Didn't make it into the week's rookie ladder edition https://www.nba.com/news/kia-rookie-ladder-feb-16-2022-edition
I don‘t think many people would argue, that Wood is the better player right now. Wood is actually a pretty good player. What people argue is, that our system with Wood is bad. Wood is taking a ton of bad shots - and it seems like that is by design. And our system is pretty stale with not too much movement or passes. Is that because of Wood? I don‘t know. I would blame Silas. What people are arguing is, that we don‘t do much to help Green. We barely run any plays for him - and we don‘t make the game easy for him. He hardly gets any PnRs, there is no off the ball screens or anything like that. He is basically either standing in the corner, or trying to drive by his defender. The only thing, that is really working, is fast breaks. All that resulted in his self confidence taking a dip and him thinking a lot on the field. Does that mean he is not to blame? No. But it does mean, that we are not doing much to help him. And with rookies, especially with ones that have high potential, you should make the game as easy as possible.
I don't blame Wood, I blame Stone. Wood, like Gordon, shouldn't be here anymore. That said, when you say "we don't do much to help Green", that's just completely false, he's been force fed touches, minutes, and shot attempts he flat out does not deserve all season long in order to try and make him look as good as possible. If he got only the minutes and touches his play deserved, he'd barely see the court. When people complain about him "standing in the corner".....what else is he going to do? He's not a primary ball handler at all. Basically the ONLY thing he's good at is fast breaks and moments where he can ISO before the defense gets set. If he's facing a set defense, he just has to pray he gets gifted a foul. Right now, he's shooting 30% from 3 with one of the lowest eFG% on the team.....yet he still is 2nd on the team in FGA's....he's as likely to turn the ball over as get an assist, but his usage is 3rd on the team only slightly lower than the starting PG. They've done everything they can to make Green look good.....he's just not an NBA ready prospect. It's going to take him a few years to actually deserve to be on the court. The reason he's "losing confidence" is because he's never played at a level where he couldn't get by on freak athleticism alone.....he's actually needing to learn how to play the game, and it's not something that happens overnight. If anything, he's taking away from young players who deserve the minutes more......which wouldn't be a problem if Stone had done his job and dumped guys like Wood and Gordon without having to take back and keep guys like Schroder.
I do follow the Cavs. And Okc, and Raptors, and Bkn, Min etc. I’m a fan of basketball, not some clueless deranged homer stuck in their own bubble thinking Green is playing up to standards.
I blame Silas too. But Green has to bear some blame as well. Those on/off numbers are hellish, no matter the system.
Both Nwaba and Garuba have both been crazy efficient. And Wood being head and shoulders above every other Rocket makes me laugh. Imagine the uproar coming from the Wood haters? Buh...buh...my eye test!!!!!
Consensus still likes Green they said. Green being bad is some “fringe” idea they said. The most comprehensive rookie ranking doesn’t recognize Jalen Green even exist, besides mentioning how bad he’s been. OP seriously lives in some Lala land where all the experts think Green is Kobe when he has never in his life shown a sliver of resemblance to Kobe. Pure delusion.
He isn't Kobe and he isn't a bust. Reasonable expectations for him are more like Kelly Oubre/Jordan Clarkson.
I don't necessarily disagree with your comparisons, but if that's all a #2 pick turns into, they are a bust. It's not the most fair thing in the world but "bust" status is based upon draft status. You pick someone 15th and they turn into Oubre or Clarkson, and you are fine with it, you pick someone in the top 5 and that's all you get? You've gotta be pretty disappointed.
Yeesh hadn’t looked at these in a while for Green… 538’s RAPTOR rank 250th out of 250 qualified players 538s WAR rank 250th out of 250 qualified players https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/ NBAmath TPA rank 592nd out of 592 ranked players https://nbamath.com/2020-21-nba-tpa/ WinShares/48 181st out of 181 ranked players Box +/- 181st out of 181 ranked players VORP 181st out of 181 ranked players https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_advanced.html Hopefully we look back at this year as the extreme outlier of a productive career.
I'd say it's a failure by the front office to take a guy at #2 instead of the early-mid first round where he should've been drafted, but I wouldn't call him a bust. A bust to me is Hasheem Thabeet level, Jalen could have a career as a rotation player.
Set aside this team and the actual players involved ... This is objectively about as poor of a first 2/3 season a #2 overall pick can possibly have, right? Other than some type of criminal scandal or crippling injury, how could it have gone worse (professionally)? - despite openly campaigning to be the first pick as the only self-proclaimed best player in the class, nemesis recruit-rankings rival takes the honor so clearly desired - arrive as new face of Rockets, only to have promising summer league cut short with injury - open the reg schedule as the worst NBA player to see significant court time over the first 6 weeks, setting a new standard for flopping out of the gate - slump further into another injury, this one much longer, which was probably a merciful mental break for a regroup - simultaneously, the 2 guys picked immediately after arrive like gangbusters as impact franchise cornerstones that have dramatically improved their franchises' future instantly - return from injury just in time to witness a team mutiny during an actual game, first opportunity to establish voice and presence as leader of the team - continue to play long and poorly enough to confirm no better than 3rd in rookie rankings among teammates, slightly ahead of the Spanish kid that never plays - accept freefall from future of a franchise to complete irrelevance on the NBA landscape in only a few months ... other than a precautionary tale about rookie expectations - enter your 1st All-Star break knowing the highlight of your rookie season will either be your Dunk Contest scores or the suit you wore on draft night I'm not even hating on the kid I like and root for Jalen Green The chronology above is an NBA rookie season designed by Murphy's Law
Fair enough, I think the only disagreement is semantic in nature. I'll definitely blame the FO more than anyone else if Green never improves to what you'd hope a #2 overall pick should be. It's not Green's fault they were foolish enough to pick him.
The advanced stats actually match the eye test. Well, the eye test for those that are not gaslighting themselves.
