The Jaylen Nowell Thread

[Jedzz]

Freshman seen playing here against Kansas 2017. Not just his plays. Second highest scorer that game. 3 boards, 2 steals. Washington wins. I think Kansas was #2 at the time.

Watch on YouTube

[Jedzz]

Watching Nowell, he seems to have good body control, not looking to stun with athleticism, just good, smart fundamental basketball.

That's the unusual part for me. Seeing a young yet fundamentally sound player who also appears to play with the calm confidence that comes from knowing what you are doing, here, to join this team. I hope what Towns was claiming about the environment for young guys now will be true and they can build on his confidence at this level instead of knocking it down. In a college post game interview someone asked him how he developed such an effective floater. He had a quick and short answer. Time (served). Time and Family.

[KGdaBom]

Freshman seen playing here against Kansas 2017. Not just his plays. Second highest scorer that game. 3 boards, 2 steals. Washington wins. I think Kansas was #2 at the time.

Watch on YouTube

I love his combination of inside moves and outside shooting as well as passing off the drive. I think he could be a good one for us.

[Klomp]

I had forgotten about this game. Nowell had 22 pts on 9-15 FGs.

Watch on YouTube

[Jedzz]

I had forgotten about this game. Nowell had 22 pts on 9-15 FGs.

Never saw that Gopher game before. It does show a couple of his amazing touch shots that I would have no expectation of going in. See that often in his games, as well as his passing. Most games I'm seeing him get and finish the final shot, but this time the final heave didn't go in. Just not enough time there.

Will be interesting to see if Amir Coffey can climb out of the G league and get a shot with Clippers or somewhere. He should. He was a force of nature for Gophers.

[Jedzz]

If you have the right accounts, you may be able to watch an on-demand Colorado matchup from March.
https://pac-12.com/videos/2019-pac-12-mens-basketball-tournament-colorado-vs-washington-demand

If not, you can always watch highlights from a San Diego game in Nov of 2018.
https://pac-12.com/videos/extended-highlights-jaylen-nowells-late-free-throws-help-washington-mens-basketball-edge-out
Nowell showing some nice finishing and teamwork. Puts game away with a couple FTs at the end, lead all scoring. Seems like most of his Washington time he's been leaned on in the second half of games. Whether that means he takes a while to get warmed up, or if that means Washington just needed him to close out games by scoring I'm not sure.

[Jedzz]

Read on Twitter

[SO_MONEY]

Read on Twitter

But, did Kevin Warren cry?

Sent from my cp3705A using Tapatalk

[Jedzz]

Read on Twitter

But, did Kevin Warren cry?

Sent from my cp3705A using Tapatalk

Unsure of the crying reference. But seeing the red man purse...can't unsee it.

[Jedzz]

Daily dose of Nowell games. Not a highlight reel. Actually a blowout loss. NC 2nd round.

NC with Coby White, Cameron J, Maye and Little just T-ing off.
NC shooting 50.3 % as a team.
Nowell shooting 55% but as a team Wash shot 38.5%.

Take ten minutes out of your life, watch this whole clip and see Nowell doing his typical things against top competition. He closes on the net and finishes so well. The only thing we didn't see from him this game is very many attempts from 3. Not sure why. It's too bad that Thybulle can really stink it up shooting at times. Could have been a better game.

Watch on YouTube

[TheProdigy]

Bump.

It seems like Jaylen Nowell is the forgotten man around here. So far he's averaging 21.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 2.7 apg in 30.7 mpg. He's shooting 51.2 fg%, 43.6 3p%, and 86.7 ft%.

Yes he is playing against inferior competition in the g league but I think alot of the stuff he's doing could transfer to the NBA game. Here are some highlights:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[Jedzz]

Looks like it's high time for the tank show already. Time to bring Nowell up and "develop" from the NBA minutes like everyone likes to do with these guys.

Team needs real shooters. Time to see if he can be one at this level now.

8 free starts at wing sounds about right to give him a good warm up test. Just about everyone else getting free starts.

Nowell/Reid show time.

