I really don't care about the rookie teams -- just want to see him continue to improve this season and next and prove his play recently is not a fluke. I mean, Kobe was 2nd team all rookie, but so was Matt Maloney.
They look at the whole season. Green had a bad start and is catching up. So from the whole season's POV, he is still behind. Same thing can be said to a lesser extent about Cade Cunningham being behind Mobley. But if you look at the trajectory of the players and ask the GMs who they would have drafted knowing this, my guess is that the order would be: 1&2. Cunningham & Mobley (hard to say which would be ahead) 3. Barnes 4. Green 5. ? Those four are clearly ahead of the other guys at this point while we don't need to rule out the possibility that some other guy might end up with a better career than these 4.
Jalen is getting better every game, and is putting up awesome scoring numbers on comparatively few touches. And his speed and explosiveness are absolutely mind-bending. I never thought I’d see anyone running the break faster than Corey Brewer (and that’s not a joke) but when Schroeder gave Green that crazy touchdown pass that he was somehow able to catch my eyes bugged out of my head. It is so fun to watch this kid when he’s playing well. It could be even more fun if I didn’t see him out there with Wood the whole time…
You’re on drugs if you think GMs would draft Barnes over Green in a redraft Barnes has been a revelation but he’ll never have the electric shot creation ability that attracted GMs to green as a prospect. He gets offensive rebounds and put-backs mainly
So in the past week I have seen some marketing across two different brands regarding the top NBA rookies which all exclude Jalen. Top Shot mentioned a poll w what rookie you would start a franchise with. They went 7 deep, and included Ayo Donsunmu. Ayo has outperformed his pick status, but it is insane to include him and not Jalen at this stage. I also received an email for discounted league pass to see this year's top rookies, they included Barnes and not Jalen. Pretty crazy at this stage he is getting disrespected, I can understand if this was the beginning of the season.
This analysis is only about offensive comparisons. Defense is not included, as it is too difficult to measure on a holistic individual level, especially in the small samples that these rookies have. Keep this limitation in mind when looking at the top comps for this rookie class’s stout defenders. The comparisons use a mix of stats that reflect a mix of offensive style and production. For a full list of the stats and rules, check out last year’s post. The only difference this year is that we’re also factoring in player ages to the comp calculations. The pool of possible comps includes 558 players—every rookie since the 1999-00 season to play at least 800 minutes.
when the narrative sets in its pretty hard to get out of it.. Jalen coming out badly to start really hurt him. its going to be tough to get out if it now.
I'm finding it less and less necessary to say anything with Jalen doing all the talking these days. If you watch his LONG midrange stepback jumper, those mechanics would be difficult to replicate at any speed and Jalen does it - I swear - faster than I've ever seen anyone execute a move like that. Each passing game, Jalen looks like the guy you're going to give the ball to if you have to score on a DPOY type defender. I don't think anyone else on our team or any other rookie can say that.
That move he broke Landry Shamet off with was ridiculous. It was so fast. Jalen Green moves at a different speed. What even is this? What is he going to look like when he actually puts on weight one day? He can get any shot he wants at any time right now and that is a special skill. He created 10 feet of space in the snap of a finger.
Bridges is in the running for defensive player of the year. This is an elite defender with no chance of even contesting this shot. The replay really shows the separation created.
Green seems to have it all and his explosiveness is unique. If he works hard and stays away from the temptations of success… we are facing the player with the most potential of his generation. But, there is still a long way to go.
