Jalen is a good but not great player - he is someone that can contribute to winning rings, but is not "The guy" - the contract he got is a good indicator of who he is, the chances of him moving beyond that grow less and less every year. DD
It amplifies everything I dislike about Jalen Green in one play. Low scoring game where points were hard to comeby. He was shooting absolutely terrible before this play. Then he gets 1 dunk and all the fans celebrate him only to get a technical foul to give them points back that ultimately coulda lost us the game with how close it was. Like dude you finally scored chill out. His fan base will only remember this play but he was not good yesterday at all. Dude got a 1 point dunk. Amazing. Let's celebrate it like he won something. I'd rather him make a 3 than do this,
I may be old fashioned, but I still think it's more reasonable to expect guards to actually make 3's as opposed to centers. This team faces clogged paint a lot...and it's largely because we don't shoot well enough to keep teams honest.
Meh. He didn't play that bad. Good passes, good defense, clutch points. Here's the thing with Jalen -- even though he's been cold recently, he's still averaging 21 ppg. So, guess what will likely happen? He'll get hot again and push his average closer to 23 - 25 ppg. I guess here's my point. Maybe Jalen doesn't take that next big step. Maybe he'll remain streaky. But a streaky secondary scorer who averages 23 - 25 ppg, plays good defense, and can occasionally take over games is certainly not the worst thing to have.
He's definitely better than he has ever been just cuz he plays defense now. But since he decides to take the most inefficient shots ever he will never be an elite 1 for us because there will never be consistency in his jumper. I just highlighted this play because he just has low basketball IQ and awareness. I don't see a path forward that he becomes a star because of this alone. One thing to be athletic but plenty of people who aren't athletic can be great just by playing smarter. He plays way too much hero ball and not enough team ball. That's basically the problem with our whole team. 3 years in still feels like we have guys who are just gonna shoot because they haven't shot in a while. It's also weird to me that he drives all the time and gets bumped but never gets the whistle. Like Austin Reaves gets so many bs calls. Maybe Jalen's path to stardom is in LA or GD where they get all the calls but in Houston we are always getting screwed by refs and we don't need another star who depends on the whistle.
Austin Reeves is so much better than Jalen Green - it isn't even close. BBall IQ is the most important thing to have and Jalen has low Bball IQ. DD
I think Jalen will carve out a good career as a 3rd option eventually, once expectations cool off. If he's the guy you count on to lead your offense you are going nowhere, his offensive skillset simply isn't there. Contested jumper or straight line drive to the basket..that's it. His offensive results have been remarkably consistent. When his contested jumpers go in it gives the illusion that he's actually become a better scorer.
we're always going to be wanting to see more from Green but until we have an actual offensive coach in the building it's going to be hot or cold every night.
