Oh please, give me a break. Marbury and Starks are ridiculous examples, neither of those guys were bad in their first 4 years. Both were great players who showed a lot of improvement early in their careers. Chauncey is really the only example, but his story was still a lot different. He was getting tossed around from team to team early in his career, he didn't get a lot of opportunity, and also had some horrible luck with injuries. But I guess if you want to compare that to Jalen you can.
I think Amen starting over Green is already on the horizon. The last couple games you can see how frustrated Ime is with Green's lack of offense.
They did a slow mo of one of Green’s dunks last night and the picture is telling. The bench is going nuts and you catch a glimpse of Ime who actually looks unhappy. Then again, Ime always looks unhappy on the sideline
Both of them are fantastic athletes, neither of them are good shooters, despite Jalen's ridiculously high 3P attempts. Main differences are, Amen knows not to jack up bad shots and he is vastly superior at finishing around the rim and he's an elite defensive player. There's really not much reason to continue giving Jalen more minutes than Amen, whether he's nominally the starter or not.
Lmao you found three people in the entire history of NBA. Now also find the players who were bad in their first 5 years and didn't turn it around in their 6th year either and divide those numbers together and that should give you your odds ratio. And that's even assuming your examples are appropriate comparisons which they aren't - all those guys were actually good players either shooting way above league average from 3 or had good efficiency and much better playmaking and passing skills. It's not that difficult to say odds aren't in his favor. It's an undeniable fact. Some of you knowingly dig yourselves into these untenable positions, and can't even separate facts from beliefs, and of course you are entitled to all of that, do whatever you want. Just don't expect folks to not make fun of you or take any of your takes seriously afterwards.
You do not want to be Starbury because dude was contemplating suicide or darker thoughts and he was saved by the Chinese league, found purpose again.
Billups was a jouneyman at the start of his career, very young, as I understood it. He has learned the hard way and was not gift wrapped 30 minutes and touches.
Coming back to the actual subject of the thread, I think Rockets need to unload this contract at the earliest opportunity. The contract gets even worse next year. We are 1/4th of the way thorough with the season and we've seen now what we have in him - an inconsistent guy who can go on hot streaks every once in a while, and has mad athleticism but doesn't really have the complimentary skillset to fully utilize that. We have 4 years of data now and that's more than enough.
To the bold - there's one issue with it, Jalen is the only 2 guard on the roster, other than some dude on a two way contract -Jeenathan Williams. It would send a message starting Williams over Jalen .... but I think that's also an admission that you blew the contract and it's a net negative. Starting FVV & Shepard is just too small .... The other option is in RGV and is more of a 3 than a 2 .... he was shooting pretty bad to start the season, but I think he's due an opportunity considering the way Jalen has been shooting the last few weeks. I'm hoping that they find a deal in the offseason to move on from that contract, it's a cap wrecker come 26/27. It's pretty amazing that they are the 2 seed in the west and Jalen hasn't been impactful outside of the first week.
One question for the forum. I saw on the table posted a few days ago that Jalen Green and Jabari are both top 40 in defense net rating or win shares. I was curious is Udoka running defense 101 during the offseason to teach these players how to improve their defensive mechanics or is it all defensive schemes? Under Sylas we were like 28/29th in defense and no way in hell you could convince me that Jalen Green could become this level of defender. I can see Jalen Green evolving into a Jaylen Brown type of player if he bulks up over the next 2 summers and finds consistency with his jump shot. Right now Brown is shooting 33% from three which isn't far off from Jalen's career average of 32/33%. Jaylen Brown is only 2 inches taller than Jalen and is definitely bulkier.
Brown's career average is around 36.3% so shooting 33% after the championship run is merely a below average streak.
Nothing we haven't seen before though. He's been occasionally dropping these games throughout his career, the problem is they've been a rarity, not a common occurrence. I wouldn't change my decisionmaking based on one great game if I were the front office. The question is more, what are they seeing from him, is he responding to coaching and working on improving, do they think there's still a real chance he can put it all together and become more consistent. And then the other side of it is, who can they get to replace him. Because the current options we think are available, like Zach LaVine, are not all that appealing to add to this team for various other reasons (age, injury history, questionable fit on Ime's all-important defense) even if they might be better players than Jalen in a vacuum. Maybe some other players will shake loose at the deadline. New league rules also mean we shouldn't know if any players are requesting a trade because that should be happening in private (if it's happening at all). Personally, just on the evidence I have at hand--the front office surely knows much more than I do--I would be actively exploring trade possibilities but I would be very, very cautious and would definitely not make a trade just to get rid of him. If we're replacing Jalen, we really need the right guy, and with as well as we're playing right now, there's no urgency to make a change. If we start playing a lot worse and he's clearly the weakest link that may change.
The rockets defense is much worse with jalen than without, he’s ok but he’s usually the worst defender on the court, so he gets propped up by everyone. It’s nice that he’s not a trae young type though, and can hold his own
TBF, the players coming in when he's sitting out, Amen and Tari, are arguably the two best defenders on the team. His defense would be considered even good for the player archetype that people were comparing him to, guys like Lavine, Booker, and Beal. Problem is that his offense is so bad, that even with "pretty good defense" he's still a below average rotation player.
