In reality Ant is merely 6 months (half a year) older and 2x All Star.....so only 1 year in Experience is good, he is even ahead of Sengün who is more than 1 year ahead of Green. On paper 1 year but in reality a lot more. Experience does not explain the huge leap he has taken. Ant August 5, 2001 JG February 9, 2002
Sure? But we aren't going to pretend they are the same age. One has one more year of experience. You don't have to exaggerate claims if Ant is clearly better. He obviously is.
Disagree with your observations as I have watched Green closely in all the games this past season. You mentioned him going over screens and trailing “lackadaisically”. If you’re going over and the ballhandler is already past you, you don’t want to be over aggressive since it’s easy to foul a player when you’re trailing them. NBA players feel defenders on their backside or hip then raise up to draw a foul. Brunson and Trae are great at this. Green is doing his job trailing preventing the short roll. You called him “lazy” and lacking in “motivation” even comparing him to Whitmore. If you watch on ball defense Green gets lower in his stance than previous years. He is intent on getting to the spot before his man and usually cuts off dribble penetration. Cam isn’t a good on ball defender as his man usually blows by him since he is slow in lateral movement and cheats a lot trying to jump lanes getting steals rather than playing straight up. Thompson and Brooks are usually guarding the opposing team’s best player which is usually a 2 guard so Green is usually guarding the 3 who usually camps out on the wing or corner. It’s not that Green is bad, it’s that the Rockets have great on ball defenders like Brooks, Thompson, or Smith. Not sure what you’re talking about in whitmore. Strength might also be the reason why Udoka chooses bigger players to guard these 2’s. You keep mentioning Whitmore who isn’t there present every defensive play as his focus isn’t there and he misses a lot of assignments which causes the rotation to shift to the missed responsibility which in turn messes up the defense. I have pointed out specific examples during the season. Is Green a great defender? No. He doesn’t have fast hands like Amen or Fred. Needs to be more aggressive on the perimeter. He lacks size and strength. And he gets caught ball watching sometimes when players cut. But for the most part of the season he has done his job in getting in front of his man. Besides plenty of “stars” in this league are or havs been poor defenders (luka, trae, kyrie, curry, booker, brunson)
Both are peers, you see tons of videos of both going at each other in high school or they train with one another.....so that half a year is like nothing. Jalen had certain qualities before the draft, for example speed and first step that he could use on Ant back then....... But it was pretty clear Ant developed better in the team aspect of the game...and the whole game.
What’s often left out of these debates that compare players is the level of the entire team. One player can’t do it himself and be successful without his teammates playing at a high level. Edwards walked onto a team that had several vets and a couple of all stars. Green has just begun to get vet mentorship and guidance. Many fans underestimate the importance of vet leadership and guidance this year. Edwards certainly didn’t do it by himself. Edwards’ team his rookie year was already better than the Rockets teams in Green’s first 2 years. And his teams kept getting better and now has a team among the best in the league. The Wolves have been one of the league’s best 3 pt shooting team the past 2 years while the Rockets have consistently been one of the worst shooting teams including this year as teams consistently stack the paint and sag their players or play zone/switch zone on the Rockets. This prevents dribble penetration and makes it difficult for Green not to mention teams constantly trapping him. It’s easy for fans to think that the grass is greener and look at highlights, media hype, and stats and conclude that Edwards is better but there’s more that goes into a player’s success including level of play of teammates.
No, theres a 6 month difference, Ant doesnt turn 23 until August. Also, you are the guy who was making the comparison just in case people were wondering didnt want to call people out, but it was you. Crazy to even have people still thinking this, because Ant is on a completely different "progression", anyone who has watched the playoffs knows this. At no point were fans or the Twolves org discussing whether or not a trade for a guy like Bridges should be made for Ant, that should tell you enough about how vastly different they are.