[winforlose]

This might be the most bizarre situation in the NBA this season. Look at the stat differences between his shooting with Iowa and Minnesota. I don’t care what it takes, we need to fix this kids game.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/gleague/players/n/nowelja01d.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nowelja01.html

[Jedzz]

This might be the most bizarre situation in the NBA this season. Look at the stat differences between his shooting with Iowa and Minnesota. I don’t care what it takes, we need to fix this kids game.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/gleague/players/n/nowelja01d.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nowelja01.html

He's not in the offense, not in the game plans, not part of the team at all yet. His minutes have been 3 minutes here, 2 minutes there type of junk or otherise sitting entirely. The last game one of his rotation chances was the final minute before halftime or something. He can't get up to speed at this level until they give him a few games of real minutes and real bench rotations as part of the team. Not just two minutes to go stand in the corner and shoot cold shots. In college he almost always got hotter and hotter as the game went on, to the end were he would take closing shots for his team. He's a secondary/tertiary type scorer for much of a game until the end where he really shines warmed up and under pressure. He would be perfect playnig off guys like Dlo, Mclaughlin, Beasely, if only they would give him all of Culver's or Okogie's 20+ minutes for a few games to let him crack the egg open. But no! Can't ever do that!

McLaughlin started this season shooting horrible with 4 games and 58 minutes at FG 27%, 3FG 12% at 14 mins per game.

Now for the season JMac is now over 43% FG and 41% 3FG, and the last 9 cames are 58% FG and 50% 3FG!

JMac now has 23 games and 2 starts, 445 minutes averging 19+ mins a game. Undrafted, but has a prior relationship with the new coaches that netted him the favortism he needed for enough chances to shine.

Until Nowell can knock some rust off at this level's speed with 18-20+ minutes in a few games we may never see it happen. But Culver and Okogie can have 55+ games and nearly 1400 minutes and never develop a consistent shot at all. That's 22-25 minutes a game. They refuse so far to let Nowell have any of their minutes.

Because of this Low man on the totem pole treatment he's clearly gotten with chances, and likely getting when at practice with this team, I'm guessing confidence is tossed and will continue to be until he gets real time in these games to work passed it. It's clearly not working with 2 minute chances. We've got two undrafted Gleague players getting tons of time every single game now and shining often, then we have two FRPS in Culver/'Okogie who can't do much on offense most nights. But our second round pick is treated like dog chow entirely.

The team claims to want to create an environment for development, but the Culver/Okogie minutes prove they are still all about draft position and nothing else.

Just trade the poor guy to a team that will allow him to develop from either regular bench minutes or the Gleague. Not simply watching others here that he maybe never should have been behind in the first place.

[winforlose]

This might be the most bizarre situation in the NBA this season. Look at the stat differences between his shooting with Iowa and Minnesota. I don’t care what it takes, we need to fix this kids game.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/gleague/players/n/nowelja01d.html

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nowelja01.html

He's not in the offense, not in the game plans, not part of the team at all yet. His minutes have been 3 minutes here, 2 minutes there type of junk or otherise sitting entirely. The last game one of his rotation chances was the final minute before halftime or something. He can't get up to speed at this level until they give him a few games of real minutes and real bench rotations as part of the team. Not just two minutes to go stand in the corner and shoot cold shots. In college he almost always got hotter and hotter as the game went on, to the end were he would take closing shots for his team. He's a secondary/tertiary type scorer for much of a game until the end where he really shines warmed up and under pressure. He would be perfect playnig off guys like Dlo, Mclaughlin, Beasely, if only they would give him all of Culver's or Okogie's 20+ minutes for a few games to let him crack the egg open. But no! Can't ever do that!

McLaughlin started this season shooting horrible with 4 games and 58 minutes at FG 27%, 3FG 12% at 14 mins per game.

Now for the season JMac is now over 43% FG and 41% 3FG, and the last 9 cames are 58% FG and 50% 3FG!

JMac now has 23 games and 2 starts, 445 minutes averging 19+ mins a game. Undrafted, but has a prior relationship with the new coaches that netted him the favortism he needed for enough chances to shine.

Until Nowell can knock some rust off at this level's speed with 18-20+ minutes in a few games we may never see it happen. But Culver and Okogie can have 55+ games and nearly 1400 minutes and never develop a consistent shot at all. That's 22-25 minutes a game. They refuse so far to let Nowell have any of their minutes.

Because of this Low man on the totem pole treatment he's clearly gotten with chances, and likely getting when at practice with this team, I'm guessing confidence is tossed and will continue to be until he gets real time in these games to work passed it. It's clearly not working with 2 minute chances. We've got two undrafted Gleague players getting tons of time every single game now and shining often, then we have two FRPS in Culver/'Okogie who can't do much on offense most nights. But our second round pick is treated like dog chow entirely.

The team claims to want to create an environment for development, but the Culver/Okogie minutes prove they are still all about draft position and nothing else.

