It's all about perception brought by the wins, which is actually about the roster construction, not a single superstar - the myth of a superstar carrying an entire team is a lie concocted by the marketing and PR side of the house - it's just not real. I don't think we can legitimately judge the individual players in this roster because it's a bunch of pieces that don't fit together - the lack of shooting puts a hard ceiling on this team's potential, and on top of that Udoka isn't a creative enough coach and is just trying to shoehorn players into the strategy he has in his mind rather than coming up with and optimizing a strategy to get the best output from the players he has. It's just an ill-fitting combination at best right now. Your impression of Jalen or AlP would be entirely different if JG was consistent, or if they got the two man game down, which doesn't look like something we've worked on at all. Or if you surrounded AlP with a bunch of really competent, consistent shooters, which would be better than what we have now. At the end of the day teams pack the paint against us and dare us to shoot, and we more often than not can't. How do you manage to look good in this scenario when you will undoubtedly have good nights and bad nights as a player? Who remembers the 1st quarter from last night when we saw great flashes of the potential of the JG and AlP 2-man game when the result is a loss? Right now, in this team, AlP would need to be better than Jokic or JG would need to be the best SG in the league to deliver results by themselves despite the horrendous shooting and lack of creativity in offense. Just not happening, and lack of a superstar is not a correct diagnosis of the issue when we haven't even managed to optimize what we have and find an identity.
Im asking you why Presti didnt know Harden was gonna be a superstar if you said it was obvious to everyone. Not every superstar is obvious at age 22 unlike what you are saying.
No we do not and imo we do not look like a playoff lock. Our offense is too inconsistent to be a top 6 seed. At best we can hope for is playin and hopefully the games swing our way. Personally, I don't think Ime is a good offensive coach. He was able to rely on star power in the past and it's something we do not have unless Jalen turns into MJ every game. Our roster is built by Stone and it is so lacking in shooting. Jabari and Reed are supposed to help us there but Reed is afraid to shoot 3s and Jabari's shot is nothing like it was in college. It's disappointing that Jabari is considered a bust if he had star expectation because at best, I only see him being a role player.
The difference between the Rockets and OKC really is just SGA. If Jalen was performing at young Harden levels right now, all the other pieces would look a lot better.
Yes and SGA is 26 years old. We are ahead of schedule on this re-build. People just need to chill out 9 games into the season.
At 24, Alexander finished 5th in the MVP voting while averaging 31 a game. We have no one on this roster that will do that, we don't have a star. We have a bunch of guys that could be maximized better if we had a star.
To me (and I think to most people?) the definition of "true star" or "superstar" or whatever is just "can this guy be the best player on a championship team?" That's what you're looking for. It doesn't really mean you're "carrying an entire team" as you put it, and it's not a lie concocted by marketing. It's just a fact of the game, every team has a best player. Most teams try to find this guy before they start to build up the surrounding pieces, because you need pieces that fit around that guy. It's not about carrying the whole team or delivering results right now, today. But you don't want to commit and build around a guy unless you have the belief that he is that guy. Optimizing what we have now, if we don't think a championship is realistic, would just be committing to wasting the next decade. I think it's important to be realistic about this reality.
Comparing Jalen's raw stats to other guards at a similar age is misleading. Jalen was given the keys to the offense at an early age and had license to shoot any time he wanted. If you actually take a look at his efficency, you'd know it is dog water in comparison to other players.
Piston's game was exactly what I mean, we had no clear option at the end because we don't have a clear hierarchy. Glad we are playing hard, and thank god for Tari and Amen...... But this offense is really hard to watch.. DD
