TPA is a cumulative stat so the more minutes you play the more you'll rack up those points. Nix has like 1/3 the minutes of Jalen so that's why his TPA is "better". If he played the same minutes as Jalen, at his current rate, his TPA would be worse. Another way to look at it would be TPA/minute, or TPA/36 or something, if you wanted to, and Nix is worse than Jalen at that measurement.
I don't think Jalen's optimistic career outlook is Lou Williams, an excellent sixth man who never made an all-star team...and Jalen's already better than Corey Brewer ever was, though he's far from being as good as I hope he will be. Saying he will never be as good as Corey Brewer defensively is a rather hot take for someone who is still so young into his career, too. Also, in regards to Kevin, one amazing game does not a career make, and KPJ obviously had pretty rough season last year--though I am coming around to him and I believe he is a more complete NBA player right now than Jalen is. He's also had a lot more time to get there, though. When you said that a large portion of the fanbase is biased against KPJ, I reflected on it and realized that I indeed had been and I am trying to look at KPJ more objectively. Now I challenge you to do the same thing. I do honestly think that you come across as biased towards Jalen Green, for whatever reason, even if you have the Rockets' best interest at heart. There's no your guy or my guy on the team, they're all our lil' guys. Except for Daishen Nix. I think I'm tired of that guy.
So your taking nearly 8 shots away and not replacing them? Making him a ben simmons bad player? If thats the thouggt experiment, you have to adjust his fta because of no spacing, or respect of a 3 ball. The reason his ts% goes up there is because the heavy weight of ft% comparitive to his output. This is just an assanine argument tho, to somehow pretend a player could just not shoot a 3 ever, yet continue getting to thw hole so frequently and having a steady free yhrow rate. Im litetally arguing with an espn andy rn
I appreciate that this post was seemingly well thought out and fair, so I waited till I had a bit more time to more properly respond. I can understand why there is a perception of bias, and in fairness some might exist. I was against Jalen Green as a prospect well before he had anything to do with the Rockets because I'm risk averse and it's the absolute hardest thing to accurately project low skill freak athlete types. In order to counter any possible bias that exists, I do my best to stick to as objective as possible measures when discussing players. When I say Jalen Green will never be as good as Corey Brewer defensively, it's because in his prime Corey Brewer was a pretty good defender and Jalen Green has always been one of the absolute worst defensive players in the entire league. Could he improve? Sure, anything is possible, but Jalen Green becoming a net positive defender is about as unlikely as it is for Daishen Nix becoming Chris Paul. Despite what some seem to think, I'm not a fan of any individual player, I'm only a Rockets fan. I'm hard on guys like Green and Smith, but only because as of right now they are both kind of terrible.....Smith being awful offensively, Green being absolute pathetic defensively. I expect more from top picks who are given starting roles and as many minutes as they are. As to Lou Williams being an optimistic outlook for Jalen Green, Jalen would have to get a lot better on both sides of the ball for him to be as good as Lou Williams. In fact, despite what you said, it's just objectively true that Corey Brewer in his prime was overall better than Jalen Green is now.....there's two sides of the ball. I challenge you to find any objective measure that disagrees with that. Right now Jalen Green is a REALLY terrible player overall. Now that's not the end of the world necessarily, he's still young, but we can't pretend that isn't the case simply because some had sky high expectations for him.
Of course you can't, because it doesn't say what you want it to say about your favorite player. It is a compilation stat, so you have to take playing time into consideration. There are players who would probably be worse if they had more playing time, but the point is that it is showing you Jalen Green is absolutely terrible. As to Smith...yeah, he's been pretty terrible too. Green is terrible defensively, Smith is terrible offensively. You ask if Eric Gordon is a terrible player? Of course he is.....or at least he's playing like it because he doesn't care. Here's what TPA looks like when you chart it on playing time. It'll give you an idea of which players are doing the least with the most playing time. The Rockets CLEARLY have 3 guys logging a ton of minutes that don't deserve that kind of playing time. Giving those minutes to KJ Martin, Tari Eason, and Garuba would greatly improve the overall team. Guys like Green and Smith should come off the bench till they earn minutes, EG should have been gone last year.
Nope, wrong again. He could take one a game, and still maintain the threat. And it would bolster his efficiency. But you are really overthinking it. Bottom line is taking 7.5 3s at 32% is bad.
