There is no hierarchy on a younger team until it finds one over time. Almost everyone is looking out for their own stats too.
The problem with what you’re saying DD is they were running a 3 man set every time down the floor on whatever side he wasn’t on for the first 5 minutes of the 3rd quarter. Think triangle. For Jalen Green to just run over there would completely blow that up and destroy the spacing. They would be livid. He is deferring to the vets and staying in his place. I guess the coaching staff wants him to earn #1 option status instead of prematurely handing it to him which I’m not opposed to, but being relegated to 5th option status is too far in the other direction. With egocentric players like Wood and KPJ on the team who believe they are all stars in waiting and next up as well, he may never garner that designation in their eyes. Wood will always think he’s superior. Tate seems to also need touches. Even Gordon was frozen out at times last night. It is up to the coaching staff to involve JG more. He is trying not to step on toes and alienate his vets by being overly assertive. The more involved he is, the faster his growth and learning will be accelerated. He’ll get better faster through reps and making mistakes than standing in a corner watching other people play basketball instead of actually playing basketball.
Fair points. At the end of the day, Silas was the guy that is allegedly behind Luca's offense - and that is a ball dominant PG/SG/SF type.....you don't see a ton of movement with him running the show either. I think this team would thrive with a Popovich type..... DD
Last night was the full Jalen Green experience, some flashy fun plays on offense..... and giving up 80 point halves. In fairness, I really did like some of the things he did on offense.... but damn he's gotta work on that defense. He needs to improve a lot just to become a bad defender. That needs to be his primary focus in the off-season
He was bad on defense no doubt but you can't peg the 80 on just him. Obviously bad individual defense hurts team offense but bad team defense hurts individual as well. Not giving him a pass because he needs to get better there for sure but can't ignore the fact that the whole team was trash on defense
I don't know how you earn the number one option status by standing in the corner and shooting the amount of times JG does ( not shooting at all in some quarters). I think the onus needs to be on JG to TAKE IT. If you're the guy, believe you're the guy, well damnnit be the guy, take your lumps along the way, but embrace it, shoot the ball, challenge the vets etc. You are the most talented person on the team - this timidness and deferring is not doing anyone or this franchise long term, any good. Part of this should come on the coaches to know what you have on your roster and let him learn by actually GOING THROUGH IT. But this staff is incompetent; which is why I'm leaning more on JG to take the initiative to take/demand it the ball, shoot and learn to be an NBA star leading a team....And believe it or not 9 times out of 10 his teammates will respect him more for it. It's a rebuild - figure out what you're made of. ....the flip side of this is maybe he isn't an alpha star and wants to be a Number 2. If that's the case, and we drafted Robin at #2 overall, then disregard everything I just mentioned.
Jaleen Green might need to start demanding the ball…, i get he’s trying to improve his defense, but he can do much more by shooting it more. It’s almost as he uses the offensive possessions by the rockets to get a breather from him playing on defensive end of things.
Defense was definitely a black eye last night. That being said, it’s not like they were suddenly good when he wasn’t on the floor. Forget good, they weren’t even passable. Outside of the meaningless garbage time minutes in the 4th, every lineup was negative for the game. Sadly
Agreed. We've all seen bad defense from players we enjoy watching (not going to name names, but this franchise has had a couple). Being a better defender will come with him getting stronger - I want to see the immediate impact he can have on the offensive end. His skill set can have an impact now, even at 19 and extremely skinny. But he doesn't shoot nor is he encouraged to.
This post is nonsense. So you want him to what, steal the ball from KPJ and Wood? Are you mental? Trying to blame this on him "not being an alpha star" is just idiotic confirmation bias because you don't like him. He puts up 20 with ease when he actually gets touches, get back in your box, troll.
Not going to lie, there were a few times I wanted him to do this last night, but that’s just toxic and selfish behavior. Not to mention a bad brand of basketball to just go blow up plays that you aren’t involved in. I’d rather he not be that type of guy the more I think about it.
I agree with Clutch towards rebuilding, but I'd still prefer for Green and Sengun to run the bench while we clean up the roster this year. Green and Sengun could be the primary and secondary creators off the bench. Plus Green is getting eaten up on defense playing with the starters.
Of course I'd rather see Green with the ball, but people have to accept that he's a rookie (and not an asshat) and if that's what they're running, he has no ****ing choice in the matter. Trying to paint it as "he's not an alpha" or "he needs to just take it" is pure idiocy from people who really don't understand basketball, sports or team dynamics in general.
I personally want them both to start, but if they start and barely touch the ball or get it in disadvantageous positions on the floor then yeah, just bring them off the bench and let them be the focal points of the offense with guys who aren’t threatened by them.
Green and Sengun are your core right now. Hopefully a top 4 pick this season to add to that. Tate and Martin Jr. I really like and hope they're still around when the Rockets are ready to compete. Christopher and Garuba as well. We just haven't seen enough of them yet. Plus they're only 19 and 20. Porter Jr. is someone I can see coming off the bench or just not on the team. I'm fine with either.
No, it's not just on him, but he's the largest contributor towards it. What I was saying is that is his game, fun flashy plays on offense every now and again and absolutely atrocious defense. That's why he's always a net negative to his team, even when he was in the G league. Defenses have to be pretty good to make up for having to play 4 on 5 while he's on the court and when the other players are mediocre at best defensively, it makes your team the worst in the league. If you watch him, he's almost always lost out there and other players are having to make up for it which leads to even more players wide open for the other team. If he didn't play last night, the Rockets would have had a better chance to win. This season, it's not a problem, the Rockets don't have a franchise player so they might as well tank hoping maybe they can pick up a franchise caliber player in the draft.....but in the future when the team actually wants to win, he'll have to improve A LOT so that he can be just a regular poor defender. I think in a perfect world, Green settles in as a bench player who is instant offense when he comes in the game, but isn't in long enough to tank the team with his complete lack of defense.
I think you gotta throw the 2023 pick in there too at this point. Green, the lottery pick this year and our pick next year. We are bad enough that even if we get Chet or Smith we are still going to be the one of the worst teams in the league next year especially if we can trade off Gordon, Wood and Wall before the end of next year. Our window to build our future core closes after that and we no longer control our picks so now is the time to maximize. 2023 is supposed to have a much stronger draft lineup than 2022 as well.
