want for Jaylen to not have to go up against a set defense, but not always have to go up against the better, if not the best perimeter defensive matchup that a lineup might have against him. Great job in process here. And in tandem with that is also the reads from Jaylen Green. So, as we slow it down and we kind of drag it forward, um you get the dynamic touch for Jaylen. You get the late switch that takes place that gives them access to attack Steph Curry going downhill, but you also because it’s Steph Curry and it’s not Moses Moody, you get more attention that’s going to get a reaction out of Draymond Green who is the nearest help defender in the paint. Understanding Jaylen’s a score first player, Draymond’s overreacting here, but then also trying to cover up for Steph as Jaylen gets downhill. That opens up natural opportunity for Jaylen to hit the pocket pass here on the late roll to Shangon. Jaylen’s on time and on schedule with the pass that he makes and Shangon finishes off the advantage with the quick pass over to Thompson and they end up getting free throws off of the first or they end up getting a layup off of the first possession that gets cancelled because it ends up being free throw opportunities for Thompson. Little bit of the process that I love from the Rockets in this series. And now we’re going to get into kind of some of what led to the varying results with Jaylen and that’s kind of a lack of process with some of the actions that they were getting into. So we get to this rep here. Let’s bring it up the floor. Good read here from him on the reject. Want to pause it right here so we can see what coverage it is that they’re getting to from the Golden State side. So look at where Moses Moody is at this present moment. A little bit more squared up to the to his matchup and in between his matchup and where the basket is. Now watch as we get a little bit closer to the coverage starting to take place. And you see this point right here where Moody is now not squared up. He’s more so trying to funnel Jaylen Green over to where Draymond Green is. And this is what we want to pay close attention to here because what they’re doing is they’re trying to keep his action specific to this outer third of the floor between where the lane line goes baseline and baseline and obviously the natural sideline. They don’t want him to get middle. And what Moses Moody doing is going to be doing here because of where Draymond Green is is going to jump to this side of Dre or of of Jaylen so that he’s funneling him directly to where Draymond is. That’s going to bring in their help defenders here. Everybody’s going to be kind of playing four on three on the backside. But we’re paying close attention to these two defenders right here and the decisions that Jaylen is going to be making in respect to the coverage that he’s being conceded on the ball. So this is a good rep here from him. He does a good job of conceit or he does a good job of accepting the coverage, doing a good job to kind of trigger a little bit of a reaction out of them to the point where he gets Draymond to commit and help or support on the ball. And then we’re going to see him do a good job getting off of it quick that allows for Shenon to have a runway. There’s a rhythm and cadence to the timing of this pass. We’re going to have reps that we talk about where he either misses the window or makes the pass a little bit too late and it kind of puts the rest of the advantage that could be created and compromised. But here he does a good job making Draymond react just enough hitting Shangon with perfect cadence of rhythm on his roll. And we see what Shangon does here catching an absolute body on his way down the lane into the paint. Great job here from Shangon. Great job from Jaylen. And you see the result that they get in a momentum stamping type of play for play too. Then you get to this next clip. They get into it a little bit dynamically in terms of swing swing and it’s not Jaylen bringing it up the court and getting directly into it. But I would love to see them do a little bit more here with Jaylen on the touch. Nonetheless, we see him come off of the screen and you see it’s drop coverage here. It’s a little bit shorter of a drop, but it still is drop coverage conceding this pull up three-pointer pocket for him. I’m not mad at this attempt at the basket because of the timing of the game, the rhythm of the flow of the game, the shot that he’s taken, one that he took a lot of last season at a career-high rate. That’s not a bad shot. Obviously, he makes it. That’s the part that makes it a good shot ultimately because you want him to put the ball in a basket. But I do like the idea of him just finding these early pockets and opportunities, doing it in a rhythm after making two passes, not just coming down to getting directly into the shots being taken. And he knocks that one down. and we get to this next one, we’re gonna be paying close attention again to the flow within to it. So you see him get a little bit of a dynamic touch, but then there’s too much stagnancy just for my personal liking. Now, obviously this is taking place if you look at the shot clock with 9 seconds. So there’s not too much that you’re going to be doing in terms of trying to create something new. I do think the golden ticket on this one is that he does get access to Steph Curry late in the clock and that’s a player that’s obviously at the top of their scouting report on the other end. So on the defensive end when the Warriors are defending you, you want to put him in action and be able to attack him as much as you can. He does a good job here in isolation. I would like to see him commit more to one move though. This is a little bit too much back and forth. Obviously the shot clock is not in his favor when he gets this touch. I would like to see him rather than waiting and I say rather than waiting because of