Just trade the poor guy to a team that will allow him to develop from either regular bench minutes or the Gleague. Not simply watching others here that he maybe never should have been behind in the first place.

I agree with a lot of this, but want to add a few things.

1. We need to carve out a role for him. Do we want him to be a straight SG? Do we want him to be an on ball PG? Do we want him to do both depending on who he is playing with? Grooming him for the future starts with telling him what role you see for him and letting him work towards it.

2. Am I crazy, or do his G league stats make him look like a Malik Beasley type player? His shooting is badly needed on the second unit and a second legit handle would go a long way.

3. Okogie has earned his minutes and needs them to further develop. Okogie is our best man on man defender. He might also be our best on ball defender. Where he struggles is in scheme defense. Sadly, Ryan might by the worst scheme defense coach in history. Okogie is also playing starting SF. I cannot see Nowell filling that role. Culver is a very different story. Culver has hit the rookie wall hard. I honestly think they should send Culver down for a few games to let him play against weaker opponents. Give his backup 3 spot to Layman and Hernangomez. This creates playing time for both Spellman at the 4 and Nowell at the 2.

4. You forgot to mention Crabbe. Our stable genius of a head coach kept giving Crabbe backup SG minutes. Rosas did well in 3 of his five trades, but he refuses to move on from his two bad ones. Culver and Crabbe both suck right now. Crabbe needs to ride pine the rest of the season and then go play for some other bad team of vet minimum.

[Jedzz]

I agree with a lot of this, but want to add a few things.

1. We need to carve out a role for him. Do we want him to be a straight SG? Do we want him to be an on ball PG? Do we want him to do both depending on who he is playing with? Grooming him for the future starts with telling him what role you see for him and letting him work towards it.

2. Am I crazy, or do his G league stats make him look like a Malik Beasley type player? His shooting is badly needed on the second unit and a second legit handle would go a long way.

3. Okogie has earned his minutes and needs them to further develop. Okogie is our best man on man defender. He might also be our best on ball defender. Where he struggles is in scheme defense. Sadly, Ryan might by the worst scheme defense coach in history. Okogie is also playing starting SF. I cannot see Nowell filling that role. Culver is a very different story. Culver has hit the rookie wall hard. I honestly think they should send Culver down for a few games to let him play against weaker opponents. Give his backup 3 spot to Layman and Hernangomez. This creates playing time for both Spellman at the 4 and Nowell at the 2.

4. You forgot to mention Crabbe. Our stable genius of a head coach kept giving Crabbe backup SG minutes. Rosas did well in 3 of his five trades, but he refuses to move on from his two bad ones. Culver and Crabbe both suck right now. Crabbe needs to ride pine the rest of the season and then go play for some other bad team of vet minimum.

1. I agree. When he gets a few rare minutes they haven't defined any role besides telling him to go stand in the corner and wait for shots. If this was truly an environment for developing players they would be more prepared for his minutes and what they try to get out of them. It's beyond obvious his few rare moments have really only happened to appease the few people that keep asking "why not him" all season.

2. I don't think you are crazy. I've seen enough. However I don't know that we will ever see it here at this level with the way they are likely to give him time. This is the very guy that should be getting minutes like Culver and Okogie have been, playing with any rotation of players and handling different roles depending on who's with him. He's the one who can handle that and might blossom in it. He's the one with enough well rounded skills to handle that. It's clear it won't happen here now. I see the favorites getting theirs no matter what they do. I don't see it changing.

3. Okogie is good enough to keep developing. He's not good enough to annoint him 100%-must-play every game, even starts. These actions are proving they are tanking and just letting players develop. Only, it's not everyone. His problems in scheme defense hurt the other players. His really amazing one on one D is really only happening a few times a game. His high motor plays are also a couple a game. For these he deserves to keep developing. But not to the point of keeping others out entirely. He doesn't help the defense so greatly that he needs to start at SF every game either. The Magic game prove any of this to anyone? How about all the others strings of losses to lotto teams?

Culver should have been slow rolled from the beginning. At the very least as soon as they noticed any struggling. He's been fighting some games and that's a good sign. Doesn't mean he should be playing every game and keeping others out. He and Okogie have been nearly matching minutes throughout games lately since the trade. These are the former first rounders and they are getting automatic minutes regardless of play. That's life in dumb town and it's always been this way. Rosas didn't change that. Ryan was born into that.

