That's not a Jalen problem but the casualty of being a newbie shooting guard. Anti-greeners cannot put things in perspective. https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_rookies.html Basically Three way tie in points, 8th in assists. Just look at the last hairy guard the Rockets employed. For his first 3 years in the league all he did was score 9, 12, 16 and "nothing much" from the assists and rebounds department. As your game and experience evolves you can stat pad 3 of each to the rebounds and assists totals. Progression is a cool concept. I like to think the Rockets front office already knew this about newbie shooting guards and drafted a player to compliment that SG position in Sengun, who can affect the game in so many facets. It wasn't random like Hey we love Sengun's funky hair we're going to take him too! There was purpose behind it. But yeah Sengun and Giddey should be 1a and 1b in the ROY chase at the now moment. Everyone else is just lumped in there like they're supposed to be with the taller guys grabbing more rebounds.
Point total is your argument? The reason why Green’s point total is tied for first is because of minutes and field goal attempts. He gets to play as many minutes as he can handle, no matter how much he hurts the team, and shoot as many shots as he wants no matter how many he misses. This in no way makes him one of the top rookies, that’s the real perspective. He is one of the least efficient scorers in the entire league, so the fact that he still gets to shoot enough to score the most point total among rookies is a leading reason why the Rockets are one of the worst offensive teams in the entire league and worst team period. Now that we have perspective out of the way, I do think he can improve his efficiency, as he will need to to cover up the deficiencies in the other parts of his game (namely, the lack of other parts). His November efficiency numbers are already ticking up from October, and he looked much better driving to the rim last game with the single big lineup before he got hurt.
Also Harden was supremely efficient off the bench in okc before he got to the Rockets and was very productive in every advanced metric that measured impact on winning, despite the lower point total. That’s why the Rockets were confident in trading and maxing him, because he was a star in hiding. Comparing that to Green is laughable, every advanced metric has Green as one of the worst players in the entire league right now.
No.... we are the worst offensive team because of overall talent. No one is bashing Christian Wood for his inefficiency (TS 51%). What about KPJ at TS 45%? Green is at 49%.
I thought Magic would be on this list but he wasn't technically a teenager. He turned 20 right when the 79-80 season started. But if you are curious, Magic recorded 146 rebounds and 144 assists in his first 20 games to go along with 379 points.
I think it was a draft-night party, and it was the live reaction when the Rockets selected Jalen Green with the second overall pick. @hakeem94 pls confirm.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little worried about Green. He's young and there's plenty of time, but he's just a scorer right now and he's currently doing it very inefficiently. He's got to add more depth to his game when he's on the floor.
Worried about his chances at achieving the allstar/superstar level worthy of the #2 pick (especially with a likely superstar available in Mobley) - VERY, was never sold on it But in terms of the inefficiency, it’s improving in November vs October and I’m sure will continue to go up, especially with better spacing. Even Wiggins is a passable player now and Green’s realistic upside (not the ridiculous Kobe comps) is higher. The problem is everything else that he lacks outside of scoring. I’ll say this, rebuilding is a multi year process, we will have full control of our picks for this year and next. Rosas utterly botched his first draft pick (#6) in selecting a historic bust in Jarrett Culver. He later traded a lightly protected pick to offload Wiggins which also turned out a disaster. But just a few lucky breaks and shrewd moves can turn the whole trajectory of a rebuild. The Edwards pick. Trading for Jarred Vanderbilt who is looking like a future first team all defense player at 22 years old. Now things are looking up. Not every rebuild is going to be smooth sailing like the early OKC team that hit on everything. We just need to hit on enough, starting with Sengun.
The last hairy guard the rockets employed was playing with 2 HOF's and many other veteran guys in his 1st 3 years so miss me with that comparison.
SGA coming back has stifled him no doubt. Speaking of SGA - wtf is up with him? Lmao he is not a go-to for a team - what a horrendous mistake he was in my fantasy team. He'll be the person who torpedoes my season. So much regret.
That makes his inefficient rookie year even worse since he was operating with so much more space on the court.