“Busty” Jalen Green and “Rockets best player” Alpi Sengun only ranked 13th and 14th in this particular rookie ranking. A few ehh, I don’t know about thats, but can’t really argue too much is wrong with these rankings in regards to either player.
Underutilized, both Sengun and Green. Hopefully things will resolve after the trade deadline..we are stacked right now and need to make some hard decisions soon
Williams moves above Jalen Green, who since the calendar has turned to the new year is shooting 35 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3 while struggling to play winning basketball on a bad team. After a prolonged slump throughout January, he’s starting to turn it around over the last few weeks, averaging 15 points. But even that little positive six-game run still sees him shooting under 40 percent from the field and 28 percent from 3. Like I’ve said many, many times, I’m not panicking on Green long term. Guys with these kinds of high-level traits tend to become good in a hurry once they become more efficient shooters. He separates from defenders at a high level; he just doesn’t have the final product right now. But because of that, and because he’s a poor defender who also posts about a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, he’s not all that helpful as to an NBA team right now. The five guys who juuuuust missed the cut: Quentin Grimes, Josh Christopher, Tre Mann, Kessler Edwards and Bones Hyland.
I hope so. Right now it looks like we flat out blew our first 3 picks because of that. I know I'm always harping that it is way too early too tell, but pretty much every player on the list above them is featured more on their teams and given more responsibility. We spent a top 2 pick on Green and traded two future firsts to move up to get Sengun and we don't seem to be valuing either the way these other teams are. Out of the 4 picks, the only one we absolutely hit on in relation to where the pick was selected or what we gave up for said pick was the very last one! Josh Christopher. Garuba's year never even got off the ground because Theis was brought here to be the defensive big. It's crazy.
Maybe not, but as I said, the other guys were given more responsibility early on and the teams are now seeing the improvement on the court and being rewarded. If you look, most of them also played very poorly to start the year except Mobley, Barnes, and Duarte. You have to live through the mistakes and poor play early while they are figuring it out. You learn from trying and failing. You don't think Sengun would be better right now had he started and been given 25 minutes a night and a larger role on offense? I do.
He's also doing better at passing out of drives to an open shooter when the paint is clogged(nearly every drive because we have no spacing). But his defensive rotations have gotten so much better and his effort is much better recently. He still got backdoored and lost his man a few times ball watching last night but that's ok. Improvement is Improvement. Wish he could shoot tho, it would open so much.
I think it's much too early to be looking at the draft choices like this, Sengun could not be given 25 minutes a night to start because he would have fouled out every night and basing everything on this year is not very smart, these guys are not going to be made or broken based off of what they have done this year. They are still learning and playing 10 more minutes a night is not going to accelerate the learning curve IMO, either they will learn and get better or not. I would like to see Sengun playing 25 minutes plus, but he needs to earn it.
i'm hopeful once his shot mechanics are worked out he'll be shooting without hesitation and making a decent percentage. he is an excellent FT shooter already so we know he has the touch and potential to get better from behind the arc
I don't honestly know, because Sengun has struggled as players stopped falling for his tricks.....the league has adjusted now he has to to adjust - less worried about him because his game is all skill much more worried about Green as his game is all about speed, and needs skills. Also as Sam said, Sengun needs to learn to pace himself.....he is like a 50 year old wheezing after 10 mins on the court. DD
Both were injured at inopportune times this season while other rookies did their main damage. Not worried about that, they have work to do. Ayo Donsunmu did a 180 degree turn.
Fix his 3 point shot and he's a half decent player, opponents give him a ton of space, he should at least be hitting 35% of his 3's.
