And water is wet. It takes time to make these kind of changes and time isn't something he or the team has right now. Teams have very little practice time during the season much less time to make major adjustments. The offseason - there's no games or travel to get in the way of problem solving.
I think Barret is better at guarding bigger wings and small forwards. Green is better at guarding quick guards like Maxey or Ja
Not according to the stats he isn't this season. DBPM for RJ is -3.2, defensive win shares 0.0 drtg 119. Jalen DBPM is -0.8, defensive win shares 1.2, drtg 113. Also to point out, Barrett's had a drtg of 119 the last 3 years, and hasn't been a great defender for 4 (he had better ratings for his first 2 years.) Jalen was 120 and 122 his first 2 seasons. One of those is showing massive improvement, the other is showing a plateau. Not sure I agree with your statement at all in fact, RJ is Jalen's floor, and he could've never had a ceiling close to Green's on athleticism alone. Remember when people were calling RJ a good NBA player? Mad how somebody else is a bust whilst outperforming him...
That was my next question - Is Barrett a good enough defender to offset the poor shooting?? It's pretty obvious Jalen isn't - even with his improvement this year. I wouldn't want to be the GM that pays that guy.
let's hope Green can keep this confidence the rest of the year. He still hasn't had a pure heat-check type game.
I don't watch Barrett enough to judge his defense. I am usually quite skeptical about defensive metrics. There is just no noiseless stats for individual defense publicly available. The eye test is still a better measure. Barrett's contract is widely regarded as bad. So I guess his defense is not good enough to give him plus value. And he is old enough to be judged as is. No more potential tag. Green is young enough to have about a year to cement his career. If he ends up similar to Barrett, I hope they don't give him that kind of contract. A 16-18 ppg below average efficiency player is not totally without value. You just don't want to give him big money and a lot of minutes. A scoring punch off the bench is about right. I am still holding some hope that Green will be better than what he is.
I was just gonna say, Knicks fans have been complaining about his defense for a couple of years. I don't think he's a good defender. I think he was projected to be.
I think that's the crux of it. We can only pay Green if he breaks out, otherwise you offer him the market level contract for either a role player starter or a bench scorer. Ideal situation is he breaks out, maintains the level of defense where the system works with him starting but turns his all star scorer flashes of the last few seasons into the consistent norm. It's mad that so many people are hoping that doesn't happen, if it did we're a competitor in 2-3 years max, sooner if Jabari gets consistent too.
RJ was getting Dillon Brooks money, his problem is that he is virtually a negative asset being 23 years old.......for whatever reasons. I think there are disciplinary issues, below average defenders are likely no negative assets...... A lot of things happening with Raptors and Knicks ..... legal matters and what not....
No one who is a "Rockets Fan" hopes Jalen doesn't break out. It's just downright silly to think otherwise. Now those "Only Fans" .... are something else, but Rockets fans don't want Jalen to fail.
For sure, we'd be a significantly better team it he became a solid player, there's no one that doesn't want that. Not thinking it'll happen isn't the same as not wanting it to happen.
For sure, if the .500+ from 3 ends up being sustainable rather than just another brief fluke, he'll be the greatest shooter in the history of the league. Here's hoping.
We must have very few "Rocket fans" left then. Seems like most of this board at least is actively rooting for him to fail. Hardly anything positive when he does play well, and an avalanche of negativity when he does not. I don't include posters like you in this. But the amount of "fans" who don't even want him to get coached up is telling. I'm rooting for the kid for the Rockets sake. But I seem to be in the extreme minority.
