In realistic scenarios you’re not making these moves that actually change the outlooks drastically. Yeah the Mitchell self Cf’s talk is nonsense
I don't get that - nobody is making the Rockets win now. If Jalen is playing poorly and the team is winning despite that, doesn't it stand to reason that replacing Jalen with someone who is playing well helps the team win? They may not win a championship this season but they could move much closer to that by replacing Jalem with someone "playing well."
Like who. And I’m talking realistically not some pipe dream random cf’s spitball and holds no credibility. Which includes the mitchell nonsense. You’re not getting him one for one. As I said it isn’t as simple as just replacing him with someone and automatically believing everything works out. This “replacement” still has to click on all cylinders with everyone else on the team and nobody can assume that it does. It’s just easy to say right now since Jalen is struggling
The cope is strong on CF. I’m always seeing people say things like “in 3 years when we’re contending for a championship” as if that is some guaranteed outcome. It’s been nice to be a little better but we still have Tilman as an owner and a lawyer from Seattle as a GM. People need to really stop dreaming so muxh.
People really got it in their mind that we are one or two moves away. Play in, 7th-8th seed, was always best case scenario for this season. Rockets can get that with some luck (another team blowing up, major injuries, etc) but these ideas that if we just trade for Mitchell or Lavine we'll be...what? A second round team at best with the right matchup? Lavine has a bad contract that even the Bulls are having difficulty moving, so now we're going to tie up 40 million in cap space until 2027 just to have a competitive first round team this season? Yeah...no. As for Mitchell, he's a better option but how much does this cost and how much do we actually improve there? Would this even be the best team Mitchell has played on? People need to remember the expectations of this team before the season and not get too excited about the hot start. This is a team where being .500 would be a monumental success. If that's good enough to get them into the playoffs, so be it, if not, so be it. People talking about just plugging guys in but don't even realize its hard for superteams to even do that. You add Mitchell what happens to the rest of the team? What happens to post-ups for Sengun? What happens to minutes for Amen? What happens to a variety of thing, you add him it changes the entire dynamic of the team and instantly we go from a team trying to grow into something to a team that now has the expectations of competing in the playoffs. I just don't see a reason to make that move, not for Mitchell and definitely not for Lavine or anyone that's been mentioned.
I agree with the sentiment of your post that if we get Mitchell or Lavine that they are a 100% upgrade on Green but our team is pretty much capped at making the 2nd round at best. I'd rather keep Green at the moment, pray that he miraculously turns things around and becomes a top guard in the league (however unlikely that is) than be happy with being 1st/2nd round fodder with Lavine/Mitchell.
Probably first time in his life his had proper basketball structure, hopefully it'll be for the better but to give up on him 100 % now is a bit ridiculous
I do not think it is Mitchell or Lavine but you have to start flipping the picks for assets...... Mitchell and Lavine are capped out as very good players but you need to find Shai or another Harden that are on the cusp of being great...... That is the minor difference......Green is also likely just being a scorer and a borderline All Star at best..... The only way about is to be smarter than the GM that is not putting enough importance on a SGA for example....such as the Clippers. But it has to be someone who is not a knucklehead or low IQ guy....that is the 2nd rule. Morey did that exact thing, Stone has yet to deliver anything.
First it was "Green doesnt suck, he needs more time to learn how to play well on the road..." Then its "Well, he might suck a little but the team is doing good so who cares!" Now it's "Yeah he's hurting the team but he shouldn't be replaced by internal prospects or external guys who are better because of xyz" Stop. Get this guy out of the lineup until he earns his minutes. Ya'll only have this irrational utopian view of Green because we drafted him. If he was drafted by the Pistons and we took Mobley yall would be laughing at Detroit and how we dodged a bullet.
At this point Jalen is dead weight. I'm not saying go out there and try to trade him for another 2 guard, just replace him with someone we have already and see where we're at. Play Aaron Holiday or this point really start developing Amen Thompson or start Whitmore. Again a 6'4-6'7 SG with a short Wingspan and not a very good shooter was an extremely bad choice. He might be a serviceable second unit offense off the bench player which is ok or we can trade him for another bench role player/ a back up big. At this point however, I just don't see it as fair to the team that they continue to force the issue that he is starter material or a building block on this team.
Right now I'm at a 3 and gladly eat crow, I just don't see it. I realize he can still grow obviously, could still learn to pick up on things, work on his handles, passing, defense etc. Just leaning towards him not being the star we thought he could be.
I mean you can do that. But that pushes the message that JG is pretty much a failure. If that’s your standpoint
Not playing well sure, of course. Not sure I’m ready to put the surefire failure label on him yet. I’ve maintained giving him his entire 3rd year before a make a more concrete stance on his outlook despite how frustrating it can be. But I do understand a lot of where these critics are coming from
MFs run their mouth preseason about being a 20 win team and are doing sloppy damage control by still dumping on the team as "only" good enough for play in or best case scenario. Hilarity. Take the L doomers you deserve it for always being miserable.
Just a random thought but I always thought it odd that Jalen Green yearned for "structure." He praised Udoka's hiring because he said the team needed "structure." Don't highly skilled offensive players often clash with their coach when there's too much structure? For example, I was watching that Lakers show Winning Time and Magic Johnson clashed with Paul Westhead because he didn't like the system he was hellbent on running. James 'I am the system' Harden clashes with every coach that interferes with his 'basketball freedom.' IMO if Jalen was an alpha scorer he shouldn't need 'structure' to be effective.
I am not even reading what everyone posts, I am sure I have read it all before. So, if I am repeating someone I apologize. I think of all the players on our team Jalen needs to be given the largest amount of grace. He went from having the ball in his hands a lot and being able to do no wrong on O while playing haphazard defense to having structure. This is going to take him some time to adjust to. Its easier for a guy like Jabari to improve when last year he was getting limited looks and O ran through him. His adjustment is much smaller and easier to progress from. Jalen is in a dangerous in-between phase where the O is being initiated by a real PG and he has to learn to play off the ball way more. He is not given the freedom of creating he had before. He has to figure out how to score in different situations, play without the ball in his hands, increase his effort level on D dramatically and how to run the O when FVV is out of the game. I want him to succeed because if he figures this out we as a team are going to be much much better. Watching games this year I have noticed a couple of things. 1. defenses are still focusing on him a lot. 2. He is still waiting to get the ball and then create 3. His defense is vastly improved from last year, better rotation's, better one on one, and better D awareness. This takes a toll on the Offensive side of the ball. He is exerting a lot more energy on D. This is going to affect his shooting percentages because he has less energy than previous seasons on the O side. Tired shots = more missed shots. I am going to judge him on the end of season play vs right now. His playmaking has gotten much better, I believe he is 2nd in the NBA in pass to assists. He is making much better decisions with the ball that are resulting in good looks for his teammates. I could see him having a 10 assist game in the very near future. He has flashes on Offense but then reverts back to the first two years where he tries to dominate the ball, basically he is pressing too much rather than letting the game come to him naturally. Once again this is the result of his first two years of coaching. Ime is doing a great job addressing it in my opinion. Plus it seems his body language and demeanor are a net positive. I see him engaged when he is on the bench, not pouting, and cheering on his teammates. To me that speaks to his amount of buy in in terms of what the coaching staff is telling him.
