I think your synopsis on what the future of the league will be is flawed. Saying a team can’t win in the playoffs with a slow footed center like Jokic or Sengun or Embid is not as absolute as you make it. It takes a 8 or 9 man rotation of well coached and talented players to win a championship. Like every team sport, basketball is a copycat league. The current team to copycat is GSW, because of their recent success. Rules will change, coaches will adjust. If the next Shaq comes along and wins a championship who says the guard centric approach will always prevail. It would be foolish to trade away a Center with the skill set of Sengun, because teams don’t win with a center in the playoffs, when we have been the worst team in the league for 3 straight years. What do you think we are going to get for him, Morant? I’d bet the vaunted warriors would give you Wiggins for him right now. We are years away from competing for a championship unless we luck into a superstar in the draft or through a trade (very unlikely). We do need to consolidate assets, but trading away our best player right now (albeit with a lower ceiling than Jalen or Jabari) doesn’t make any sense unless it’s part of a package to bring back a superstar like Morant or a budding superstar like Lamelo, not another draft pick or two, or a middlin all-star like Wiggins.
Green does have better movement laterally than LaVine, I don't contest that. The issue with Green is that he has a lot of weaknesses too that can prevent him from being a real difference maker. He has time to improve in those areas, and some players do and some do not. Right now little things he does are costing the Rockets wins - but he isn't the only one, and I expect it.
Your right to agree or disagree. Recent history is on my side. Wiggins was a 1st round pick that never applied himself until he joined the Warriors. But he is 6'8" and athletic who has developed a jump shot to go with his ability to drive. Still in my model or synopsis. You still fail to address the half court and transition defense associated with the big frame center that gets exploited in the playoffs. Conveniently.....New England Patriots were winning Super Bowls with Tom Brady and Coach Belicek. Belicek would say it's important to win all phases of the game 1) offense 2) defense and 3) speciality teams. Well you only truly focus on offense with these big centers if they don't get back fast enough in transition and it leaves a 3-point shooter open. NBA players in shoot around can make about 60% from 3.......well that's what it becomes when your center can't keep up with the pace. Bruno shot extremely well because he sat at the 3-pt line weak side a destroyed Gobert and Utah. The smart teams with enough 3-poibt shooters will force a rotation to that exposes that weak link having to contest the 3. Just like the good baseball teams finding the infielder that can't field his position.
Good players don't need excuses made for them like that. Sengun was younger than either Smith or Green and has massively outperformed both. As to the past 2 drafts, I'd have picked Mobley and Smith (though I would have preferred Banchero). Who knows how well that team would be doing, but the defense would be a hell of a lot better. The main point though was that they came away from 2 top 3 picks without a single player that is a net positive. Sure, maybe that changes eventually, but for now that's very disappointing. The best players we have on the team from the past 2 drafts were guys picked later in the draft...that's not good. Labels are often wrongly given out. The evidence on the court suggests that Green is a streaky rather than good shooter. Good shooters don't shoot 28% on open 3 point shots no matter what label he was given. As to Wemby or Henderson, if they are actually as good as they are hyped up to be, they'll be quality players from day one. They won't be as good as they'll get, but quality players don't usually outright suck for long if at all. If they have the talent they are supposed to have, they'll make a positive impact from day one. My hope is that Jalen Green stops sucking at basketball because I'm a Rockets fan. I don't care about any individual player one way or the other. If Jalen Green becomes the next MJ like his fans delusionally believe will happen, that's awesome, I'll be the first to cheer him on. However, if he continues to suck, something has to be done.
@Hemingway You can Google the Dallas version of Rockets Wire or SpaceCity where they wrote articles saying they wanted Utah prior to the playoffs (last year). Guess the T-Wolves management failed to do their homework. Too bad so sad. They noticed the previous year how the Clippers went small and Gobert didn't want to leave the paint. They were going to exploit that. I found an article after game 3 (at the time) in which the article noted how Gobert was still camping out in the paint and Brunson made a killing on the weak side with pitch and catch 3's all game. Not hard to find
Sengun gets back in transition very well. He is much faster and athletic than you give him credit for. We drafted Bari and Tari to provide just the wing play that you wanted. We just need a coach than can utilize the speed an athleticism that you crave. Minnesota were idiots to give up what they did for Gobert who is really nothing but a shot blocker in the half court. Sengun has to be guarded on offense. If the opposing team doesn’t play a center he will feast. There is no reason with a competent coach that our 3 point defense shouldn’t be better.
I watch the games and say different. I specifically watch him every play on defense and offense. While most are ball watching, I'm not.
