Sorry, I'm not going to keep that hypercritical bipolar thread going. Here's what we've learned about Green so far: Positives (in order): - Crosses people over with his eyes closed, all time elite level of upward and lateral quickness. He's so prolific at beating the perimeter defender per drive attempt. Pure magic displayed in the the 9 FTA game he had. - Hard worker on and off the court according to coaches, current & former teammates. SO IMPORTANT. - 3pt shot looks very promising. Needs to polish those mechanics and select shots more wisely but overall looks like his potential is Harden-esque here but probably not Curry territory. On full display in his 10 3PM game. - Developing: seems to be fearless in the clutch and attacking the basket, sample size too small though. - Is 19 years old and seems very aware of where he needs to improve. - Surprised me: does what the coach says even if it's not glamorous. Has been playing way safer since a chaotic start. Doesn't seem to have major ego issues despite aiming high with his goals. Major Negatives or Unexpected: - He just doesn't seem to know what to do to score efficiently when a decent big man confronts him at the rim. I would be worried about this if I thought he were afraid of contact, but he seems perfectly willing to drive straight into a massive defender. - His defensive effort is good but his defensive positioning and experience are extremely poor. - Needs to add strength to his frame. We're 10 games in now and his boxscore stats are awful (under 40% from the field, under 30% from 3) and he is getting beaten on defense too often. I expect him to have a learning curve similar to Lamelo Ball, improving as the season goes (Ball shot 42% and 25% from 3 in January). The coaching staff has stripped Green's game down to catch and shoot, drive when open or needed, effort on defense. He's slowly getting better at all these things and it's excellent that we're addressing it early. As godly as Harden was as a scorer, he never had to be off ball (even in OKC, he handled mostly off the bench) so his off ball skills were not as good as his on ball. Before he starts jacking up a crazy amount of shots like Edwards did when he was struggling, let's develop his fundamentals (what to do without the ball on both sides of the court). After that we can get to his strategy and footwork at the rim. His strength will be improving all along. If when he's 21 he is better at moving off the ball offensively, catching&shooting, absorbing contact then we would have an insanely great prospect with his on-ball magic determining whether he's a Klay Thompson or a Steph Curry. For comparison, here are Anthony Edwards' January and February Stats (37% and 29% from 3 in February): https://ibb.co/r3MGxCW Green just looks like he won't give up and if you've failed once or twice in your life you know that those are the guys who make it. Paired with his talent at losing his perimeter man, we have a really great starting point even though his in-game strategy is way less developed than expected. I'm ready to predict we have a star in the making. He's practically the perfect raw player to mold into a star. Taller Beal at the very least, which is a tremendous #2 pick. He's had G-League, Summer League, Pre-Season and 10 NBA games to figure this out. I say he starts picking it up from this point onwards, and his second half will be ROY-worthy. The Jalen Green Experience is coming. The signs are there.
He's no Lebron, but he's no Benett either. I still believe in the Green, but I also believe we need to lock onto that top pick for 2022. (inb4 we get Jalen Duren, lel)
His shot is so streaky so there must be something fundamentally wrong with it and probably can’t be fixed offseason.
Lol. Lolololololol. Just. Lol. I just... I just can't. How anyone can watch this start to the season and describe his shot as 'very promising' is... I honestly have no words.
thank you for the write up...i was origilnally against drafting JG but he showed me a lot of flashes..imho now its all on the work ethics
ya I suggest not posting here then if you can't provide anything constructive besides "gReEn wOrSt rOOkIe eVeR." And quite frankly if you don't see any positives from Green's play at all such as the fluidity of his movements, his off the dribble separation ability or his ability to maneuver the pnr, you are merely just confined to your preconceived narratives. Green has severe flaws he needs to improve to get where many people hope he can get to, but to just dismiss any positives tells me you are just trying to comfort and massage your biases.
I haven’t once seen him blow by his man with his “amazing athleticism”? Maybe I’m missing something? If the defense is set I have not once seen him break down his defender, I have seen him get to the rim off motion or on a fast break etc
If you wait to get a Lebron James, you will be waiting 20 years each tanking window. The average best player on a championship team is not as good as Lebron James' career. What we need Green to be is a #1 or #2 playmaker who is not a liability on defense. We need a top pick next season regardless, it would be silly not to do it given our circumstances. We've waited so long for a title, we know the owner is not going to be a spender or FA magnet, so let's build RIGHT.
Ok correction so far in 10 games I’ve seen him beat / cross his defender in a half court situation one time. Is that “so prolific at beating the perimeter defender”??? I’m being serious, I don’t see him doing that a lot and I expected him to be able to do it a few times a game.
Maybe you were grabbing a beer or something. Here are the first two points of a future scoring star's career:
Our guards would look so much better if they weren't playing next to Theis AND Wood. Spacing is an issue right now. Overall I really hope Green works on tightening his handle up in the offseason. He gets picked every game and imagine if all those TOs were shots or passes how much better his stats would look.
So we need a ruling: does preseason count or doesn't? Like "you can't make judgement on only 10 games", but if preseason counts, it's 14 games.... I think it should count. A veteran team would not give shet about preseason, but these guys were actually trying... And in that regard, what you showed, a defender lurching like as if he's drunk, that's pre-season competition-level. He may be able to see this type of defense on second units in the regular season, strengthening the case that he should come off the bench.
Actually, we don't need a ruling at all, you can choose whatever makes you happy. You didn't ask for the crossover to specifically be in the ten games, you just said you hadn't seen it. In any case, you seem like an intelligent guy, I'm sure you know how to search for things on Youtube. That second rate defender was floating in another country when Jalen crossed him lol.
