He arguably fared better against Wolves and Ant than Grizz and Ja. If Jaylen Wells was healthy, he would have been a no show as well. Wells would be the perfect defender on him. Scottie Pippen is fast as well, a bit short.
Net ratings in the playoffs for Jalen: With Jalen without amen =4.9 With amen without Jalen =15.6 With Jalen without sengun=1.7 With sengun without Jalen=17.7 With jalen without Fred=4.6 With Fred without Jalen=17.6 With Jalen without jabari=2 With jabari without Jalen=12.7
Mad Max on what he would tell Green: "play your game. Don't think. When you think you tend to play like a robot. It's worked all season. Just play your game." Also added he's been doing a lot of cursing this whole series. lol
Totally agree about Ime. Moreover, I cannot quantify this, but Ime does not maximize his players. Rockets not playing to their fullest potential is also due to the flawed construction of this team. Kerr, while a total douche, maximizes his guys making even someone like Post, a g-leaguer, viable in the playoffs. He also benefits from having the right players for his system. This begs the question - What is Ime's system? What is his offensive philosophy outside of offensive rebound until one finally goes in? A centrifuge type player will certainly help. I do not think it will solve all of the problems. Do not want to see the Rockets drag their feet on bringing in someone to help Ime just because they think a #1 option will fix all of the issues.
Compare the synergy between Caserio and DeMeco vs. Stone and Ime. It is night and day. Caserio actively works with this coach to fit players to the system. Stone is a BPA guy and then hope Ime finds a way to put it all together. Ime is not a good enough coach to do that. This off-season should decide the future of Stone and next season should decide the future of Ime. If they can’t balance this roster by communicating and working together then both should be gone. We have the players and asset flexibility to build a juggernaut. Do we have the GM and the Coach to do it?
I remember the twitter feed last season which had all sorts of stats and numbers about Jalen, and they were all off-the-charts disgusting, proving on multiple counts just how much of a detriment he is to the team. Management would've had all the same numbers, and still thought he warranted an extension. Absolutely insane.
They rolled the dice based on his performance in March. He was nothing but a frustration the rest of the year. Well he wasn't a constant frustation this year - up until last game. I took that as a win. I think org will roll dice on him one last time in 25-26.
I thought JG took huge steps in becoming a good to great 2-way player during the regular season. To become a star, you need to embrace adversity, play like somebody called out your mother. The opposite is happening. Disappointing.
Haha.. I mean lets pump the brakes. He went from being worst-defender-in-the-entire-league bad, to putting effort in on occasions whilst on ball, still woeful off ball in both his effort and awareness. There's about 8 trips to the moon and back before Jalen gets to 'great 2-way player'
It's 4:00pm local time. Look at this right now! https://www.espn.com/ Even ESPN knows what will happen in the offseason. The Houston Rockets are still waiting for their next superstar
He was a better defender compared to his earlier self. But basically his defense went from a D to a C. Improvement, yes? Good? No.
"I don't know if you can go get another 2 guard with the upside or the talent level. [Anthony Edwards] maybe in Minnesota. I don't know, does Book have more talent than Jalen or is he more skilled and more polished and more experienced and older? ... I don't know what Jalen will look like when he's 26, 27, 28 after playoff series. And that's the upside, where it's like potential can get a little intoxicating. He has the talent. There's no reason for him not to reach that level. He's got to go through it; he's got to fail."
A lot of it was surrounding him with better talent. Jalen and Cam Whitmore are still the 2 worst defensive players that got over 100 minutes on the season for the Rockets. When his offense is working, we ignore that he's a defensive liability. When it's not working, he really has no business being on an NBA court at all.
