I think you should include that Wagner had 2 years of college ball before the NBA. The 6th month gap in age is less relevant than the "grade" level. For example Green was a junior in hs when Franz was a senior. And the year a player of Jalen's prospect level would typically play for a major d1 college team, he opted to play in the gleague which at face value sounds great but it was a 17 game bubble tournament with little sense of "team" cohesion. NCAA programs care more about team development than individual development. The NCAA tourney is a much bigger thing than any gleague playoffs. So those two years of college ball really helps young players understand basic team concepts. Jalen's entire player development up til the NBA has just been "Give the ball to you and see you dominate your significantly lesser defender." He would be a different type of player right now if he did two years of college ball.
yes, Green is Redundant - we already have a better player at his position. I would trade anyone on this team to make us better, there are NO guarantees on this roster, not a single one that SCREAMS superstar. DD
i coudl be wrong, jsut thought ive seen various advanced stats graphs/tables/etc this year that show Barnes as a strong defender still
Again that's a cagey non-answer. The honest answer is "no" you don't for the same reason you don't draft Scoot Henderson over Victor. You go first the upside always so long as the player hasn't given you reason to believe they won't continue an upward trajectory. I get the frustrations with Green right now but as prospects, they aren't close. And they're just sophomores. The Rockets would laugh if the Magic called asking for Green in exchange for Franz.
Sure, let's trade #2 pick for possibly #4 potential bust. That's good basketball. Like spinning our wheels or driving in reverse.
TBH I do not see why any team would offer us a top 4 pick for him. I am not quite yet ready to call him a bust but I am getting close.
If Green projects to be a low IQ, no defense chucker then it is very much a reasonable take to gamble with the draft again.
No doubt but you have to have a willing trade partner. I do not see any team that would give up a top 4 pick for Jalen at the moment.
I think JG is a rough diamond. This guy can play actually each night Worldclass and sometimes Highschool Basketball. So if he must learn to fix his quality. I think if the Rockets trade a strong Pointguard the rest of the team will learn how to use their potential. Also a new coach helps too but its stupid to trade him because he got everything to be Superstar in the future!
Players on this team with chemistry: Green - Martin - Sengun - Jabari. This team needs Scoot or even Amen Thompson. If the Rockets got the 3rd or 4th pick I'd trade whatever to move up to 2. Getting a Top 3 pick is critical in this draft. Scoot solves a lot of problems. He replaces our worst experiment in team history and either makes Jalen better or becomes what Jalen was supposed to be. Or both. If PG is not addressed in the next 7 months then this team is officially the basketball Texans.
Green isn’t yet strong enough which limits his ability to control the ball when there is contact. He also forces the game to come to him likely because he has always been the focus point of his teams. Reminds me of Brandon Ingram in his early years constantly turning the ball over because he kept wanting to drive through players rather than use his team to get him better shots. Some of that will improve with chemistry but much of it will come from maturity and that may take another year or two. It will also take a lot of patience from all of us to give him time to realize this. Also the Rockets never really had to develop a star shooting guard having McGrady join at 25, Harden at 23, and Mobley at 23 before that so this is a new territory for us all. Most fans would never imagine Harden turning into who he became while he was with OKC, same goes for Jaylen Brown. Green isn’t going to be James Harden 2.0 for us but he has enough skills to be a star in his own class.