4. I've mentioned Crabbe's minutes before. You are right, he was just instantly inserted into playing minutes with instant trust. There wasn't even a honeymoon moment of special moments. It hasn't been special. I would compare it to how they instantly made Graham a starter to start the season and how that dragged on no matter how he played as if they had no other choices.


On Culver playing in the G, I agree. Get him out of the way and let him get better and develop from the Gleague. However the G ends on March 23rd. 23 days. Probably too late now. However that would be 23 days they could find regular minutes for Nowell and give him a chance. Without forcing him into every other rotation maybe it frees up more minutes like you say for others too.

These have been my points all season and it's still going on. At this point I don't expect Nowell to play well here anymore. He would need 20+ minutes in a number of games in a row, with like you said - with objectives and a point to those minutes, and I don't ever see Ryan allowing it. Culver and Okogie would apparently go straight to hell if they ever had to take a single game off. It can't be allowed.

[winforlose]

I agree with a lot of this, but want to add a few things.

1. We need to carve out a role for him. Do we want him to be a straight SG? Do we want him to be an on ball PG? Do we want him to do both depending on who he is playing with? Grooming him for the future starts with telling him what role you see for him and letting him work towards it.

2. Am I crazy, or do his G league stats make him look like a Malik Beasley type player? His shooting is badly needed on the second unit and a second legit handle would go a long way.

3. Okogie has earned his minutes and needs them to further develop. Okogie is our best man on man defender. He might also be our best on ball defender. Where he struggles is in scheme defense. Sadly, Ryan might by the worst scheme defense coach in history. Okogie is also playing starting SF. I cannot see Nowell filling that role. Culver is a very different story. Culver has hit the rookie wall hard. I honestly think they should send Culver down for a few games to let him play against weaker opponents. Give his backup 3 spot to Layman and Hernangomez. This creates playing time for both Spellman at the 4 and Nowell at the 2.

4. You forgot to mention Crabbe. Our stable genius of a head coach kept giving Crabbe backup SG minutes. Rosas did well in 3 of his five trades, but he refuses to move on from his two bad ones. Culver and Crabbe both suck right now. Crabbe needs to ride pine the rest of the season and then go play for some other bad team of vet minimum.

1. I agree. When he gets a few rare minutes they haven't defined any role besides telling him to go stand in the corner and wait for shots. If this was truly an environment for developing players they would be more prepared for his minutes and what they try to get out of them. It's beyond obvious his few rare moments have really only happened to appease the few people that keep asking "why not him" all season.

2. I don't think you are crazy. I've seen enough. However I don't know that we will ever see it here at this level with the way they are likely to give him time. This is the very guy that should be getting minutes like Culver and Okogie have been, playing with any rotation of players and handling different roles depending on who's with him. He's the one who can handle that and might blossom in it. He's the one with enough well rounded skills to handle that. It's clear it won't happen here now. I see the favorites getting theirs no matter what they do. I don't see it changing.

3. Okogie is good enough to keep developing. He's not good enough to annoint him 100%-must-play every game, even starts. These actions are proving they are tanking and just letting players develop. Only, it's not everyone. His problems in scheme defense hurt the other players. His really amazing one on one D is really only happening a few times a game. His high motor plays are also a couple a game. For these he deserves to keep developing. But not to the point of keeping others out entirely. He doesn't help the defense so greatly that he needs to start at SF every game either. The Magic game prove any of this to anyone? How about all the others strings of losses to lotto teams?

Culver should have been slow rolled from the beginning. At the very least as soon as they noticed any struggling. He's been fighting some games and that's a good sign. Doesn't mean he should be playing every game and keeping others out. He and Okogie have been nearly matching minutes throughout games lately since the trade. These are the former first rounders and they are getting automatic minutes regardless of play. That's life in dumb town and it's always been this way. Rosas didn't change that. Ryan was born into that.

4. I've mentioned Crabbe's minutes before. You are right, he was just instantly inserted into playing minutes with instant trust. There wasn't even a honeymoon moment of special moments. It hasn't been special. I would compare it to how they instantly made Graham a starter to start the season and how that dragged on no matter how he played as if they had no other choices.


On Culver playing in the G, I agree. Get him out of the way and let him get better and develop from the Gleague. However the G ends on March 23rd. 23 days. Probably too late now. However that would be 23 days they could find regular minutes for Nowell and give him a chance. Without forcing him into every other rotation maybe it frees up more minutes like you say for others too.

