Not taking those mid-range shots is the darn key to anything for him right now. He's been absolutely stupid to have abandoned that shot. It's the only thing that might give him the career/player path he thinks he can become. Since he's not a good three point shooter, he should have been focusing on those shots when he can't get to the rim. He either tries to bully his way to the rim and he just can't finish anymore or take a three pointer. He should be taking mid-range shots. That's the easiest shot to take, yet he abandoned it completely.
Why is that, though, surely it's not because he's just in a slump. It seems teams aren't letting him get away with bullying them and drawing fouls on them as much as they were. It seems to be they've adjusted and he hasn't. Maybe he's been in a bit of a slump finishing wise near the rim, but if that is all it is, Mitch needs to change up what he's telling him to do out there.
It seems to me like he's trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and just keep doing the same thing over and over again.
I really don't know if it's a slump near the rim, as yes, he was finishing better earlier in the season against big defenders, but he's looked shockingly bad after teams started adjusting. Don't know if this coincides with the hand injury? Anyway remember exactly when that hand injury happened?
I agree with you, if this keeps going, he very well could get ruined. They've got to change something up. Can't just keep letting him do the same thing while getting the same results. It's starting to lean towards insanity.
Meet Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s trainer, ‘The Guard Whisperer,’ to see how the Thunder guard spent his summer
The new Thunder guard has been rigorously working on his game with trainer Olin Simplis, who has received an assist from a future HOFer.www.nytimes.com
most notably SGA. apparently evan mobley, caris levert and others.
I'm all for castle's guy sticking up for him on twitter but I just hope it isn't something that's spilling into the locker room and becoming "a thing," so to speak.
it's perfectly OK if castle doesn't become the primary ball handler/creator. we have a max salary PG that we brought in to do just that, NOW. we traded for fox while we already had castle....I was always under the assumption that fox was going to be the primary ball handler. we also have harper who's better at being the primary creator.
castle just has to play within the flow of the game, keep playing great D, keep getting to the line..all this extra stuff that's leading to turnovers and just straight up ineffective play is hurting the team a ton.
I wonder what extent his hand injury is affecting him. I want to know, but they can't come out and say publicly as the opponents can use it against him and makes things harder on him if it really isn't in good shape.
As far as shooting the ball goes, my take is, if he can grip the ball/stabilize it OK with his left hand when he's taking a jumper, then it should have minimal impact shooting the ball (it's the shooting hand that plays the biggest difference by far), but for someone like him that is not a good shooter to begin with, maybe it could have more of an impact. For a good shooter, I don't think it'd have than much of an effect if you can still hold the ball properly while taking your shot.
I don't know as far as dribbling goes, I don't know how it's affecting him there with those components (that wasn't my game to be able to comment on that). If it is hurting, I would think/guess it'd have a bigger impact dribbling and passing wise than shooting. I also wonder if the hand injury is affecting his finishing near the rim? If he can't hold the ball as well when he's getting hit to finish through contact like he was doing earlier in the season? That very well could be having an effect near the rim.
Interesting that Olin has jumped in. When I watched those videos in the off-season/early season, it feels like Olin is really putting stuff in his head about him becoming a Superstar player. It was sounding a bit delusional to me. I'd rather he just develop naturally rather than constantly being told he's an all-star/superstar level player, or that he's getting close to it. TGW really needs to cool it on that stuff, but IMO, it's too late to turn back now after he's filled his head with all that stuff.