You are taking what I Am saying as excuse when I told you where I speak from about said players, I went back n forth on the two up to draft day and also preferred Banchero in the following draft but I knew the Rockets blew it for not being low-key with the Banchero selection while the Mobley/JG4 was more obvious due to Detroit seemed set on Cade Having Banchero n Mobley still wouldn't be but lets say two or three wins better because Banchero has similar tall Mobley like players now and they aren't burning up the w column, but they are playing like a young team is expected in my book Well you should know about labels being wrong when given out, regardless of your so called holy grail data you post Well you claim the hype about JG4 was blown out of proportion, so buyer beware about the hype of the said top two prospects who are coming from the g league, since my guess is you think the g league is weak and not a good measuring stick to rate players game/impact Did Kobe / KG / Nash / Stockton / Booker and a host of others suck their first year and half in the league? I already gave you my timeline on developing players, you can take it as an excuse or for what it actually means Were you a sucky Park ball player like JG4, or were you day 1 upper tier? Is Mobley putting the league on high notice and killing it on individual level where he is all star this year? And I don't need you to show a chart, just off the eye test We know what Banchero is doing but that is a moot point since we both would have selected him
I think there is a difference between players entering the league between 19-20 and those that are 21-22. Mentally a year can make a big difference hence there’s reason the drinking age is set to 21 and not 20. Also size is a big factor as well, a few players might have the body such as did Donovan, Banchero, Shaq, Lebron, etc. but most need a couple of years to develop size. Hence we seen Green improve in taking hits this year, same as we seen with Giannis, Ingram, and our own Yao. Players that come in with size adapt quicker as we seen with Sengun vs Smith. Donovan came into the league ready to go in terms of size, it’s no surprise he would handle playing against NBA players better than Green has thus far. Lets see how Green does next year as he enters the 2023/24 season at 21 to compare. Regarding TPA, as you said it’s hard to judge any stat for what it is. John wall might not have had a high TPA rating playing with the rockets but I don’t think his game changed much from when he was with the wizards where his TPA was mostly in the +100-200 range. I think a lot of that is based on winning and the overall makeup of the team. Take a look at Durant, his TPA was worst than Green entering the league and I don’t think anyone would want to give up on him then. My point is we may have the youngest lineup the NBA has ever seen. No surprise we are loosing and no surprise a young team is going to struggle. Last I checked San Antonio still has possibly the best coaching staff there is yet with their young guns aren’t that far ahead of us in wins. Winning and young players takes time to develop. Giving up now on 20 year olds just seems premature (no pun intended).
And Jalen Green could have a slightly more efficient second half(around 56% ts) and Paulo can have a slightly worse second half and Green would be averaging more points on essentially the same ts%. So to say the gap is massive between those two is pretty silly. Paolo definitely was more league ready than Green primarily due to size.
You are speculating and hoping the defense would be better, which is in line with who knows how the team overall would be better They may still be ranked in the mid 20's on team defense with Mobley and Smith if the rest of the team sucks at defense, it takes a cohesive unit and system to be good on team defense, not one or two players are going to change that especially at 19 yrs old, maybe when they reach their prime, but by then you would want them traded for not being elite defensively day one as they were hyped to be
When you remove the worst defensive player in the league and replace them with one of the best defensive players in the league, it's a pretty safe assumption that the defense will improve.
I was never comparing those two, to say so is silly if you comprehended my post I would prefer a JG4/Banchero combo for my first two picks of this rebuild but it is what it be moving forward And the other stuff you are talking about could happen as well, TBD
interesting - where are you pulling these graphs from. I’d like to check it out for some other teams/players?
No its not, because Jabari/Tari were known for defense and like I said young players take time to impact both sides heavily, especially in more recent times No one 19 yr old defender is changing nothing, you can hope and make excuses to fit your narrarive, but it won't change nothing at all Its like saying replace Silas with the said best coach in the world and they will magically have a reverse w-l record that has been accumulated since the rebuild begin with JG4 selection Your park ball nature has run its course
Yes but you harp on Sengun’s transition defense when it is basketball 101 that the guards and wings are most responsible for that. Hell, that is the whole reason why the 1 and 2 are called “guards.” And right now are guards are absolutely putrid at transition D - like all time bad. So on this point, your observation and proposed cure are both horrifically wrong. Furthermore, anyone watching this team can see that Sengun is by far the best at pushing the ball and even running the break. Is it something I’d want to make a mainstay of this team? Absolutely not - which is why we need better players at every position. I don’t doubt you watch every possession but your conclusions are just logically bad.
The guards could also use a big who isn't the opposite of a floor spacer. We need to get better players in the front court. Or here me out. Let's allow the god damn 20 and 22 year olds get better. I'm not going to look for a more competent vet defenders at the guard position to replace a 20 year old with elite dribble seperation ability. Come on.