These have been my points all season and it's still going on. At this point I don't expect Nowell to play well here anymore. He would need 20+ minutes in a number of games in a row, with like you said - with objectives and a point to those minutes, and I don't ever see Ryan allowing it. Culver and Okogie would apparently go straight to hell if they ever had to take a single game off. It can't be allowed.

23 days is a lot. One thing I wished they did with Belly was order him to take 10 shots a game. I want to see Nowell get 20 minutes (some at PG) and take at least 10 shots with at least 6 threes per game. Who cares about competing at this point. Losing by 10 or 20 means nothing in the scheme of getting your young players going for next season.

Dave Benz mentioned that Okogie was/maybe still is the second best offensive rebounding wing in the NBA. His scoring is consistent. His inside moves are improving. I expect him to be a key part of the team moving forward. For that reason he does need to play every game. He needs to develop chemistry with Dlo and Beasley and continue to improve his offensive skill set. You don’t bench young guys when they are thriving, you bench them when they are failing. Culver is failing. Nowell has been failing up here, but he has proven to valuable in the G league to keep on the bench. We disagree about Okogie but other than that I think we are on the same page.

[Jedzz]

23 days is a lot. One thing I wished they did with Belly was order him to take 10 shots a game. I want to see Nowell get 20 minutes (some at PG) and take at least 10 shots with at least 6 threes per game. Who cares about competing at this point. Losing by 10 or 20 means nothing in the scheme of getting your young players going for next season.

Dave Benz mentioned that Okogie was/maybe still is the second best offensive rebounding wing in the NBA. His scoring is consistent. His inside moves are improving. I expect him to be a key part of the team moving forward. For that reason he does need to play every game. He needs to develop chemistry with Dlo and Beasley and continue to improve his offensive skill set. You don’t bench young guys when they are thriving, you bench them when they are failing. Culver is failing. Nowell has been failing up here, but he has proven to valuable in the G league to keep on the bench. We disagree about Okogie but other than that I think we are on the same page.

Yes we differ on Okogie and agree on much otherwise.

You did say Okgoie's scoring is consistent. Consistently good, average, bad? I think he is still a mixed bag of bad shooting and if lucky average when it comes to shooting. Scoring is a different word because he has been showing improvement finishing at the net and has been improving FT shots somewhat. So Scoring I can more agree with. And maybe this is important since other 3pt shooters have arrived and it's less on his shoulders. So you might have a point about him playing with Dlo and Beas.

My concern still is that his couple big defensive plays are still getting overated by some as good overall game defense. And then the 3pt shooting that is still really bad most of the time.

I'll cherry pick a bit here, but I'll use consecutive game streaks.

December 13th until December 30th (8 consecutive games) he scored 7 or less averging 21+ mins/g. In these 8 games he shot 5% from 3FG, and 20% from 2FG and 67% on FT. He couldn't hit 3s or finish at the net back then. He helped damage this season with that stretch.

After those 8 games he had one single better, but average shooting game. Then he went back to a string of four games 8pts or lower through January 9th. That's a 12 of 13 games stretch with less than 8 pts. We know the game results from back then.

Since 2020 started he's been showing signs of working on net finishing better and FTs and it's helping his scoring quite a bit. But he's also been trending higher in minutes to account for some totals increasing.

Since the trade deadline the larger amount of minutes at SF roles do seem to be helping. HIs timing and decision making going to the net seems better. The spacing from Dlo/Beas maybe accounts for this.

I agree that if he plays well with these new guys it can payoff to keep playing them together. But like we all seem to agree these games no longer matter, and they are losing them anyway. If it's OK for DLo to dump a game, it's ok for anyone. The point being if these guys aren't enough now, the team needs to better know all their assets going into the offseason to best make the next decisions. They don't need to use every single game they have left to work on continuity between Okogie/Dlo/Beas. Especially with Towns out. With Towns out this is all kind of temporary hodge podge anyway.

Back to Okogies 3s:
In the last 17 consecutive games Okogie is shooting 3FG at 20.9%
In the last 7 consecutive games he is shooting 3FG at 23.5%.
1 of 3 (33% 3FG) has been his best outing in the last seven games.

I almost want Okogie to become one of those players that just never shoots 3s at all for the next few years. Keep working on it in the offseasons and maybe 2 years from now give it another go. For right now, become a threat with skills around the net like he is starting to, and be a two way player that way. Let the Dlo, Beas, Juancho, JJ, Towns and others rain threes.

