I would call Spida an almost type......slightly outside of the Top 10 or Top 12 players. His lack of size and length and enough Defense would concern me there. He made up for it though. He has become a solid shooter though.....especially in the Playoffs. I would hesitate with the Super Max but he surely deserved a Max with Incentives.
Some context is needed to be added regarding the third year of Shai. SGA only played 35 games in his third year, and with Shai the team was 16-19. Without him? 6-31. He had already become a beast and a winning player by then. OKC made him sit out at the end of the season to tank properly.
Its crucial for guys who did a couple seasons or so NCAA ball then by third NBA yr they are like you mention Its why I mentioned on here plenty of times to pull up the list of guards who went straight HS to NBA and compare his 1st thru 3 seasons with them......his Jater club members are scared to post those metrics He is for sure more Kobe/Tmac tier than Sanchez/Telfair etc at this point He is not Bron/Amare or even Howard(def. moreso) level day one Year 4 is when TMac/Kobe leveled all the way up.......TMac/Kobe is similar to Green showing flash but just needed to get consistent/experience KG was another HS straight to NBA big who was toothpick and took him few yrs to get established but the flash/potential was there day one........ Green has no choice but to level up this contract yr.... To what his scouting report was proclaiming what could become.... 3 level terror offensively
I just got through watching the Jalen bootcamp video. Who was the guy being shown after Cam but before Reed??
combined with Jordan Poole volume and efficiency behind the arc LOL worst volume chucker last year 16.2 FGA @ 42.3%
Looked like a much improved Tate! With a nice looking new deep ball!!! They're looking good, but damn can we get a better video edit? Couldn't even see half of it clearly. Especially the Alp clips! But I swear I'm not complaining.
I really don’t get all these comparisons to a particular type players - SGA, Jamal Murray, Devin Booker, etc. I see nothing in common. These are Kentucky guards who came in the league as solid but unspectacular talents and slowly built-up their careers by honing their winning skills. Jalen Green is: A. a lot more spectacular as a prospect and B. unserious loser. In other words, exactly the opposite of these players that he gets compared to.
I agree with everything you said, except I don't think Jalen's peak is the best player on this team. Some of his flashes remind me of his potential, hopefully Year 2 under Ime brings the consistency and commitment he needs to take his game to the next level.
Devin Booker the guy who experienced a winning season for the first time in his 6th NBA season? In year four SGA was putting up 24 ppg on 55% ts on 24 win team Jamal Murray had a 52% ts in his rookie year and 54% ts in his third year. If Jalen Green has a 4th year that is worthy of keeping him and giving him a max contract he's probably have a better fourth year than SGA. Because ask yourself this. Is Green getting a max deal if in the fourth season coming up he averages 24 ppg on 55% ts and his team wins 24 games? No? So Green would have to have a better fourth year than SGA to get a max deal.
Shai’s year 4 where he struggled with his TS is still better than any jalen season, but the main thing you’re leaving out is his 109 ts+ in his 3rd year. He showed he clearly had star potential, if shai was low-min 90s ts+ every season it would be a completely different situation
The difference between SGA and Green, as a lot of people pointed out similar point, is that SGA progressed in leaps and bounds through his first 3 seasons while Green flatlined. SGA changed coach in his 2nd season. While the team didn't improve much immediately after the change, his individual production increased a lot and continued to rise until he entered into MVP talks. Comparing the first 3 seasons of the two players, it indicates that Green has more natural talent while SGA has more basketball skills where he could develop. SGA was consistent and efficient from the start. The difference is very visible with the eye test. The thing about most Jalen critics is that while everyone sees Jalen's natural talent, he has not shown that he can put that talent to be an elite player. He hasn't even shown much progression toward that direction. He needs to catch up with the skills. You can't fault the doubters because the NBA is littered with a lot of naturally talented guys who never come close to stardom.
In his fourth year he dipped in to Jalen range of scoring efficiency and on a 24 win pace with the games he played. Jalen Green from year one to two has a massive increase in scoring output and with a higher self creating rate while maintaining about the same ts as his rookie season which is an improvement. His third season saw a drop on scoring but he had by far the highest leap in advanced metrics like VORP and BPM. Regime change in coaching and new expectations can effect statical trajectories. I don't know of many players of his talent level that don't have severe injuries that don't makent to some form of stardom though. People will point to bad comparisons of worse talent like Clarkson or Lou Williams who don't not have anywhere close to the natural gifts Green has. The closest comparison in talent level of a dude who is somewhat disappointing is maybe Wiggins or Lavine. But even then I'd say Wiggins and Lavine came into the league relative to Jalen with a skill deficit in ball handling compared to Green.
It was his fourth year though. So you don't get it huh? If all Green needs to do is for his fourth year clear 100 rTs and average in the mid 20s on a 24 win team, he then made it? He made the leap to a future MVP candidate? No I don't think you'd say that about Green if that is what he does next season. But in hindsight you can say SGA is a MVP candidate. So we are in this dichotomy where on one hand people act as if Green is so far away from SGA and yet if he puts up sga fourth year numbers and impact almost every green detractor here would say he doesn't deserve the max for that production.
23ppg in 30 something games is a breakout level season? Interesting take I guess, not one I agree with. But like I say, plenty of evidence that 3rd year isn't everything and you can be a star or better despite the arbitrary line in the sand y'all like to pretend is a concrete benchmark: Jalen Brunson (5th season) Giannis Antetokounmpo (4th-5th season) and he's an actual MVP and champion, not a "close to MVP" like Shai or Ant Jimmy Butler (4th season, though he's not even much better than Jalen is now in that season in truth) Steve Nash (5th season) multiple MVP Hell, Beard himself arguably didn't truly break out until his 4th situation when he got into a position to do so. Kyle Lowry became an all-star in his 10th season, but he's actually mostly a lesser player than Jalen, despite being a 6x all star and actual champion. Fred Van Vleet started getting good in his 4th season, arguably didn't "break out" until later. There's plenty of precedent, these are just ones who come to mind. The fact Giannis is in there though should really put the whole "3rd season or bust" well and truly to bed. He's better than any player we've had since Dream, and it's not close.
You’re just completely ignoring everything else. Shai’s first 3 seasons were 99, 101, 109. Did shai deserve the max ONLY for his year 4 performance? No. But he had showed clear progress including an elite 109 season. Jalen has gone 97 93 93. If jalen has a 109 season, sure max him out no problem.
