Yeah, i'm fine with all of that. I made a post somewhere where Jalen needs to watch how easy SGA makes the game for himself and he's exploded after that and it's looked far easier for him on this hot streak and i've definitely noticed he's using that stretch scoop layup more often that SGA always uses vs foot speed all the way to the basket. Work Smarter-not Harder. All that said, he's really hot hitting a lot of his open shots too. A cold spell is bound to come and i want to see how the rest of his game responds. Like i said, Book is probably still there this summer so let's see Jalen with the bright lights of Playoff basketball on him and more physicality allowed.
This is just a theoretical discussion because the reality is Booker is the Suns last hope he isnt getting traded until they are fully desperate and the JG is almost untradable this year due to the poison pill. But lets assume they can be traded with no issue. Personally I wouldnt trade Jalen because while 27 isnt old, the difference between Booker and the rest of the core is like the difference between Shaq and Kobe. What we know is players tend to hit their prime starting at age 25. Booker is really, really good however the rest of the Rockets arent there yet. He makes the Rockets better now, but when the rest of the Rockets hit their prime Booker only has a couple years left before he is on the decline. I want the Rox core to all be the same age, that will maximize the chances of winning and also give them a really long window of contention.
If we're being honest, Booker has played about as well as "bad Jalen" this season. Even if he doesn't maintain the current hot streak ..... I think they are a wash on the floor but then there's $20m difference in cap allocation. If Green does maintain the current level of play ..... he's by far the better player.
So strawmanning huh. When did I say I have a problem with Book? You made specific claims about Booker vs Green at the same age.l and I'm countering them. Believing Green being more impactful at 22 than Booker at 22 doesn't mean I have issues with Booker. So why would Green only average 21 ppg if he replaced Poole on the Wizards? Explain your reasoning. Don't just **** out premises. Explain how you came to them. Green not caring about defense and just being allowed to do whatever on offense you don't think he can't average 25+ on a **** team when a less developed version of him averaged 22 ppg at age 20 on a bace team? If Jalen Green is top 10 all time in scoring average before age 22, then yes he was on trajectory to be able to put up 25+ ppg on a bad team easily or else there would be extremely rare anoint of 25+ ppg scorers
If I were a team that had neither and had to decide between the two to trade for, I’d trade for Book. But given our situation I stick with Green. (The devil you know kinda thing + not worth the hassle of reconfiguring and messing with a system that works well enough)
I don’t see a trade on our roster this year that works with Phoenix. FVV and Brooks are leaders. And we don’t really have the cap otherwise to my knowledge. Green Has steadily evolved overtime. Getting better at everything other than scoring efficiency. Who knows where he will be in two years?
I'm interested in vets like Brooks and VanVleet, who organize and facilitate and play roles that help our young guys do what they do best. I'm not interested in cashing out for a guy like Booker.
Book is a legitimate proven star player. Green while young has shown the abilities of a star but is incredibly inconsistent. We have literally seen Green like like this for stretches in the past only to revert back to his norm.
It feels so good seeing our 3+ year investment in Jalen Green finally starting to pan out. All along the eye test during his hot streaks told us that he had superstar potential. But every single year those streaks always seemed too little too late, March-April affairs after 4 months of ass. Now, however, at 22yrs of age (turning 23 in February), it's fair to take a look at Green's progression and compare him to some of the other name brand SG's around the league to get a sense of what his trajectory might be: Ja Morant (25yo): 22.3 career win shares, .120 career WS/48, 55.8% career TS, 31.8% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of .088->.074->.171->.148->.124->.128. 1.8 WS this year. It looks like his best year was his third year, and now he's settling into being a surprisingly underwhelming player. De'Aaron Fox (27yo): 33.1 career win shares, .095 career WS/48, 55.8% career TS, 33.3% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of -.01->.106->.118->.098->.058->.146->.117->.122. 3.5 WS this year. Playing on a bad team has hurt his winning contribution stats. His best year was 2yrs ago during the "light the beam" run where the Kings made the playoffs for the first time in forever. I do think that he would outperform Morant in a similar situation just because of Morant being more undersized and a worse outside shooter. Jamal Murray (27yo, 28 next month): 34.4 career win shares, .106 career WS/48, 56.3% career TS, 38.1% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of .037->.103->.100->.107->.129->.116->.156->.098. 2.5 WS this year. I think a lot of the Murray hype was built 2yrs ago during their playoff run to the championship, and that also happens to be his best performing regular season. This year Murray has deservedly taken more heat for underperforming, coming into camp out of shape following his max contract extension, etc etc. He can shoot it better than the previous guards, but probably a lot of his ability to contribute to winning is unable to be extricated from the fact that he's playing next to the best big man passer in history. Hell, look at what Westbrook is doing next to Jokic. Tyler Herro (25yo): 16.8 career win shares, .077 career WS/48, 56.7% career TS, 38.9% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of 0.050->0.048->0.084->.072->.068->.147. 