this dynamic right here. As I bring the circle in this time, look at where Draymond Green is on the initial touch from Jaylen Green. And then watch where he’s ultimately going to be before Jaylen gets into the attack because he gets the catch and then he gets the assessing of where the defense is and he’s about 45 ft away from the basket. That gives the defense behind stuff enough time to take away pockets of the floor and kind of play the math game in terms of space being occupied versus space that he can work to get to. There was there really was no win-win solution unless he was going to create a lot of separation with Steph there. Good job from the Warriors on that rep. Would love to see the Rockets do a better job there in that situation. I think that’s a position where the Suns will put him in better opportunity for success scenarios even in the late clock like on that rep. We get to this one from sideline out of bounds. A little bit of a dynamic touch and then the stagnancy, the stagnant pick and roll. You see them already getting into their coverage. No different than the first rep with Moses Moody. We see GP2, Gary Peyton in the second getting into coverage on Jaylen Green. And you see him influencing him or funneling him towards the outer third trying to cancel this screen coming in from Tyrie East, but also funnel him directly to where Draymond Green is ultimately going to be. So you take the curses away, you get back into the action. You’ll see exactly what I’m getting at. GP2 GP2 does a good job at the point of attack. This is not a bad pass from Jaylen and I want to start with that first. But what I would like to see is what we saw on the first two reps and that’s okay test the depth of the coverages that they’re conceding to you. So you know what the coverage is going to be. They’re icing you. They want to send you to your weak hand if you will on this rep. What I would love to see from Jaylen here accepting ownership of the coverage on ball and rather than getting to this point where this is a smart reject in in the space explore that space a little bit more. Shangon is presently at the elbow strong side. He kind of gets out of that pocket. Explore that space a little bit more. Figure out how deep into this is Draymond gonna ultimately want to get into a late switch with you. Are they going to fully commit to putting two to the ball once you get to that three-point line or elbow area of the floor? And how much is that ultimately going to put stress on the next layer of defense, which would be on this scenario because he’s going to reject the screen. Guess who? Stephen Curry. That’s who they want to be making decisions and be directly involved with action as much as they can possibly manipulate it. And when I speak to manipulating it, this is what I’m getting at. If Jaylen gets to the point where on this rep, this is a smart read, I think he gets off of it too quickly and he could kind of create more of an advantage for his teammates to play off of. If he takes even one extra dribble here to make Draymond fully commit to his attempt to drive downhill, you see Ein will be open. You already see Steph Curry getting into the rotation. That’s a two versus one on the backside. If Eston gets this catch after Dre after he makes one more dribble to engage Draymond. Now Eston has the decision to catch and attack Steph to catch it and move it. What does that do to the rest of the defense? It keeps them in rotation makes their dominoes fall defensively and that’s just a little bit of the nuance with Jaylen when you get this type of attention. Finding ways to kind of manipulate the game and put your teammates in better position to be successful. The next rip here. Don’t like this catch point at all. This catch point taking place on the Toyota Center logo. He’s about 45ish feet away from the basket. Even if a screen does come, there’s a long route into that. Everybody on the defense is going to be aware of what’s going on and they’re able to get into their gaps and take away pockets of the floor from you. This is just a little bit of the flaw of the slow Houston Rockets process in the half court offensively last season. wasn’t the most conducive to Jaylen. I feel like this is again where the Devin Booker of it all, the Jordan out of it all, and the general principles that they’ll be playing off of will better benefit and better suit Jaylen. So again, this is just nothing happening for about seven to eight seconds here. And Jaylen has to put on his cape. He goes to get a very tough bucket, but what’s the lifespan of you going up and doing this 30 other times for the possessions that you’re at the point of attack of your offense? This is in the first quarter, y’all. You’re in the first quarter. There’s still four minutes left and he’s already having to do so much self-creation, exert so much more energy. If you have to do this for a full 40 minutes in a playoff situation, that’s not going to be sustainable for anybody not named LeBron James. He does a good job putting his cape on and getting a bucket here. But you want to see an offense that kind of puts him in a better position to be his best, most successful version of himself while also not exerting as much energy as often. That’s what he’ll be getting with the Suns. Next rep. I like this a lot. This is something that they could have gotten into significantly more as well. We’re gonna see it on maybe one or two other reps in this film session, but you see this pre-screen that’s taking place for the person that’s ultimately screening for Jaylen Green. So, you revert your attention down here to where Fred Vanita is. He’s going to be setting a pre-screen for Alfred Shangon. And what that’s doing is because they know they want their bigs to be somewhat near the level or in coverage on Jaylen Green. If you set a screen for the person that’s about to set a screen on the ball, that