I assume this is you not believing in Green’s ability to be a championship caliber engine, but if I’m misunderstanding the purpose of your post feel free to correct me.
I mean I wish I could believe it, would make our future a lot less uncertain and these extensions a lot less daunting. But given what I’ve seen from him, I just can’t confidently say I think it’s gonna happen on a consistent basis, and those are the players you need consistency from more than anyone else.
Being uncertain whether Jalen can be part of a dynamic offensive duo of a championship caliber team is very reasonable. He is inconsistent. He also has shown the highest peak for a player since prime MVP level Harden for a player in a Rockets uniform. So is that chance worth seeing what he can do with a second year under this coaching regime and not prematurely trade him? For me yes. I don't want to feel like the Clippers did with SGA in hindsight. With Jalen Green it's a two way risk. Yes there is a major risk of keeping him another year and seeing if he becomes consistent where his trade value could drop further. But the risk also works the other way where you trade him and he becomes a all-nba caliber player. The poster you responded to is incapable of measured criticism. Keep in mind this poster thinks what I said just now to you is cultist rhetoric. You be the judge of whether what I just typed is unhinged.
There were a few people who hated the Green pick from the beginning. Most of us had high hopes and were quite excited about him. But as the old saying goes...if someone shows you who they are believe them the first time....there is zero reason to believe Jalen will turn it around. Even if he had a turn around year this year and averaged 25/4/4 or something on decent efficiency you'd have to give him a contract not quite like KPjs.....but more like Zion's. And frankly when you have to give a contract like that to a player that pretty much tells you everything you need to know on whether or not that player is going to work out for you. Amen and Sengun have shown enough. As has Tari. Jabari/Reed/Cam have some left to prove. But this team has far too much talent to keep waiting around for Jalen Green to grow up.
Amen really has not shown enough to make Jalen Green disposable. In fact the aspect that would make Jalen Green replaceable is the aspect Amen showed them most weakness in his rookie year. The fact that the coach figured out that the best way to optimize him in a offense is to play a dunker spot role/roll man means that Amen absolutely hasn't shown enough. His playmaking so far is the same type of playmaking we see from Landale, smart quick decisions off the short roll. Sengun has shown enough.
Seems more reasonable to me than your initial posts in here haha. I think if a trade for a guy like Booker is available, you move Green for that. Barring that though, yeah I’m ok with at least seeing what he looks like till trade deadline. But if it comes to late January and his agents are saying they won’t settle for anything less than max, you gotta move on from him, right? I’m not sure if you can risk losing him for nothing, and that would happen if he goes to RFA and rockets don’t want to match a max offer sheet.
I think it’s fair to question whether Amen has show enough. I believe he has, but if you are married to the idea of him needing to be a primary BH to be able to be a contributor for a championship level team, then yeah I get it. And that’s what we should be looking for, right? Guys that will be positive contributors in a deep playoff series.
Amen can be a major aspect of a championship team even if he isn't a primary ball handler. My main contention here is against the notion that Jalen Green specifically is expendable because of Amen specifically. Amen doesn't satisfy what Jalen Green ought to be(primary offensive option with Sengun). I'm not saying Jalen Green has reached that level also what Jalen Green needs to be for this team to be a contender.
Agreed, even if Amen hits a reasonable potential (let’s say like 75th percentile), it wouldn’t be filling the same role as Jalen. Sheppard is much more likely to be able to do that just looking at expected skillset at peak than Amen who would need a miracle and a half to be the type or perimeter shooter we’d need for him to fill the role Jalen would if he pans out.
