calling it now, Jalen will shrivel once he goes to a team that doesn't insulate and cater to his limited strengths on the court, like the Rockets did. His fit with Booker is awful, and he'll be lucky if he isn't riding the bench this season. I'd be surprised if he even averages 17 per game on that awful Suns team, and he'll be seen as an even more negative contract than he already is by this time next year.
Green may thrive on the Suns, but he will disappear on his team during the playoffs. He is not a playoff/tournament player. Rockets did well to trade him for a proven playoff player...even a 37 year old playoff/Olympic player.
Who cares? He is not a rocket anymore so if he does well its not for us. I don't care how he does anymore just like he doesn't give 2 effs about any rocket fans
I predict he'll score a lot of points but do so inefficiently. I anticipate he'll continue to be a below-average defender. I believe his teams will generally either not make the playoffs or struggle in the playoffs. Jalen Green is a really talented athlete but hasn't figured out how to be a winning basketball player. Winning organizations don't sign players like Jalen. Bad teams take shots on athletes like Jalen.
I wish Jalen the best - guy tried what he think is his best with us but we are better off without him at this point. He may indeed turn into a real player at some point, but we don't really have the timeline to wait for that and I think this past year showed he still has a lot of growth needed to become that "real player". A change of scenery was probably in order at this point. He has a lot of elite skills but the problem with him is largely contextual to putting it into practice in a game - he really struggles to put all those tools into practice at game speed. Some of those step back moves he has to create space are legitimately nasty BUT if he doesn't make them consistently it doesn't really matter how much space you created and he always struggled knowing when to create space, when to pass, and how to manipulate defenses to create space for others rendering him ineffective as both a playmaker AND a scorer. I'm skeptical he is going to do it in Phoenix though - that is probably the worst place he could have went because now he is on a roster with two significantly better players that are fairly redundant to his skill set.
It doesn’t matter if he takes off on his new team… he wasn’t doing it here. And there’s no guarantee he ever would have, no matter how his career turns out. It might be that the trade lights a fire that no coach ever could. As long as we get what we wanted from our end of the trade, we have have to be happy with it. Jalen helped us get a player to do what he couldn’t. Good luck to him.
I wish him the best and I still think he will make a couple All-Star teams. we had an interesting opportunity as a franchise to give ourselves two different contending windows that should essentially run consecutively. we have 3 years with this group of guys, and we will modify it. We might even come out and use our very valuable draft at some point this supplement it. but make no mistake. The post Kevin Durant version of the Rockets will have a serious high ceiling, regardless of circumstance. I probably liked Jalen Green more than 90% of the BS but we had a 0% chance of winning the title ndxt year without this trade. we now have a pretty decent chance. And even if Kevin gets hurt, the team might be better.
Maybe , but it will be because he grows into a different player. The narrative that teams game planned around Jalen green is false. Maybe before we got FVV . And before sengun broke out
I’m happy the “chapter” is closed. I don’t wish him anything but greatness. Hopefully he finds himself and does well. We all have vested so much time, mental and emotional energy. Our enjoyment and frustration has a new team. Good bye and thank you for your service.
If Giannis, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker is available during the trade deadline. Who will get traded next Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith - Giannis Amen Thompson, Cam Whitmore - Anthony Edwards Devin Booker - Reed Sheppard, Phoenix Pick. Rockets get a Ready Win Core PG Fred VanVleet SG Anthony Edwards SF Devin Booker PF Kevin Durant C Giannis