puts that coverage defender behind schedule. And if you put them behind schedule, that should create opportunity for advantage on the ball. We will see a lot of this with the Phoenix Suns in terms of when they’re trying to get opportunities for attacking angles with Jaylen Green as well as Deon Booker. And you see in this situation because the screen set for the screener before he sets the screen on ball, the person in coverage is late. And because he’s late, look at what that’s going to do with the decision-m for Jaylen Green as he gets downhill. For one, as I bring the circle into the mix. You see this big pocket of space between where the screen is set, where the screener defender is, and all of this real estate and runway in terms of optionality. Jaylen can continue and go left if he wants to. He can go right if he wants to here. He has all the options he wants. As well as because this defender is late, he has to concede a top foot. And if you’re someone that’s an attacking downhill guard or just generally a scorer, one of the first things you’re taught to look for if they’re conceding their body language like this, attack the top foot because now he has to open his hips and that’s just too much to have to try to do when you have somebody with a live dribble. So Jaylen comes off of this screen, he feels the real estate, also sees that this defender is late getting into coverage. He’s at their mercy at that point and he does what he does best, attacking downhill, goes get a paint touch, finishes off a two with an impressive athletic dunk. Then we get to this rep. They’re going to get back into the exact same thing. So, good job with the pre-screen again from Fred Van Vleet as you see the separation that takes place as he puts the body onto uh Kevon Looney. That puts him behind schedule as Steven Adams comes in to set the screen. Notice where both of these screens took place on these last two reps as well. The first handful of reps were on the outer thirds. They move these the point of these screens to the middle third because it’s harder to kind of attack a ball handler when he’s in that middle kind of direct on the basket type of angle versus from coming away from the sidelines and towards the middle. Coverage is a little bit harder to play if you want to be a no middle defense if a team starts their action in the middle of the floor. And to that point, no different than the last rep because the big is late into action. You see another opportunity for for Jaylen Green to split or snake the screen, gets the top foot. Once he sees that, that’s his indicator to get downhill. He just blows past Kevon Looney like a cone, if you will. And now it’s all about his decision- making in that three in that four versus three below the below the free throw line. Does a good job kind of nestling into this pocket here and then kind of playing with a little bit of counter punching attack. So you see the attack, good job selling Midi. Gets gets uh Spencer to step up, concede another top foot, attacks another top foot. This is trained to kind of trigger this reaction out of a defense and then does a good job ultimately attacking and getting to the free throw line. Great job and process from the Rockies here. Great job from Jaylen in terms of reading and reacting but being aggressive and not settling early in the game. I like this process. I like this rep. Next rep here trying to stay middle third as much as he possibly can. This one kind of gets going towards the outer third. Getting a little bit of a pre-screen just to get that initial matchup off of him. And I like that. I like that dynamic in it a lot. This is something that I imagine the Suns will also dip their their toes into as well. Having players like Grayson Allen, having a player like Colin Gillespie that might be on the floor with Deon Booker and Jaylen pre-screening just to take that initial matchup that a defense might want on one of those ball handlers and then ultimately getting into whatever action it is they want to get to. So on this rep here, it’s just bringing Steph Curry into action so that they can make him work defensively, make him exert energy, make him have to guard. Maybe he draws a foul, maybe he just has to exert energy. Um, anything can happen positive from that, but you want that person to be defending so they can’t just occupy space and ultimately conserve energy for the offensive end. Now, the issue on this rep, this is where we get to I’m curious with Jordan not where he is with conversations with Jaylen in terms of his shot profile because this is a shot that Jaylen has shown that he can make. Is this a shot that he knows he’s going to make at this juncture of the game? I would much rather him put more pressure on Steph Curry and not bail him out by selling for a three-pointer here with 10 seconds left on the shot clock. A step back at that. I would rather him put more pressure on him. Force the defense around Steph Curry to react. You see them already trying to get into the gaps because they see the mismatch that’s been conceded there. Flip that into an advantage. Look who’s on the back side of this action right here. You have their best three-point shooter and Fred Van Vleet who’s two passes away. But you see the way that the defense is already starting to try to load up the gaps on Jaylen. That’s fine. If you can get past Steph, attack that top foot again like you did with the last couple of bigs, do that. Is the help going to come from here? If so, then you got one of your better three-point shooters and Dylan Brooks, your second best three-point shooter, pass away. If he doesn’t step over and it’s this next layer of defense, whether it’s the middleman here or the low man in Draymond, you got this two versus one where you got this player creeping in behind Draymond. would just like to see him explore the options a little bit more rather than kind of