Unfortunately I have the feeling (and NBA rebuild historical evidence backs up) that Jalen Green will likely be a very good player for the next team or the team after that one that he plays for. I think an NBA rebuild like this that does not find a overwhelmingly convincing star player and has a toxic culture, that this young talent like this is likely to be a centerpiece in a trade in the next year or two for that rebuilding team to restore some credibility with the league, and with the fans. I think of Zach Levine and the Timberwolves alot when I think of Jalen Green. The T-Wolves needed that jolt of credibility and competitiveness so they traded Levine for Jimmy Butler to be relevant faster. I think Tillman will push Stone to make that kind of trade sooner rather than later, and I think he'll be the player that they see as replaceable in what he brings to the table or will bring to the table when he's at his peak. What Jalen can do this Summer to avoid being traded and get the confidence of Tillman, Stone, fans, etc. that he is a cornerstone piece is to hire the best point guard skills development coaches the world has to offer, and get in the gym and in the film room all summer long to develop into a player that can create and draw double teams in the pick and roll consistently as well as develop great passing skills. Because right now as a pure athletic slasher/scorer/streak shooter, I think the Rockets end up eventually using him as the primary chip to (attempting to) restore relevance.
I think any rebuild that lasts longer than four years (meaning, no hope for competing for a playoffs spot) is a failure. The rebuild process will need to restart again. We saw teams like Kings, Magic, Hornets, Knicks, Nets, Cavs, and old Cliippers trapped in that restart cycle for years. They either picked the wrong guys, or traded the prospects too soon, or not building a good enough team around the star before he forced his way out. This is even worse than being trapped in the proverbial mediocre cycle.
Green is still very much raw, much more so than we were hoping for his sophomore season. Considering the general state of the Rockets, I'm just concerned at this point.
I don't think it's just rawness. He could coast through the G-league with his tools, now the NBA is much more multi faceted than that. The scoring will always be there, we will see about the other stuff.
I understand your thought process a lot more after this post. I don’t think I’m as hard on Jalen and Jabari as you are because we just simply have different approaches, which is totally cool and part of what is fun about sports fandom. Objectively, yes, our top picks do have some work to do to become the players they were projected to be, but I do think they’ve shown me enough to the point that I believe they will reach their potential (or at least get close). We both agree on Nix though
So true and us as fans have to wake up to the realization that cycle rebuilding is more common than one and done rebuilding. It’s more than likely that we go through another cycle or two rather than striking gold in the first cycle like the Sonics/Thunder did when they did the unthinkable and landed three superstars one after another. There’s still a LITTLE BIT more time for Jalen and Jabari (more so for Jabari) but at least thus far it’s looking like both guys are more in line with Zach Levin level talented than Kevin Durant. And when you are at that intriguing but not certain level of talent it’s very very enticing for the owner and GM to cash out and use that player for a proven veteran star. Especially if a player like Harden makes it clear he wants to sign outright, you can’t tell me that Tillman and Stone wouldn’t be having a meeting to get a plan together to see if a Bradley Beal type of secondary star might be available if Jalen, or Sengun might get that team to also self serve with a reboot of sorts and sell their fans on Jalen or whomever. That’s why as a fan I would not freak out too much about this roster being a long term thing. Things often change fast when you get to that 3-4 year end of cycle which we are almost at anyways.
He just doesn’t really know what he is doing out there right now and his skills haven’t developed to the level of his physical attributes.
Honestly I’d be more positive about Jalen if he accepts that he’s a #2. Nothing wrong with being a Middleton/Kyrie. But how does a guy who’s been #1 his entire life accept being a #2? Especially so young.
I think he would accept that. Jalen is not a selfish player, from what I've seen, just clueless at times. He already defers to KPJ a ton, and if we pick up someone like Luka (not saying we will) I can totally see him meshing well
Green is really struggling, he needs to add a bit of skill to his game, he needs to add a change in speed, and a change in direction, maybe a hesitation or a jump stop fake.....he is far too reliant on speed to the right..... Teams have figured out how to guard him......he needs to add some skill moves. DD
To me that was him putting his head down and trying to play the hero, to everyone's detriment. Bad habits that the staff don't try to fix. Also the ball wasn't in his hands as much as it was Gordon's, but I'm not looking to make excuses for Jalen. He played like ass for most of the game. Jalen is consistently the one guy who is always looking for Sengun, in my opinion and from what I think I see.
I don't think he will have a problem with that, and I don't think it is a number one number two issue. Whether he is number one or number two, his role is the same, get the ball attack the basket, shoot. Very limited way to play. He is not learning anything to open up or elevate his game. He is willing to pass the ball, but he does not do it in a system and without anything else to do, he tries to attack whenever he can. He will do much better under a different coach and in a functioning team.
I said this awhile back.. 6'5-6'6 with a 6'7 wingspan! I really don't know if we're just trying to deny basketball science or history but the kid is not built like the Kobe, Jordan, Harden, Dwade. Just look at their measurements! He's built more like Ray Allen, Steph Curry and all the shooters. If he wants to stay in this league, he's going to need to work on his ball handling and stretching his range, moving behind screens. Playing alot more offball. Basic fundamentals like getting him easy layups and floaters can be his bread and butter going to the hole. Latrell Sprewell didn't have a very long Wingspan either. However he had good handles and could spin to the hole for basic layups. That basic layup is still 2pts and counts the same as a highlight dunk.
