You know what Jalen isn't right now? He's not a guy that will shoot 37%+ from 3 for a season. He's not a guy that will put up 25+ pts on above average efficiency. He's not a guy that's the best player on a championship contender. You know what Jalen is right now? He's a guy in his second year receiving high caliber NBA coaching. He's a guy that has shown he can play MVP level basketball and lead/carry a team for an extended period while only in his first year of high caliber NBA coaching. He's a guy that has shown quantifiable, objective, development and improvement as a defender while only in his first year of high caliber NBA coaching. He's 22. On a contract with near max incentive to perform as well as he possibly can for every single game of the next two years. If 1+ years in to the IME era JG still looked like the kid from 2022 I'd be right there w/ all of your critics. And many, if not most, of the specific criticisms are fair. But IMO the conclusion is overly emotional and on a sample size that would make data scientists puke. Once you see him stagnate in all areas of his game for 2 months...then there's a problem. For now y'all are just trying too hard to manifest something that isn't there.
Rockets have to look really hard at moving Jalen this offseason as part of trying to take the next step. Too many minutes and resources are being poured into a guy who is simply not good enough.
I find it hard to believe there will be teams willing to trade for him given the stupid contract the Rockets gave him
A year of games is actually way more than sufficient from a sample size perspective for a starter. You don’t have all of the edge behavior when you’re measuring something in a controlled environment. Jalen knows to throw the ball at the basket if he wants to score points. Training a model to score, that’s like 95% of the battle, and that’s what takes a greater sample size. We have plenty of data to know generally what his career trajectory will be like. The odds he ever scored efficiently enough to be number 1 on a championship team are extremely low. That doesn’t mean we should trade him or that he cant do it.
Disagree. Plenty of data for a jump to conclusions mat - sure. Plenty of data for meaningful data driven conclusions when the Rox starting lineup has played 200 minutes together this season - no. Further, vis-a-vis "controlled" environment: He played 1/2 of last year w/out Sengun and Amen & all of last year w/out Tari. He, like everyone else, is adjusting to all of that on the fly. IME's rotations are volatile (an understatement) where occasionally you'll have a poor-man's Alpi-esque playmaker in Joc on the court and other random nights a plodding screen setter who seemingly can't catch the ball any more much less have the offense run through him in Adams. I think debating the merits of sample size being sufficient to extract the type of "bust" conclusions that some are is indefensible and not worth my time. Lets check back in February. Jason Kid was a 33% 3p shooter for the first decade of his career and then routinely 40% for the next 5 years. High-end talent, by definition, has capacity for growth. Kidd is an extreme example but no less extreme than suggesting we know a 22 year old's career trajectory after he's spent 14 months under real NBA coaching.
He's far worse than someone like Kidd was at everything though. If jalen was an amazing passer i think people would have a lot more patience, because when jalen isn't making shots he's just useless on the court.
I can't remember seeing someone own themselves so hard within the same post. It was amazing and I'm glad I got to see it.
I mean we will be able to move him fairly easily and we will need the money attached to that contract to bring in a better fit.....if he was on a max deal he would be harder to trade, that's all I meant. DD
He’s pretty close to the max, he got 20% of the cap and max is 25%. The way he’s playing now it would take multiple firsts to dump that contract, if he doesn’t improve
Im as frustrated with the lack of consistency with Jalen as anyone but I don’t think this is true for a minute. I don’t think anyone is giving up something like 4 firsts to get him outright but in a move where we are taking a contract back yeah I think the Rockets could net something similar to what Washington got for Beal. He’s not as good as Beal when Beal was healthy for the Wizards but he’s still seen as improving and he is considered a “young star” outside of our bubble. Especially with young nba fans who he is quite popular with. My wife is a teacher in the DFW area… an area in which there really shouldn’t be any Rockets fans and with the young boys who play basketball they for whatever reason love Jalen. He’s more popular than you think. In a vacuum if you wanted to trade Jalen for picks alone into someone’s theoretical cap space, I’d assume the Rockets would get at least 2 first round picks. In a trade where the rockets are taking back the salary of a veteran player with a big contract they could get even more. That being said I don’t see anyone on the bench really pushing him for minutes like they should be. Cam and Reed need to step up if Rockets fans have any hope of Jalen becoming expendable. He’s frustrating as hell because of his inconsistency, but he’s the best available we have at the moment to start at the 2.
3 / 100 is nowhere near the “max.” The “max” is defined by money per year AND length. Y’all are freaking out way too much. It wouldn’t take “multiple firsts” to move Jalen. Everyone chill.