settling, if you will, and letting the defense kind of dictate terms to him. You want to be in a position where you’re keeping pressure on them. This wasn’t that for me. I would like to see him be a little bit more be a little bit better, a little more wise with the shot selection. We get to this rep. This is a very fun one here. So again, Dylan Brooks being guarded by Steph Curry, like we talked about on earlier reps, them putting them in horns allows for the the Houston Rockets to kind of dictate who is going to be where in action. And what they’re doing here, Draymond is significantly higher up the floor as you see him above the free throw line than he was in any of the reps that we talked about before. That’s because of all of the bodies involved so high up the floor in this action. You also want to take note of where this screen is taking place is in the middle of the floor, but also significantly higher than the three-point line, giving Jaylen more real estate to work with going downhill. So, it’s a little bit of a pre-screen that they’re trying to set. They want to try to trigger this switch here, which they ultimately do in Jaylen getting Steph Curry switched on to him. Job well done there. I think he goes a little bit too quick on this rep. Now, this is a shot that can be made, so I’m not going to be like scrutinizing or critiquing too much here. He makes a good decision, engaging and flattening out the help defense before stretching them and making a pass to the opposite side of the floor. But I would like to see him take his time a little bit more on this rep, especially because of where the pre-screen takes place so high up the floor. I would love to see him kind of settle here, regain himself. you know, he’s going to get past Steph when he wants to, but how he goes about doing that and what that might ultimately entail for the I guess the golden nugget of this, which is being able to attract two going downhill and being able to feed Shangon here because Tyrie can knock down this shot and he should have knocked down this shot. This is a great shot. But the second rep of this possession, we saw Jaylen do a good job of hitting Shangoon on that roll and Shangon got a poster on that rep. You want to feed your roller downhill like that as much as you possibly can. I would like to see him kind of steal back the pace and not allow for what the Warriors are doing to kind of speed him up, if you will. Now, he ultimately, like I said, makes a great decision here. Makes an accurate pass on top of the decision that he made. Playoff time, this is a shot you need your shooters to make. Does a good job as a primary creator there, but I would rather see him try to get it to Shangon and kind of force that action a little bit more. Now we get to this one and this is what I like to see a whole lot more of. This is a very quick one. We’re not gonna hang too too long here. Dynamic touches. Dynamic touches. Dynamic touches. And what I mean by that, if you can get Jaylen Green touches where he’s on the move, it’s a lot harder to double team a moving target or load up a defense to a moving target than it is if that target just has the ball and is in one spot and you know where a screen is ultimately taking place. Pick and roll is a slow developing action. Dribble handoffs are a fast-paced developing action that puts a defense in compromise. So you see the screen that takes place at the bottom. Jaylen Green’s coming up from the corner. We’re going to see a lot of this with the Suns. The bigs at the top of the key handling. Jaylen being put in dynamic touches to come off of handoffs there in screen scenarios and things like that. And what this does is puts a different type of pressure, but also gives him a different type of rhythm to get his touch in. Going to his strong hand, his right hand. He sees the coverages backing off of the screener as a screener gets into the role as well as his primary matchup being late because of the pre-screen that took place. This is zoom action. We’re going to see a lot of this with him and Devin Booker. He gets this in rhythm. Knocks down another pull up three in this one. There you have it. Jaylen Green, very much misunderstood. A player that is very young, a player that just got done with his first playoff series and had the pleasure, if you will, of having to go up against a savant on the defensive end like Draymond Green in his first showing. All right. At this point in this film session, we’re going to stop and we’re going to encourage you all to become die hards to see the full duration of it where we dive into a handful more clips, get into more of the details, more of the weeds of things regarding Jaylen Green, the positives, the negatives, and room for improvement with this pick and roll process. So, if you want to finish watching the rest of this film session, as well as plenty more and plenty other uh iterations of Die Hard exclusive content that we create here at PHNX Sports, you want to go over to gophnx.com, click on become a diehard, sign up, and you’ll get access to that as well as written content from the Cardinal side and all other iterations of Die Hard content that we do

Jalen Green’s trade from the Houston Rockets to the Phoenix Suns came at a perfect time.

For the Suns, the need for youthfulness in age and energy, explosiveness, downhill presence, as well as edge — Green checks those boxes off and then some.

For Green, the Suns present him with a new context, for a team construct that he fits more naturally into, and the OPPORTUNITY that’ll be extended to play off a top-tier scorer, learn from someone who’s been through the present stage he’s at in his career, and a coach that’s going to have unique ways to challenge him in refinement of his game.

It’ll come with principles, but he should be able to be himself and play his game as a Sun. The runway extension should also greatly benefit him.