I have nothing good or bad of say about Jalen. It's the off season and nothing is happening. When the season starts we will see if he's truly turned a corner. I can see a path to stardom with him. But it would involve one of two things. 1. He gets way stronger and can take the contact he's getting when driving. 2. He starts getting the same foul calls Austin Reaves somehow gets on the same type of play.
Why are you a coward with your hate man? You have a lot of stuff to say about Jalen in the offseason. Why are you trying to be coy? That's weird dude.
I don't know why you think I hate Jalen. Having tempered expectations for a guy who played well against tanking teams doesn't mean I hate him. I like all the Rockets, I want them all to succeed. You just are so biased toward Jalen you get so defensive for any type of criticism. I'm not trying to get hyped about random end of season games I want to see him perform for a much larger sample size preferably before the all star break for once. And I've said plenty of times the only reason I'm down on Jalen is because he's due for a max extension this summer and he is not a max player. So it's a big dilemma for Rockets I can criticize all the rockets players they all have flaws. Sengun might be too small. Amen can't shoot. Cam is a black hole. Jabari is average at everything. Jalen is inconsistent. FVV can't make a layup. Brooks thinks he's Michael Jordan.
I see you're back deep in your feels again over encountering another non believer. Have faith that your deity is strong enough to survive the skepticism of infidels
It is not a good feeling, I want this contract situation resolved as quickly as possible, it's hanging over my head as well. Then we can move to the contracts of others.
Not really. If he plays well for the first month, you're still going to have people saying "yeah but he's still sucked for 80% of over 3 seasons". Then it becomes about him doing it all season. Then it will be about how he wasn't good enough when we get knocked out of the playoffs and whether his play translates to the playoffs and that becomes the reason why they're cynical. If you've been on the board as long as I have, you recognize these neurotic patterns in people. In general if a person is cynical, they will find something to be cynical about. Not saying that's you necessarily, but the idea that Jaters will quiet down because of a good start is fantasy. What quiets people like that down is being drowned out by believers. What is most likely to happen if Jalen has a good first month is we will have a great record and fans/players/media will be showering us with an amount of praise that makes the cynic feel like their statements are not attracting attention. Then they go become cynical about something or someone else.
If he plays well the first month, it gives reason to believe he might have finally figured it out and that buys him more opportunity to keep proving it. If he plays well up to the trade deadline, it buys him the rest of the season. If he plays well all season, it buys him a new contract in Houston. At least that's how reasonable Rockets fans will see it. His cult will be on their knees for him no matter how he plays.
Your search history speaks for itself though. In one of your posts you state that Jalen is closer to being a 6th man or out of the NBA altogether within 3 years when faced with a question if Jalen could be compared to Anthony Edwards. Its why this arbitrary and obscure stat is relevant for the discussion. It gathers empirical examples to offer a near impossible rebuttal to a stat argument. A good portion of members here have had their fun slandering Jalen and throwing around ad hominem attacks that even go outside the realm of basketball. Now some of them want to try and slink back in closer to the fence line or outright straddle it in order not to seem so extreme if the tide turns. Some of us "cultists" can see it for what it is - a clever hedge to nurture an ego down the line. At least Bobby is full blown Jater. There is no possibility of a turnaround and he's made up his mind - I can respect that more than the tepid half ass fans that are only in it to tick off a box on their imaginary talent spotting abilities. Draftniks and full rebuilds are a nasty combination.
This is the most reasonable Jalen take you have ever made and maybe the most succinct post and accurate anybody has made on the subject. Leave out the cult stuff and it was a perfect post.
I agree with you that some people will still hate. But being able to do it early in the season will help ease a lot of our concerns. He traditionally starts off very slowly and by the time he starts having good games people will have already turned against him.
Yes I said that, but you're not taking any context. It was literally a post about him getting max contract and how right now as a player he is closer to a 6th man than a star. I still believe that. But it doesn't mean he can't improve. I've always thought his game would drastically improve as he gained more strength. But I look at him in training camp videos and I'm not sure he can put on the muscle mass he may need. He looks more cut but not sure if he's gained any mass. My problem with Jalen has always been the same. I think he's run out of time with the Rockets. He still seems like he needs 2 years and he only got one left. Him starting the season strong for once would help ease a lot of concerns. Most of my responses for Jalen post are all about the 10 game win streak and the quality of opponents we play. Just stating facts and trying to temper your expectations of him because the season sample size showed something different. Do you really believe he plays anything like Anthony Edwards? Because I don't see it at all.
This. Except the big "if" with Jalen is if he doesn't play well to start the season. How much leash does he get? And if he does play well, maybe not Jalen-sanity levels but 26/5/4 on 46/36/80 splits, what kind of contract do the Rockets give him? Max? I'm thinking something more loaded than something you'd give Sengun. A Zion like contract with stipulations.
Its hard to rationally support someone whom you feel is hurting the team I can understand that. Hopefully Jalen can win you over and more importantly cement his long term position with the squad. If he doesnt there was never any risk for me in supporting one of our young guys. I find it infinitely more rewarding and easy to remain as positive as possible about all things. 70 days until we can start to see who will be here beyond 2024. I dont think any of our young guys are safe and a part of me thinks Stone is going to pull the trigger on a big trade that will send out multiple guys who fans have grown attached to. Nature of the beast.
I think even if he doesn't play well they'll give him a decent amount of time... but the fans probably shouldn't. Also it depends on what kind of bad he is if he comes out playing poorly. If he's not scoring much but he's not a liability on defense and he's not taking a ton of shots that doesn't hurt the team as much as when he's mindlessly chucking and being the weak link on defense. I'd have a LOT more patience with the former than the latter. I also think with Jalen it pretty much has to be a max or nothing, because Sengun will almost certainly get the max and I don't think his ego would allow him to take less than the guy drafted after him. I think there's 2 reasons for that. 1. I'm sure his opinion of himself is similar to the opinion of his most delusional fans... he thinks he's the next coming of Kobe Bryant. 2. A version of him that is better defensively and something approaching average for his position when it comes to efficiency IS a max player.
Are we talking above the dude who jokes about himself saying "Jalen sometimes... Alpi always"? I'm pretty sure the dude is self aware that Alpi has put played him in terms of consistency. Green seems to be the type to be self critical.
I'm sure there are people who absolutely lap up every PR bit their favorite player puts out... but I'm talking about reality, not PR. I'm sure the guy who blames the team for his failure by not doing enough to cater to the way he wants to play the game is super humble and self critical.... the Jalen Green is too humble to admit that he's the Lisan al-Gaib is probably what the zealots say. Do you really think this kid would take a backseat role on the team? He never has before despite how poorly he's played. You will never find a humble, self critical, mindless chucker. There's a requisite level of arrogance and false confidence.
I hope assessing Jalen as "playing well" is clear cut, but there are also scenarios where the decision could be complicated: What if he only improves his ratio of good to bad games to something like 40/42 (I haven't done the math but my rough estimate that his good/bad ratio last year was lower than this). What if his defense regresses but his offensive efficiency becomes respectable or even good? What if he overperforms against mediocre to bad teams but underperforms against good to great teams? What if his most successful games correlate to underperformance by the rest of the team and/or team losses? I'm not nitpicking or predicting all or some of these things will happen - I just anticipate that the calculation for keeping Jalen is going to be more complicated.
I do think both Alperen and Jalen getting contracts in the same year is an issue. Alperen will get a max and Jalen we will see. Can Jalen handle Alpi getting a max and him not getting one? That seems to be a potentially real issue to me.
