I’m so conflicted when it comes to Greens performance. Feels like I’m in a bad relationship that person does nice things once in awhile to make you feel happy but you friends telling you to move on.
People are just too impatient. This is his first year with a real coach, system and accountability. We literally had no offense and we were let by a pg who not only was a quitter but only cared about empty stats. Let's see where he is at the end of the season
i think it's a byproduct of our team actually being succesful this year. People's expectations this year was around 30-35 wins depending on the person. We were the worst team in basketball for 2 years but since we've been surprisingly competent this year people are starting to get greedy and set new expectations. this year is not about playoffs and it is a true development year. anything more than that is gravy on the top.
Well said. People are definitely surprised by the early success. They have proven that they can hang with anyone which is certainly more than anyone expected. Of course you are going to have to live with the down games too. If this team finishes between 40 and 50 and everyone is on the same page we have something. Clearly Ime saw it or he wouldn't have taken the job
I don't know about 50, but I'm really optimistic because everything we've done so far has been with an inconsistent Jalen Green, a Jabari Smith who can use some more shots while Amen/Whitmore/Tari have barely contributed yet. I even think Landale will become a useful contributor this season. There's definitely more offensive ammo that's going to become available as the season progresses. I feel like in about 10 games Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Tari Eason are going to step up and then Cam/Amen will maybe contribute to winning around mid season. The defense will keep getting tighter since it's the first season we're installing it. We've just been through a really difficult 19-game stretch in our schedule and things get easier for a while. The big difference maker is going to be Jalen stepping up to that efficient 25ppg scorer role with good defense/effort/passing/FT's. That makes us very difficult to guard and gives FVV/Brooks/Jabari more open shots. I believe we're on the brink of it. About 10 more games of adjusting.
It's no secret that when Jalen has a solid game, the team has a very good chance of winning. Now @stanfordkp, tell us about those poor games and what the team record is in those .....
Completely agree and obviously 50 is extremely optimistic (I don't think they'll get there this season). Like you said, Green has been up and down, Eason hasn't done much yet, Jabari needs more shots but I like what I see, Amen has been hurt and we're yet to see what we have on Cam and we are competing. Most importantly they're putting forth the effort on defense and hustling. All the bad habits that were instilled in them are being broken. I hope you're right on Landale. We definitely can use a capable backup. And that's exactly what I'm hoping to see. Like you said we've played an extremely difficult schedule which is good to start the season because it gets guys going and you start to see what you have. I think Green, Jabari and Eason will be fine. They'll get their adjustments out of the was and by the All-Star break they'll be in full swing. Hopefully Amen can contribute and obviously Holiday is playing well. I have a feeling that barring injury Cam will spend the majority of the season in the G league but I trust Ime to handle it correctly. If Jalen can make that leap this is a good team. I think he can as he's shown he's capable. This is finally a fun team to watch.
Good posts by both you guys. However, I wouldn’t wait on Jock to come around if there is a move out there now to get a contributing back-up center. I know we are out-performing our projections and don’t want us to do something stupid to go all in, but the playoffs are a realistic outcome for us this year. Every win counts and we should be greedy in that regard. With a much more condensed schedule, Sengun is going to get gassed if we can’t get a second unit that can hold the fort while he rests. Right now, when he leaves the court we lose leads or get further behind every time.
That's why I said I hoped he was right on Jock. Admittedly, I don't have much faith in him at the moment so I would be receptive to making a move to get a back-up center. I know he's had injury issues so I do give him the benefit of the doubt there. You're right that every win counts and Sengun is going to get tired without help. Especially since a good portion of the offense is running through him. Andre Drummond could work and he'd be cheap
This was not a good game for Jalen at all. It felt like he took his foot off the pedal maybe because he didn't respect the opponent. We're at the point in his career where there's no point celebrating individual good games or even denigrating bad games. What I'm looking for is the first time this season he has let's say 5 good games in a row and the bad games become gradually less frequent. Then we build on that, as we do with winning streaks. Everyone has a bad game now and then but due to the two years we wasted with Silas, we're extremely behind schedule in developing Jalen's fundamentals and skills. We're a quarter of the way into his 3rd season so the pressure is on for him to step into a reliable scorer role. Amen and Cam will make life difficult for him, those two are potential stars too. They will deservedly come for the starting spot at some point this season and I think that competition will elevate everyone. His first two years were in arguably the worst development environment the NBA has ever seen, but right now the team couldn't be more perfectly assembled to suit Jalen: Sengun as a playmaker and regular 20/10 Jabari doesn't need the ball, high efficiency shooter/defender Brooks making his 3's, takes just 10 shots per game Jalen - just need him to attack the basket and finish at the rim consistently/efficiently FVV our PG and sniper I decided before the season started to give him 30 games so I'm not shocked to see he hasn't put all the new information together yet. He's done everything well in isolation: very good defense some games, big scoring some games, big passing some games. Just has to put all those things together and read the game better. As long as he's open to whatever the coaching staff is telling him, I'm still confident that by game 30ish of this season we will see him take that next step and be the scorer this team needs to get to the next level. The offense desperately needs him against good teams and good defenses. Cutting it super close, but don't worry. I have a ton of faith in Jalen and the coaching staff.
I’m pretty sure he had a most field goal attempts out of every player in those games. It’s not a rockets science to have the highest pts when you are the focus of the offense and even the game he had very little shot attempts he was the initiator but pass the ball at the last moments because he couldn’t find the opening by him self.
It is also the first time in the league that he has been asked to play defense. That is a big adjustment
Jalen is now dealing with what a lot of these score first SGs are dealing with. No one cares about your points anymore. This is probably as low as he's been as a professional. His stats are down *everywhere* from last year. Lower FG%, lower 3P%, lower PPG. Feels like Ime basically has stripped him down to his foundation and is having to build him back up again. Maybe. Aaron Holiday was a great signing to compete with Jalen. He's not as athletic but way more consistent.
He honestly looks mentally broken out there, my god. Which is a damn shame because this team's offense could really use a reliable scorer/creator from the perimeter to break down defenses. This guy can get by almost anyone and get his shot off anytime he wants. But he clearly is extremely uncomfortable out there for whatever reason. There has been some slight improvement from last season in terms of VORP, BPM and WS/48, solely due to his improved defense. I feel like I'm having deja vu because this is the exact same thing I said during KPJ's third year and I'll say it with Green, the lack of improvement is disappointing. Unless there's a big turnaround this year I'd be willing to move on from him/package him in a deal.
Jalen's road to redemption has been longer and bumpier than I would have thought. But much of my feelings about him right now are due to impatience. The rest of the team is coalescing and Jalen seems the outlier. Because the Rockets as a whole have come as far as they have, like most folks, I want the Rockets to go far this season and its hard not to see Jalen as a detriment to that rather than a positive part of it.