[winforlose]

23 days is a lot. One thing I wished they did with Belly was order him to take 10 shots a game. I want to see Nowell get 20 minutes (some at PG) and take at least 10 shots with at least 6 threes per game. Who cares about competing at this point. Losing by 10 or 20 means nothing in the scheme of getting your young players going for next season.

Dave Benz mentioned that Okogie was/maybe still is the second best offensive rebounding wing in the NBA. His scoring is consistent. His inside moves are improving. I expect him to be a key part of the team moving forward. For that reason he does need to play every game. He needs to develop chemistry with Dlo and Beasley and continue to improve his offensive skill set. You don’t bench young guys when they are thriving, you bench them when they are failing. Culver is failing. Nowell has been failing up here, but he has proven to valuable in the G league to keep on the bench. We disagree about Okogie but other than that I think we are on the same page.

Yes we differ on Okogie and agree on much otherwise.

You did say Okgoie's scoring is consistent. Consistently good, average, bad? I think he is still a mixed bag of bad shooting and if lucky average when it comes to shooting. Scoring is a different word because he has been showing improvement finishing at the net and has been improving FT shots somewhat. So Scoring I can more agree with. And maybe this is important since other 3pt shooters have arrived and it's less on his shoulders. So you might have a point about him playing with Dlo and Beas.

My concern still is that his couple big defensive plays are still getting overated by some as good overall game defense. And then the 3pt shooting that is still really bad most of the time.

I'll cherry pick a bit here, but I'll use consecutive game streaks.

December 13th until December 30th (8 consecutive games) he scored 7 or less averging 21+ mins/g. In these 8 games he shot 5% from 3FG, and 20% from 2FG and 67% on FT. He couldn't hit 3s or finish at the net back then. He helped damage this season with that stretch.

After those 8 games he had one single better, but average shooting game. Then he went back to a string of four games 8pts or lower through January 9th. That's a 12 of 13 games stretch with less than 8 pts. We know the game results from back then.

Since 2020 started he's been showing signs of working on net finishing better and FTs and it's helping his scoring quite a bit. But he's also been trending higher in minutes to account for some totals increasing.

Since the trade deadline the larger amount of minutes at SF roles do seem to be helping. HIs timing and decision making going to the net seems better. The spacing from Dlo/Beas maybe accounts for this.

I agree that if he plays well with these new guys it can payoff to keep playing them together. But like we all seem to agree these games no longer matter, and they are losing them anyway. If it's OK for DLo to dump a game, it's ok for anyone. The point being if these guys aren't enough now, the team needs to better know all their assets going into the offseason to best make the next decisions. They don't need to use every single game they have left to work on continuity between Okogie/Dlo/Beas. Especially with Towns out. With Towns out this is all kind of temporary hodge podge anyway.

Back to Okogies 3s:
In the last 17 consecutive games Okogie is shooting 3FG at 20.9%
In the last 7 consecutive games he is shooting 3FG at 23.5%.
1 of 3 (33% 3FG) has been his best outing in the last seven games.

I almost want Okogie to become one of those players that just never shoots 3s at all for the next few years. Keep working on it in the offseasons and maybe 2 years from now give it another go. For right now, become a threat with skills around the net like he is starting to, and be a two way player that way. Let the Dlo, Beas, Juancho, JJ, Towns and others rain threes.

The interesting thing about JO that never gets enough credit for is his passing skills. The advantage of those skills and the BBIQ that goes with them is he can draw and kick. If he can get Beasley or Dlo, or Hernangomez, or KAT an open catch and shoot 3, that is as good as him being able to hit them. Thankfully other teams have scouted JO as not being a good 3 point shooter. The space they give him allows him to drive downhill and usually with a defender on his back foot. Okogie will improve his 3 point shooting, but his handle is actually much more important at this point. Also, don’t sleep on his impact on energy and pace. I really like JO and see good things happening when he is on the court.

As for consistency. He is one of our best players at getting to the free throw line. He is not perfect from the line but has been fairly consistent at free throw shooting. 10 PPG is a goal he usually meets these days thanks to his improved finishing skills. The big difference between Dlo skipping a game and JO skipping a game is JO is a 2nd year still trying to figure out his game. He had a major shooting slump early in the year and his confidence took a big hit. This was followed by JC getting his starting position and making him seem like a bust. I truly believe that starting and getting recognition for positive contributions on both ends of floor will make him better overall. So much of basketball is confidence. But, he could play 24 minutes instead of 30+, especially on the back end of a b2b.

[minimus]

If Nowell was at least 6'5" with 6'9" wignspan, he could already start over Martin and Culver.