Jalen hasn't been "really good" on defense. He's improved from terrible to OK, which means he's still useless if not scoring (just not as useless). It might work if Jalen came off the bench as a 6th/7th man because if both KD and Alpi are on the floor, they aren't going to stand and watch Jalen's dribble dribble dribble use-up-the-clock isoball stuff.
If you trust the decision-making of the Rockets front office, then you should support this trade if they make it. We all know Jabari is at least a future high level 3&D player. We know KD is 37 and will probably miss 20 games to rest. So yeah, if they make this trade, it really does say a lot about what they really think of Jalen.
It should open up driving lanes for Jalen and Amen. Unfortunately, if we keep FVV, Ime will just have FVV walk the ball up and hand it to Durant. Hope I’m wrong.
I wouldn't even give up Jabari for KD, not even if no picks are going into the deal. He has a rare archetype that's a great fit next to Amen and Sengun, we need to keep him here long-term unless we're getting back a long-term replacement of the same archetype in the deal. (KD is a similar archetype but he's about to be retired.) Jalen, I would consider sending out in the deal. He's easier to replace.
Load management is not a problem if the team is winning. Which is what I expect them to continue doing.
they must be really low on Jabari and don’t feel great about paying him he’s not who they wanted to draft, he’s been an afterthought on offense his entire career, he got demoted to the bench, and barely got 20 mpg in the playoffs that or Stone/Patrick Fertitta have lost it or Gambo is talking out his ass
Would hate to lose Jabari but not going to cry about it, Couldn't care less about Jalen. But if there were no picks involved I'd do it. Or, if like someone else mentioned if we got back Trey Murphy also in a three team deal we'd have a MUCH better team than last year. Sengun Durant Murphy Amen Fred Adams? Tari Cam Reed
I could see them not wanting to pay Jabari. He plays smaller than his size, he's only a 34% career 3pt shooter, he can barely dribble at all, not super athletic, defense hasn't been all that great but not terrible. Rockets were never going to keep all these young players.
