It's really not hard to quantify, put Mobley on the Rockets and the defense is significantly better because he's actually good at it. It's weird that you are trying to downplay actual success at the same time as making excuses for failure.
Actual success on a better team that's not trying to actively tank. Or do you assume that the last 3 seasons was the best the team and players could have achieved? Conversely how much more efficient would Jalen have been getting easy shots with Darius Garland passing him the ball? This the issue I have. People get so caught up in trying to push their narratives that they twist things to fit them.
Harden is gonna make everything so much easier for Green and KPJ in their shooting guard roles. Udoka’s got the tough job of making all 3 play good defense.
I don't know but he's not really shown much aptitude as a catch & shoot player. Like, sure nobody's setting him up for easy shots, totally agree, but let's get real, part of that is him - Green likes to hold on to the ball and try to create on his own a lot and he's not really shown he's much of a spot up guy. Maybe those are just bad habits or out if necessity dye to the overall putridity of the Rockets - def possible. But, driving the ball into coverage, taking low percentage shots instead of passing, converting at a low rate - he is making some of those decisions, he's not a bystander
He is making those decisions because the coaching allowed him to do so. We weren't trying to win games so we threw guys out there to make their own mistakes often without correction. 19 and 20 year olds rarely make the right decisions on the court. You need direction for that. Sengun is a large outlier when it comes to his BBIQ and age.
This season was extremely high difficulty for Jalen. I bet anyone but a current MVP calibre player would have been dragged down by the kind of tanking we were doing. Either you can single handedly change the team or this was going to slowly kill you. Imagine if you were failing at something at your job twice a week for 2 years. Even if it were part of a bigger picture and you were getting paid all the same, that's going to start demotivating you at some point. I think we reached a breaking point with how aggressively an NBA team should tank. If we had to tank one more season this team would fall apart.
Jalen Green had plenty of open shots, he's just not a very good shooter.....so it wouldn't have helped. He took an average of 6 open or wide open 3's a game, he only hit 33% of them. Right now, outside of random games where he happens to be on a hot streak shooting, his best weapon in the halfcourt is to drive and pray he gets a whistle. You seem to be missing that playing guys like Jalen and Jabari despite their struggles is a big reason why the Rockets were able to tank. They were the anchor around the neck of the team dragging them down.....along with a really terrible bench. If Jalen and Jabari actually lived up to the hype, the Rockets win 10 more games easy. Instead, their last 2 top 3 picks were some of the worst performing players on the roster. Hopefully some accountability will get them playing better.
This is a really good point. I've played on some losing teams before, and it's honestly tough to handle if you're supposed to be a major contributor. Much of the last season I lost a lot in, things were my fault. I found other people to blame because I averaged 18/6, so I felt like I was doing my part, but I wasn't nearly mature enough to lead that team. I think I was hoping someone else would step up, and when they didn't, I just isolated myself and focused on my numbers. I think having a better team culture is a great first step for Jalen to take his next step. All I wanted from his first two years was flashes of brilliance, and he gave me that in spades.
Scottie Barnes for example slid into Kawhi's role on a team built around Kawhi. That's a championship supporting cast around him. Couldn't have been more perfect for him. Mobley joined a team that was winning with or without him. OKC actually had a guy who finished 5th in MVP voting. Banchero on a team seeking wins and more experienced than ours (has a rim protector and PG at least!). You want your young guys to push through such stuff but we pushed it really far this time. I don't think it's tolerable for a person who is naturally a contender to be a part of that much losing. Hopefully we won't have to worry about that again because for most of Jalen's tenure on the Rockets he has seemed coachable with a good motor. I'm excited to see what Udoka can do to improve his defense, effort and shot selection. Rockets didn't have to tell the media they are putting more responsibility and accountability on Green. They made it a point to do that and I'm confident Jalen is up for it.
I really hope one of these days Jalen Green is actually good so we won't have so many twisting themselves in knots trying to make excuses for his failure.... or saying why his failure is actually a good thing.
Sure he had open shots on the perimeter that he missed but it wasn't like there was a good system to get him layups at the rim like with Cleveland and Mobley. That's what this is about. How much worse do you think Mobley looks on the Houston roster with no shooters and no defensive cover? Remember what the original point was.
Mobley is good at defense, yes. Is he good enough to make the Rockets a good defensive team? No. Poeple here turn off their brains sometimes. Look at the situation he's in and compare it to the situation he'd been here. Doesn't take a genius.
He's a DPOY candidate and first team all defense in his second season in the league... how would a player like that not help a roster full of mid and scrubs?
Team comp and situations. Like, just think. Don't look at numbers or awards and use your head, watch games, analyze the sport. Don't be another one that just talks for the sake of talking. The Rockets ranked 28 in defense while the Cavs were 5th. 5 Cavs players where top 20 in defensive win shares while the Rockets obviously had none. That helps. Unless he is the greatest defender to ever walk Earth, he ain't fixing this team's problems by himself. Also, it really, REALLY helps when your team is good all around, makes you stand out. It also really helps to have effin Jarrett Allen by your side. You know what doesn't help? That Mobley absolutely sucked in the playoffs on both ends of the floor, and that happened because everyone also collapsed. If he was the end all be all like some preach, he would at least maintained his individual efficiency, but alas, he's not. This is team basketball, it doesn't work by taking this piece with random stats and putting it on another team so that he can provide the exact same value. Kid stuff really but whatever.
