C-. Slightly improved defense, passing & rebounding. Finally just recently contributing in ways past just offense. I like seeing a player be more than 1 dimensional. But I have never felt "led to" a victory by Jalen Green except a couple games vs the Lakers. Its like he gets shot attempts throughout, and the game just happens to end with Rockets having more points. But never seems he has real game imprint. Feel it more with PJ Tucker taking 2 shots than Green taking 22 Oddly, I do see his raw abilities more now than I did before. He has solid 1st step, a little dribble-drive wiggle, some body control at rim. Not the deepest bag, but enough to think "he can create a shot" (What I think Stone meant by "ability other's dont have"). Unfortunately nothing he does results in actual efficient makes. With inconsistent focus added to it. On NBA level it takes more than high vertical, flair, & fashion to be face of the team, more than being Nick Young level
B-…Strengths- more active on D, crashing for boards, pick and roll, pacing/probing on drives especially when going left Weakness- handles won’t allow him to beat a hard press, competitive fire…need him to want to fight someone, shot selection. He needs to go see D Wade’s strength and conditioning guy.
I gave him a C- which was the option with the most votes .... but after tonight's game I wish I could revise that choice and give him a D- instead. (knee jerk post of the day) Dude got benched for Nate Hinton .... who went on and outplayed him for the night.
Bro can’t dribble while trying to penetrate the lane, can’t shoot consistently and isn’t smart enough to understand defensive positioning. The only move he can make consistently is using his lateral speed when there is a gap in the defense, you can’t rely on that in post season. D for me
I still think his scoring is an F for the season for someone who took pride in being a bucket. Very poor shooter at that.
I can't really remember any player who has been given all the freedom in the world on the offensive end for as long as Green has. The team (specifically Alpi) regularly tries to set him up for the first shot of the game, he is free to shoot 10 threes a game, even if he has already missed 9...what team has ever done that for almost three seasons, when the results just weren't there? Usually, players have to earn being featured like that by their performance on the court. Jalen has some scoring outbursts which used to give me hope that he might even lead the league in scoring one day, but on average, he has been regressing.
With that original C- I was being generous & doing exactly what we hope Stone doesn't .... looking at the recent "decent" games and thinking "there's a chance." Stone was right in what he said about Jalen's fit - "On Paper." Then there's the real world where he just doesn't mesh. That was a fairly critical statement, about as harsh as it gets from a GM on his players. I think they give him next season to see if that "skillset that doesn't overlap" finally bears fruit or not .... if there isn't a very large improvement in efficiency he's done as a Rocket.
Jalen is a hard player to grade because he's so inconsistent. If you look at his best 5 games of the season he's an all star starter and possible all-nba guy. I know a lot of people like to say "who cares" about this because it's so infrequent but it is definitely worth something. Most NBA players are not even capable of playing at the level Jalen Green CAN play at. When he's at his best he's a very special player. But the problem, obviously, is that he's only done it like 7 or 8 times in about 50 games. That's just not good enough. And on the flip side, Jalen Green also has lower lows than almost any NBA player I've ever seen. When Jalen is at his worst he's not even an NBA caliber player. It's very bizarre how different he looks. Sometimes when guys are bad they just "disappear" and are a non factor, but when Jalen is at his worst, he is so detrimental to your team he makes it nearly impossible to win. And then if you look at his middle 15 performances, he's just a very mediocre player. Not NBA starter material, probably someone who can remain in the NBA on cheap contracts and play bench minutes? So how do you put all this together? It's really hard for me to give this player a grade. I went with a C- but I don't know.
If you think Jalen is hard to grade, picture him as being a young player on another team and ask yourself if you would want to trade valuable assets to pick him up and play him as your starting SG? For most, the answer is probably no. If we were Cavs fans we'd be elated that the Rockets took Jalen and left us Mobley. I don't think he's that hard to grade. He's not inconsistent either. Jalen is consistently underwhelming and he has a handful of games where he goes off. JR Smith could do things that most NBA players couldn't either. When he was going off , but the biggest difference between him and Jalen (besides JR being a decent 3pt shooter) is opportunity. Jalen was the #2 pick in the draft so he has gotten a ton of minutes and chances to have those handful of games where he goes off. The flip side is he's also gotten more opportunity to suck. Brandon Jennings is another guy who would occasionally go off but spend the majority of the time being an inefficient shot chucker. NBA is littered with players that have immense ability and look special from time to time but cannot consistently play well because they are lacking traits or skills. It's pretty common actually.
Being drafted #2 in a high potential draft in years, hurts the Franchise. We need to take off our Rosy Rocket’s Glasses and look at the truth. This is his 3rd year, he was known in the draft not being a good shooter(is FG% is at 41%, for this season and career), not a good passer or playmaker(2 turnovers a game for this season and career) and because of his size and attitude he is a average defender. We need to move him this summer maybe during the draft? We should contact the Nets again and trade Jalen and some picks for Mikal Bridges. Honestly, the national media begged Houston to take Evan Mobley and WE just turned our nose up to them and drafted Jalen. the grade is a C-
Facts are no generational franchise players have sucked still in their 3rd season in the league when they're getting starts to every game and only 1 out of every 100 or so all-star level players have sucked in their 3rd season still and none of those all-stars that do should be getting max money unless you want to be mediocre (ex. Kemba Walker).
It is absolutely on the GM to draft a player that had so many fundamental flaws........and then to say.....Oh he just fits on paper but not reality..... Well, Stone also just fits on paper, but in reality not that great fit.
I give him an F based on where he was drafted. If he were a 2nd round pick I might give him a C or a late round first maybe a D. The #2 overall pick is expected to make an impact.
Stone really ****ed up not trading Green when his value was high at the trade deadline, with Ime intending to bench him, he'll likely complain to the media about this demotion and cause a toxic locker room on his way out.
