Offensive Struggles Continuing For Jamorko Pickett

During Georgetown's five-game losing streak, Pickett is averaging only 9.4 points per game, while shooting 15.8% from three and 27.6% from the field.

It’s time to re-calibrate our expectations for Jamorko Pickett this season.

Many were hopeful that things would click for Pickett in his senior season, and there was reason to feel confident: In the last eight games of Pickett’s junior season, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game, and was shooting a scorching 43.2% from three.

But 11 games into the 2020-21 season, Pickett’s season hasn’t gone as many had hoped for.

To be clear, this article isn’t meant to criticize Pickett. His effort on the boards and his job in defending opponents’ best forwards has been solid, and he deserves a ton of credit for sticking by this team for all four years of his collegiate career. That kind of loyalty is becoming less common in college basketball today.

But Pickett’s struggles on offense are worth discussing, and almost halfway into the season, it’s time for Georgetown fans to accept that Pickett is not going to be the scorer that many had hoped he would become.

So far this season, the Washington, D.C. native is averaging 11.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. All are career-high marks.

Pickett is shooting 39% from the field so far, also a career-high, but has regressed from behind the arc, where he is shooting 31.4% from three, which is a career-low.

During Georgetown’s five-game losing streak, Pickett is averaging 9.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game, and is shooting 27.6% from the field and 15.8% from three.

Pickett simply has not been an efficient player on offense, as evidenced by his Player Efficiency Rating of 12.0, which is ninth on the team. He has an offensive rating of 92.8, which is seventh on the team.

It was no secret that the Hoyas would go as far as Pickett and Jahvon Blair would take them this season. Having just one of them perform at a high level this season wasn’t going to be enough, and that’s been the case in the last five games, with Pickett’s regression coinciding with the current five-game skid for Georgetown.

On a better team that could surround Pickett with more scoring talent, Pickett’s shooting struggles would be less of a big deal, and he could focus more on what he does well - defending and rebounding. Right now, however, he is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.

The unfortunate reality is that on a talent-deprived team like Georgetown, Pickett is being asked to be something he never has been, a primary scorer, and the results haven’t been pretty.

It’s a shame, because Pickett has been a good player this season when taking into account the other things he does for this team when he is on the court. His Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating, per evanmiya.com, leads the team by a wide margin at 7.9.

Not every player is going to be able to score the basketball at a high clip, but they can provide value in other areas of the game to help impact winning, and that’s what Pickett has been doing on defense.

So what can Georgetown do to help Pickett get out of his slump? Improve his shot selection, for one.

This was Pickett’s shot chart from Saturday night against Georgetown. The three-point attempts are good - at some point you have to think Pickett finds his stroke again, based on his career shooting splits, and you also just need somebody that can stretch the floor on offense for Georgetown.

But it’s the midrange shots that hurt him and this offense. Pickett’s shot chart should consist primarily of three-pointers and shots around the rim, but he still insists on taking these long midrange jumpers that struggle to hit with any consistency.

Pickett is second on the team in field goal attempts per game, at 11.2. If you could reduce that by a few shots per game, say, 8-9 FGA per game, and give Don Carey (43.1% from three this season) a few more shots per game, that would be a net positive for this team.

This team is searching for answers in a lot of areas right now. The struggles of Pickett and other players on this roster are, in part, the result of a flawed roster that is forcing players to take on roles they are not good fits for. The only option for Patrick Ewing, at this point, is continuing to tinker with his rotations.