Some of these deals that Lauri, Scottie, Cade, Franz and Mobley got just leave you scratching your head. Paying fringe Top 75 players max money. If these guys are getting that money there's no way Sengun (and probably Jalen) don't as well. I don't see a way that Jalen doesn't get a max offer from somewhere with this precedent.
For Green, I dont see him as a top 75 player. For me, he is not even a top 200 player right now. But how I or anyone else feels about him now is largely irrelevant. I think the entire NBA is waiting to see what kind of player he is this coming season.
Lolololol so if we had acquired him then we would have had to pay him $40m+ per season for 4 years?? He would never have agreed to be acquired without an agreement for an extension. AND some of you guys wanted to trade Green and 3-4 picks for him? Ridiculous. Markkanen just locked himself into a territory where he only fits as a 3rd best player and you'll only be able to afford that for two years before the second apron demolishes it. Thank the lord we are waiting it out while teams blow their cash on the first wave of overly-optimistic-about-the-cap contracts. Markkanen at an average of $47m/season. Now I've seen it all. Great player, happy for his family, but as an asset he's toast.
Lauri is a really good player. All that size...inside/out game... I kinda thought OKC might move on him at last year's deadline. Not concerned about the games he missed while the Jazz were tanking. But, that contract...man. Plus defensive limitations..And, at 27.... Good to see Utah never changes. I think Ainge made a mistake here...really limiting flexibility and upside long term.
It's a weird situation for Green and for the Rockets. If he balls out, he'll get a max contract either here or elsewhere. And by balls out I mean like...24 PPG on 45% from the field 35% from 3 and 80% FT. The funny thing with him is that this will be the first year in his life that he's going to be held accountable for himself. He isn't going to be traded and his entire future depends on whether or not he can perform like an adult NBA player. His career depends on it and the Rockets hold all of the cards. He pretty much has no choice but he also doesn't seem to be at the practice facility with the other guys too much so we shall see. His last 4 IG posts are all about some fashion collaboration.
It is kinda weird that a guy is basically not held to account for 3 years, now suddenly, he may only have 3 months to show something different. While his career with the Rockets may depend on these 3 months, even if he washes out and gets traded, he will get a second and maybe even a third chance with some other team down the road. So its not necessarily over for him if he fails this year.
While Silas never held him (or anyone for that matter) accountable, Udoka did bench him in some games when he played too poorly. His minutes didn't shrink a lot, I think simply because we didn't have anybody quite competent enough to replace him. With the emergence of Cam and Amen, he was not as indispensable as before. Now we got another guy in Reed that might join in the squad that can take away Jalen's minutes if he doesn't improve. If he get less PT, his stock will drop and teams won't be as generous when it comes to contract. I still don't know if it's motivational issue for Jalen. But if this coming season's situation is not motivation enough, I don't know what is. We'll see how he response.
I believe that the mental maturity, a very big obstacle/work in progress, will come along with Ime at the helm. Jalen and Alpi showed signs of improvement this past season. They were both benched on different occasions for their lacks of effort and consistency, for good reason. Along with that mental maturity leap that we're expecting, I feel like his physical maturity will go a long way this upcoming season if we see strides made there. He was very stringy and lanky coming into the league, the 82 game season plus any SL and preseason action per season, had to take a toll on that smallish stature of his. If he and Alpi make the leaps in those two categories (I believe Sengun is ahead of Jalen with his physical growth) then it will be easy for their skills to shine more than they have in comparisons to seasons prior.
That’s why teams always paired Mark with a strong defender to guard the low post and paint although Mark found himself guarding these bigs in certain smaller Jazz and Bulls lineups and switches etc. which he didn’t fair too well.
Yeah we get almost no real videos/pics of anybody working out all summer, then like a couple of pics of 2-3 of our guys "why the **** isn't Jalen working out?!" They're so transparent we can see what they ate for breakfast.
That's what talented but lazy individuals like Jalen do. They turn up when necessary (for their livelihood) and then go back to the shadows once they've secured a contract extension. Sengun has shown consistency over the last 3 years. Amen showed consistency last year as did Cam. Jalen is the absolute poster boy of inconsistency but his talent level is immense. His only consistency is his inconsistency. Even Jabari who has been a bit of a disappointment considering his lofty draft expectations has largely been dependable. He misses assignments on defense and isn't the sharpshooter we were promised but you can largely expect the same out of him from game to game. The road to basketball hell is paved with athletic low IQ players and thankfully the Rockets seem to have finally begun to make sound basketball decisions. Starting with hiring Ime and him holding players accountable. There's been a palpable lack of Jalen Green in the workout videos that have been posted lately and one glance into his Instagram account seems to be a window into where his mind is at the summer before a seemingly big contract extension. Jalen Green has future L.A. Clipper written all over him.
It's really amazing. There's not a single player on this roster called hardworking and resilient more often than Jalen Green. By the current and 3 previous head coaches. By his GM. By his teammates. Not Tari, not Jabari, not Sengun, not Cam and not Amen. In fact I'm willing to bet money I can find more quotes of Jalen being called those things than the combination of all 5 other players. He spent last summer on video with his trainer, with FVV, with Steve Kerr and with Ime Udoka. He ran the most total miles for this team last season (resilience baby). No accountability till now? How many times was he pulled in the 4th quarter? How many times did Udoka call him out for his on court choices? What an absurd statement to say he hasn't been held accountable. What's more amazing is that the dude spreading this made up BS about Jalen was whining the other day about how tired he is of being challenged on what he says about Jalen. As I predicted, just a bunch of people whining about being called out for stupid ****.
Like I say, so transparent they're see through. No b****ing about Amen "I couldn't hit the side of 50 barns if you lined them up, gave me a sniper sight and did half the aiming for me" Thompson, but the guy who needs to improve the insane amount of 2-3% on his 3pt% is the target? Makes perfect sense.
Man I don't even want them to b**** about anyone else. They can just start BELIEVE the coach they love so much and who is known for being a straight talker. You know, the coach who was gushing about what he can achieve with Green in his exit interview. The mental gymnastics of convincing himself Udoka is great at accountability but suddenly forgets who he is ONLY when it comes to Jalen. Classic Tier 2 Jater.
Nah they b**** that much that it needs saying that the same people who hate Jalen are annointing Amen as some future megastar and our best prospect and it's just crazy. Sure he plays good defense, that's AWESOME. However, he shoots like his day job is chasing rebels for Sheev Palpatine, and for someone with such highly touted "crazy athleticism" he has less exciting dunk highlights than Alpi does, nevermind Jalen whose athleticism is so much more functional you could string his dunk highlights alone together and probably have more video than the entirety of everything Amen's ever done that's "exciting" in his entire career at any level, real talk. It's just nuts at this point. It's also disrespectful to both Sengun and Jalen to tout a kid who's done very little but some solid defense and a lesser bag on offense than Clint Capela as the "best prospect we have" when one of them is legitimately already playing at an all-star level and the other has a ceiling of "best scorer in the league" and put up a month as arguably the best player in the league. I've never seen an "only defense" player be ever as valuable as a legitimate all star or a best in the league level scorer, it's insanity.
