That's exactly right. The difference between Jaylen getting 5-6 assists or 0-2 assists is basically whether or not Jrue/PP/White make the shots he creates for them.
Those plays a couple weeks back where he was putting up assist numbers were coming as a result of PnR's leading to alley oops with him and KP. No KP, he needs teammates to make shots when he finds them. They didn't last night.
And for all of the talk about ISO potted plant offense, Jaylen took 7 threes last night, 2 came in the final 40 seconds when the team went down 9. He missed a wide open one after an offensive rebound was kicked to him, he missed another that was clearly a heat check, and he missed another when the shot clock was going down and he had the grenade. I counted a grand total of 1 off the dribble 3 that he probably shouldn't have taken. And he went 2-7, so if one of those rattles home, and he goes 3/7 for 43%, and nobody says a word.
The narratives every time the C's lose drive me nuts. Indiana gives up the least amount of 3PA's in the NBA. They dare to teams to go ISO and drive to the hoop. It's exactly how Jaylen and Jayson should be playing against them, and in Jaylen's case, it carried the C's through the first half until he got that third foul. He had 3 turnovers, one of which again came on an offensive foul, that would have been called a flop had it happened in week one. We all love Derrick White, but yesterday, he was 7/16 from the field, 2/9 from 3 and had 8 assists to go with 5 turnovers. Where's the questioning of how he played? Or Jrue, who went 3/9 and 1/5 from deep, mostly open 3's. Or Horford who played over 31 minutes, and managed 2 points on 3 shots and 7 rebounds?
PP's 0/5 and 0/4 from deep last night was more excusable than anything, because if I'm not mistaken, I think 4 of those shots were the result of the shot clock winding down.