4.2 WS this year. This year is by far his best shooting year, and you're seeing it in his winning stats. Probably a lot of the reason why his prior year winning stats were so low, however, is that a.) Miami couldn't play him that much due to his really bad defense; and b.) in the minutes he did get on the court, his bad defense actually did negatively impact Miami's ability to generate positive +/-'s. So underrated on offense, but overrated in terms of how awful his defense impacts his team. About appropriately rated in my mind, a ragdoll for Amen Thompson to point to every future meeting in their careers as the turning point when Amen took off for superstardom and Herro took off...into a still really good offensive player, but never really more than an average player at his position. Now let's really get to the hard to reach peaks: Devin Booker (28yo): 48.8 career win shares, .108 career WS/48, 58.0% career TS, 35.6% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of .043->.035->.063->.076->.143->.104->.156->.157->.181->.143. 3.7 WS this year. Phoenix fans had to really be patient with him as his entire rookie contract was not positive. But after those first four years he has really paid off for them, culminating in his best season, and the best season for anyone on this list, which happened last year (9.2 WS). But someone who started off as slow as he did should be even more reason for Green, as we'll see below. Anthony Edwards (23yo): 19.7 career win shares, .080 career WS/48, 56.0% career TS, 36.4% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of .017->.084->.064->.130->.107. 3.3 WS this year. Even though Booker has better stats, you have to try to compare Edwards first 4+ years to the first 4+ years of everyone else on this list. When you do that you realize that he's got far and away the best career trajectory, and that fans' comparisons of Jalen Green to him (at least I know I kept trying to do this) because they were highly drafted SG's one year apart has maybe been one of the more damaging things to Green's image. It's clear to me that Edwards is on a separate plane from everyone on this list save Booker, and that it's unfair for us to expect Green to live up to this career arc. So now we get to our hometown boy: Jalen Green (22yo): 8.8 career win shares, .049 career WS/48, 54.5% career TS, 34.0% career 3pt%, WS/48 progression of .015->.034->.056->.121. 3.2 WS this year. At first glance it's underwhelming, but again you have to take career trajectory into account. SG's take a long time to develop into contributors to winning, and when you get one that's perhaps one of the rarest commodities in the NBA to have. Comparing Green's first 3+ seasons to the first 3+ seasons of everyone else on the list, he clearly belongs. With age we'll see all those efficiency stats continue to creep up, and as good a job as Stone has done at asset accumulation we project that the Rockets will continue to win at a high clip for at least the next four years, while we have the best of our young highly drafted players locked down on their second contracts. If Jalen Green can keep up the 43/35/88 splits that he's been doing for us so far this year--much less the 52/48/94 splits that he's been putting up for his 7 games in January--then we've got a player who at his plateau phase should be at least above the first four players on this list, perhaps still below the last two. Where he is in his career though, you can't rule out a continued growth into that Booker / Ant realm just yet, either. Good times to be a Rockets fan.
Depends on what Phoenix is including in addition to Booker. Green’s improvement on D has been a huge gamer changer. Now he’s a winning player and a certified star if he can shoot over league average.
If the suns were smart they'd trade Booker and Durant for whatever assets and picks they can get and never look back. Because of his age and how strapped they are they aren't doing much to change their fortunes. I'd actually be more interested in trading for Durant depending on cost, you get him for this playoff run and next year and if say all we give up is Tari/Cam picks and I guess Brooks going out for contract matching I'd take that. Instantly makes us better a lot better and I think would put us at true contending status for this year and next...pending his health. Not saying I'd be full on board with it but I'd be more interested in Durant because we shouldn't have to gut our core for him and PHX should be happy with say a prospect like Cam, picks, and whatever else is thrown in there because I doubt they get much else from Durant. Kevin is also a winner and a guy like Jabari could learn a lot from him after his year and a half rental. I'm not even sure about Booker, I think he would not be compatible with Ime tbh.
I do like the looks of Jalen this year that he is not a spring chicken anymore. He was blazingly fast but played like headless chicken prior years, now he is in more control
Letting Green go would be a mistake. He’s proven he can be the scorer the rockets need. Only 15 players in the history of the NBA have had more 20pt games before the age of 23. In other words it’s not expected a 22 year old will put up 20 points a night consistently. I understand he has his ups and downs in past years and it’s frustrating but for all those Devin Booker fans take a look at his 2017-18 game logs and you’ll see the same inconsistent scoring game to game. It wasn’t until Booker’s 4th year that he became consistent. Kobe, Harden, etc all struggled in their early years to be consistent. Green has the potential to be the next superstar SG, we’ve gone through the growing pains and now is the time to let him and this team grow and compete for the next decade.