Are you joking right now dude? Do you think you're going to convince me that I can't make the comp however I want? Like I can't decide for myself that Green should be one NBA season behind Edwards AND he had a much worse development environment AND he's quicker but not as strong? I don't know that you're even arguing here. Of course I can make the comparison that way. Back to your original point, no one thought these two simultaneously as good as each other or even that they are 6 months apart. No one is thinking that. That's totally made up. Most people were comparing him - favorably and unfavorably - to Edwards with at least a 1 year delay plus differences in their handle and athleticism. Wolves fans do wonder why Edwards' TS% is not higher and his advanced metrics don't blow you away like his box stats. Edwards had better training before before and after getting drafted and to be honest yes the gap started widening with Jalen. They may have had a one year delay but two years of Silas, infinite bad shots and no decent vets it's understandable that Edwards would be significantly better at this very arbitrary point in time. Edwards even has playoff experience before this season IIRC. It's ironic you're taking Edwards's hot streak and defining him by it but then why not define Green by his hot streak and see how they compare? You might find the results surprising. On average the comparison like all comparisons is not perfect but they have shown similar patterns the help us predict things a little better.
Ant should be in the conversation for MVP. Green is way behind Ant as a player, but I do think Green can become much better and be in the conversation with Ant at some point.
The guys around him need to be better. They just can’t shoot and stretch defenses and I think Green needs to play more on ball with Sengun off high screens and elbow DHO’s. The FVV high screen and dominating in touches doesn’t help his cause. I doubt Mike Conley dominates in touches over Ant. And I am not excusing Green. He just has to put it all together and keep working but his guys need to be better as well.
Green is not good enough to have the ball all the time, he just isn't that good at basketball - he is simply ok at it. DD
posted this a year ago comparing their second seasons. Ant is better in some areas while green is better in others. This is straight forward stats not metrics. Dunno what their year 3 numbers are but I will post soon.
I said this a year ago, and sadly I have to say it again.... hopefully this will be the year people stop making excuses for Jalen's poor performance and instead judge him based on how he actually plays. This has to be the year, right?
Is this the reason teams consistently trap him and double team him? Do they consistently trap Jabari or Amen or even Cam and force the other players to make a play or shoot? Define what ok means to you. What is your defined scale for rating players? What other players in the league are ok? And if so have they put up big performances like Green? And again do teams game plan for these ok players? Also define what role you would want him to have if you don’t want the ball in his hands. What kind of usage suits his skill sets. Also define playmaking and who else on the Rockets can make plays for team mates or who should be used to make plays in the starting lineup. Lastly define what a team game means to you and whether you think the teams overall success and level of play has anything to do with an individual player. Please speak on this with detail, supporting evidence, and knowledge if you can.
When you have an incompetent ball handler dominating the ball, you pressure them so they screw up either by flat out turning the ball over due to their weak handle, making a bad pass, or chucking up a bad shot. If you pressure a really good ball handler at the NBA level, they will make your defense pay for over committing. There's no danger of that with Jalen so there's no downside to leaving people open by sending extra guys at him.
oh ok I didn’t know that was a common practice of coaches doubling players not due to ability to get to the paint but due to who they think are “incompetent” ball handlers. Do coaches typically employ this tactic against all players deemed “incompetent”? Sochan played pg for Spurs for several games. Was he always doubled on every touch? How about Scoot Henderson who turns the ball over a lot? Is he doubled on every play off a screen? Do most teams plan their defensive strategy to trap weak ball handlers on almost every play or play zone trap on them? So it’s not about Green or these players’ ability to score or get to the paint. It’s about who teams think is a weak ball handler and making the decision to trap these players every offensive set in the half court? Just to clarify is this what you’re saying? Also define what incompetent means and what does not incompetent means in your definition.
Most teams wouldn't let an incompetent ball handler dominate the ball. What I mean by "incompetent ball handler" is someone worth a weak handler, poor court vision, low BBIQ, who is a poor passer, who is a poor shooter, who takes foolish shots.... you know, Jalen Green. Why WOULDN'T you trap and double players like that who dominate the ball? There's literally no downside.
