Skip Bayless: Is Jalen Green on the rise to superstardom?

1 can hope

 

He wouldn't have the faintest clue.

 

But what does Ja Rule think about all this?

 

Until Ja Morant can shake his gangster style, he is not a Superstar either.

It is still Top 5 or Top 8 ...... there should be a vastly more rigid standards for superstars.

I had problems with admitting Tatum was a Superstar for years.....

 

I don't think so. Jalen is making genuine progress though.

His weight is 185 according to Bayless.

Another 10 lbs of hard muscle in the off season shouldn't take away his quickness and explosiveness. Being a bit stronger might help him to knock down longer range 3's more easily and defend better.

 

Nobody is ready for Dadbod Green

 

My keen sense of analysis tells me that Jalen struggled because he wasn't taking his job seriously, as many very young men do, but I think the combination of almost being traded and knocking up a woman along with the realization that his performance to date had not earned him that max contract extension was enough to slap some focus into his brain, and so he decided to straighten up a bit and start doing what had been asked of him by Udoka. What concerns me, is if this performance level is just temporary until he gets that big money, where once that is secured, he decides to just go back to clowning around and being immature and the Rockets are then stuck with an overpaid guard who they can't trade and can't win with. It happens far too often in this league and once he's got his money, benching isn't a punishment since he will already have his money, that is, if basketball is not his real passion.

 

My opinion was that Udoka has stressed fundamentals basketball to Jalen Green, especially when he didn’t have the basketball in his hands. It’s taken him a while to incorporate the defensive side, but it’s showing on the stat sheets he is getting it, you can see it on the court when you see the games. You can even look at the stats for the season, and see his defensive WAR has constantly been steady and rising for the season.

He is no longer anywhere near a negative on the court if he isn't scoring. Ironically it wasn’t until very recently, he was a negative WAR on offense, which was shocking to see. I think he just wasn’t having fun, because playing defense is hard work, meanwhile shooting the ball is all fun and game!

Complicating the matters for Green was that Sengun had established himself as one of the premier young centers in the league, and Green not wanting to mettle with the style of play, just was trying to fit in as a Robin to Batman in Sengun.

When Sengun was injured, Green took it upon himself to re-engage his offensive firepower, and he started having fun again. But one little thing happened that I don’t think even Green anticipated, the work on the defensive fundamentals stayed in his repertoire. And now many Rockets fans (albeit with our rose colored glasses) see superstar in the making, and even the media pundits are saying Green will be at least a star now…. But whether he regresses on the offense or continues to improve, this version of Green is once again confident in his offensive game, and this version of Green is playing fundamentally solid defense.

 

Something tells me Jalen likes the media attention he's suddenly getting, and he'll do whatever it takes to keep that going from here on out.

 

LOL at Skip getting excited about what a big buff alpha Ime is.

 

At least the Old Undisputed is over with......argh....I even have sympathy with Sharpe and his Club Shay Shay now that he is gone....

Remember him and Bayless going at each other's throat because one of them is a Lebron nuthugger and the other geriartric dude throwing shades at LBJ every moment he can.

Green can be assured that he wants no piece of Skip bc nobody really likes Skip Bayless.

 

I don’t like Skip at all but I think Keyshawn is a better counterpoint than Shannon was…
Still can’t watch more than a few minutes…

 

where was skip when jalen was one of the worst player in the league earlier in the season?

 

He was struggling earlier for sure, but he was never one of the worst players in the league. That is pure hater talk.

 

National media cares about young promising players once they get it and start impacting winning?

OMG what a shocker.

 

I would agree. There are plenty of other players that if were asked to play the exact role that Jalen was asked to play they would have performed worse than Jalen did. But when you have the role that Jalen had and performed as poorly as he was it’s not ridiculous hater talk to say he was one of the more negative impact players in the NBA at certain points of the season.

 

Depends how you define "one of the worst players". At his lowest point in February he was in the bottom five players on offensive efficiency numbers while taking 15 shots per game. That was causing massive damage to the team's offense and was largely responsible for us falling well below .500 at that point. There's an argument he was in the bottom five or ten percent of players at that point among players with the biggest negative impact on their teams.

But of course there are many NBA players less talented than Jalen Green, and that's always been true, even at his lowest points. Tons of non-rotation guys who barely play, tons of roleplayers who only have one or two skills but are good at staying within themselves so they don't make a negative impact on their teams... that sort of thing.

 

This is the best breakdown of what changed that you’ll find. I recommend watching it with sound otherwise you’ll miss the points being made. Jalen was playing like ass but that literally changed and that’s the difference but this guy’s video explains the details.