I think these 3 plus Jabari are the core. One of these 4 can average 25 a night. Sengun already averaged 21 in his 3rd year and Jabari was largely an afterthought in the stand around and watch FVV/Jalen pound the air out of the ball offense. If Cam screws his head on straight and becomes a better team player than he can compete with Jabari for that spot. It's just that Amen does everything that Cam/Jalen do from an athletic standpoint and rim pressure and also like a million other things. If I'm the opposing defense, I'm wanting to get either Cam/Tari/Jalen in a position to make a decision. Not Sengun, Reed, Amen or Jabari (Bari will just shoot and there's like 1 guy in the league that can legitimately do something about it).
Jalen averaged 22 in his second year. I think Sengun and Jalen are the two other makes more sense to build a offense around. Everyone else of the young core has issues like stiffness and a lack of creative ball skills. Amen is an athletic freak but has similar issues as Jabari with some stiffness and lack of ball creativity. If I'm the opposing defense I want Amen to be a on ball play alee rather than a Draymond type short role playmaker because then I got options like sagging off him and just ignoring him or pressing up on him to stop his dribble which is easy to do on Amen. Putting Green at the same level as Cam and Tari as offensive playmakers is kinda showing your hand at a unhinged hatred for the kid. Green's criticism with IQ on offense has to do with the expectations as a number two overall pick and many people's hopes that a true at high of a pick you are looking for a heliocentric level talent who can be the lead playmaker. Green came into the league with question marks as a lead heliocentric type player. He was never accused of being a headless chicken like Cam or Tari in a half court offensive set.
thank Silas and tanking to that he averaged 19 last year and not only his shooting efficiency didn't improve for 3 years, it actually got worse
Amen was so great at the short roll last season in limited time. I am really hoping Reed works out as on ball as it would force Amen's man to help out in Reed-Amen PnRs and get Amen in the short roll more. Same applies to Sengun with Reed. Both Sengun and Amen are lethal in the short roll when they have pass/score options. I think Amen's handle will improve and developing on ball skills typically takes time. Amen is making it easy to give him offball reps.
It's actually insane how far removed Rockets fans are from reality with Jalen. Has he underperformed as a #2? Yes. But not remotely to the point where late lottery picks or people who have been projected roleplayers their entire basketball lives are actually better prospects than him. The irony is that if we actually did trade him for a bag of chips 3&D player, even if he never got better than he is right now he'd probably contribute more for the team we traded him to than the 3&D cookie cutter guy would ever contribute for us, and we'd 100% have lost that trade.
Yeah I still have hope for Jalen, but I’m all for trading him if we can get back a clear upgrade. But some of these proposals are just down right ridiculous.
The Bulls are desperately trying to dump a better version of Jalen Green and no one at all is interested because he makes less than the rookie max extension.... I get that the cult isn't expected to be in touch with reality, but we're talking about an absolutely terrible player.... a SHOOTING guard that is literally one of the worst shooters in the entire league who plays no defense. You could dump him outright and the Rockets would be a better team. Now sure, maybe a miracle happens and he finally becomes a halfway decent player this upcoming season... but baring that, he's not a starting caliber player. At some point I think those cultists who plan to stick around after Jalen is gone will have to come to terms with that.
I understand the team not wanting to give up on him since they took him #2, but it's weird to me how many fans don't recognize how bad he has been.
I wanted Jalen at #2 and was willing to give him last year to figure himself out. Cam is a *much* superior offensive player to Jalen Green, for starters. He has an NBA body that he is willing to use to absolutely punish people. Jalen doesn't have that. He's also a much more consistent shooter than Jalen. Green is better at playmaking but even then I don't trust his decision making. I dont trust any of those 3 guys decision making but only one is being consistently tasked to do it and he might be the least intelligent player on the team. Amen has issues with lack of ball creativity? He's like Jabari? Can you elaborate on that a bit because I'm trying to understand what that even means. Amen just needs reps at the PoA and if Draymond Green had Amen Thompson's athleticism and mentality then the last 10 years would've been moot because the Warriors would've won 10 straight championships. Draymond was more like a DM in soccer whereas Amen is more of an attacking midfielder. Jalen Green is like a talented but incredibly flawed striker that goes 10 games without scoring a goal and then has three games out of four with a two hat tricks (3 goals) and a brace (2 goals) so he looks better on paper. No I don't "hate" Jalen Green. He just doesn't work on this team and will function better elsewhere where he can take all the shots he wants and doesn't have to worry about structure. He's going to be here anyway so let's see what happens but I'd be shocked if Jalen averaged 26 PPG on 45% from the field and 37% from 3 which is about right for a lead shooting guard that you're going to pay max money to.
Jalen is a much superior scorer than Cam and playmaker. Cam scores almost all of his points in either transition where defenses are back peddling, attacking closeouts in half court sets, catch and shoot, and simplistic dribble step backs often from attacking a closeout and the occasional iso wing clear out where he just has to beat one defender in a half court set. Cam simply does not have the ability to do things like maintain a live dribble in a half court between multiple defenders in some one action. He already has more turnovers than assists with his more simple role. You know rookie Green and Cam have the exact same league adjusted scoring efficiency but Green did it on a lot higher volume and with a significantly higher percentage of his fgs made unassisted. So it was a significantly more difficult scoring profile that requires a lot more on ball creativity to score and he was as efficient as Cam in a off ball role. Green also has a lot more craft around the rim. Cam is just a bowling ball to the rim. His attack battle is more like a a more beefed up slower prime Westbrook whole Green has a more "Kyrie" like finishing package that has a lot more balance and tough paired with elite athleticism to the rim. The only disadvantage he has over Cam is strength. Green even has a more reliable long term jump shot. It's more one motion and effortless while Cam has that rather exaggerated wind up to his release that's distinctly two motion. You can tell with their ft shooting as Green is a career 80% ft shooter. Green had similar career wide open 3 pt efficiency in his first two years compared to Cam. It dropped this year more than likely due to adjusting to a new role and actually having to put significantly more effort on defense as a full time starter. Cam playing significantly less games and significantly less minutes per game probably has more to do with the two respective shooting seasons. Hopefully Green with a season of conditioning playing under Ime will help in progress to be consistent on his second year with Ime.
Because relative to most #2 picks, he actually hasn't been. Y'all just expected Lebron James because you haven't had a draft pick worth speaking of since Yao. Seriously, show me all the players drafted in the top 3 with better statlines after their first 3 years. Hell, even the guy y'all tip as by far the best prospect we have looks mediocre when you actually look at his career stats so far.
Youngest player to 4000 career pts in franchise history with second place being nearly 2 years older when they did it. To say that he's been incredibly bad for a 19-22 year old 2nd overall pick is absurd. Disappointing in aspects? Definitely.
@LikeMike agree with everything you said and would add a couple additional observations... - Absolute fearless shooter. I'm picturing him shooting those wide open 3s off our breaks, he's money on those stop and pops. Looks like he had the blessing to shoot when ever he wanted. It will be curious to see how this aspect of his game is managed in NBA and also whether he dials it back a bit until he establishes himself. - Creative mid-range game. He's not going to wow you, but he's super nifty and crafty in the paint and on floaters. A lot of young players can shoot the 3 and drive it to the rim, not as many have a solid mid-range jumper and other shot tool bag to deploy.
