Banging his chest after all his gimme dunks (on the smalls) while also flailing his arms and crying to the refs with a stupid A$$ look on his face for a foul the smalls didn't commit. In doing so always being late to the party on D. Hell... It don't matter much, they're down a player on D when he's out there. Cardboard's a bad BAD man.
Jalen is doing all he can. This team has turned into a soap opera. Scoot is melting down. Wood is an unworthy diva playing for his next team. Coach who cant control the team and put out a consistent product with a unified vision. Its like playing at LA Fitness. His shot is pure. His first step is still one of the best in the game. His defense is suspect (as expected) and will get better with conditioning and ability to play more physical. This wasnt supposed to be decided 20 games into his career. Truly a different level of dumb to continue to ride the "bust" thought after watching him play.
Agreed. He knows that this team doesn't have any franchise quality players, so he's doing all he can to ensure they have the best odds to land the top pick in next year's draft.....and there's no one better at doing that than Green. He's the best tank commander in the league.
I really haven't been paying all that much attention, but why are you so much on Green (a rookie) and hardly a word about the other guy he shares the backcourt with? Their usage and minutes are pretty close, and both have stunk it up efficiency-wise, but Porter Jr. much more so. Does Porter Jr. get a pass because he gets a few more rebounds and assists?
They are both unacceptably bad.... but I end up harping on Green more for a few reasons. 1. Green is the worst defensive player I've ever seen at the NBA level and KPJ has come a long way defensively which helps make up for some of his struggles offensively. 2. Green has a massive simp army making excuses for him, propping him up, and attacking every other player or coach on the team for Green's failures.... no one else has that
I like how Jalen switched the narrative from worst rookie bust ever to the Rox better stop freezing him out and start passing him the ball in just 3 months. The reality is: 1. The Rockets don't have point guard. They have DJ Agustin as the only pg in the squad and he sucks. With nobody to play make the ball has a problem going to the best scorers. 2. Jalen is inherently unselfish. It's one of the things I liked about the kid even in GLeague where he was owning the competition the reason he only had 18 ppg is cuz he took less attempts than Kuminga and even let Isiah Todd into the action. He focuses more on quality rather than quantity and that's important cuz as his game matures and expands he will increase his efficiency instead of being a WB-like black hole. I think it is fine. the Rox are tying to run pg by committee and having a spread offense, that's gonna bode well for Jalen's future development as he will learn to balance his own scoring with the team early into his career.
Green is not really getting frozen out, it's just the way he plays. I feel like he only takes shots he knows that he can make and doesn't gamble much on offense. There are many possessions where he will get the ball, tried to drive but then pull it out again before giving it up. It's a very risk adverse way of playing.
It's definitely a mixture of your observation and guys like Wood and KPJ having tunnel vision. But I do see Green occasionally being hesitant with the ball as you've stated. But that's natural for a 19 year old rookie. He might feel uncomfortable taking a lot of "bad shots" as a rookie and defer more to the guys with more experience.
