Y’all need to relax a little bit on the Green hate. He’s not even my favorite rocket but gawd damn people. We put our franchise in the hands of a 23 year old James Harden who in his first finals appearance avg Game 1- 5pts Game 2 - 21pts Game 3 - 8pts Game 4 - 9pts Game 5 - 19pts Almost identical to Jalen while playing over 30 minutes a game. Unlike Harden though Jalen doesn’t have two HOF, MVP’s, and future scoring leader in KD and Westbrook. Jalen is trying to do this with FVV and other rookies and still became the 2nd seed We don’t need to be trading him for aging stars. Jalen is a great shooting guard to have whether he becomes 1st or 2nd option. Phase 2 is over. Get this kid, and the rest of a core, a real star to help take the pressure off them and start phase 3 I don’t see trading Jalen for Giannis in hopes of Reed or Cam stepping up. Will be hard to replace Jalen as SG. Fred & Amen don’t sound like a great backcourt either I think KD makes the most sense but a bigger star than Fred and let’s see how everyone responds after this experience
I feel like you're cherrypicking a little bit here to only refer to Harden's first Finals appearance. That was a rough series for him. He was much better than that the rest of the 2011-2012 playoffs leading up to the Finals, during which he never scored under 10 points in a game. Still, it's a fair point overall, it's just four games. Inexperienced player, very small sample size. You're right. My larger takeaway from this series is not "Jalen Green is a terrible player and we need to get rid of him immediately". It's more that what we saw in the regular season is just who he is right now, and possibly forever. An extremely streaky player who goes through stretches where he looks like an All-NBA player and stretches where he looks like he shouldn't even be in a playoff rotation.
I’m really not trying to cherry pick but I would probably equal his first finals like Jalen playing GS his first playoff series and fans expecting Jalen to be the GUY. It’s hard when you’re being mauled the whole game and nobody else is really stepping up. I imagine Harden had much less pressure on him having KD, Westbrook, and all those boys. That’s a little different than Fred, Dillon, Amen, and Sengun I just think he still has the chance to be a great #2 if anything while Amen or whoever can grow into a number #1. But don’t trade him for an aging star. His talent will be to hard to replace if Cam or Reed don’t work out. It’s time to really add onto the talent. Not gut it in hope a star can get us to a WCF for a couple years
Bad example. Harden flopped in the finals, but he clutched up to get them to the finals. They don’t get past the Spurs that year without him.
But that Harden struggle IS why OKC was open to trade Harden. If Harden didnt do that, he stays in OKC
Youre right I'll reserve judgement until June when we see Jalen in the Finals. Also that Harden fellow you're referring to was largely the reason the Thunder were in the Finals to begin with as he went off in the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs to help get them there.
Harden was the third option playing behind two future MVP’s but folded his first time in the spotlight much like Jalen his first time in the playoffs again Curry and Jimmy Butler I bet Jalen could clutch up a little more if he had another star talent on the team to help out. That’s the point I’m trying to make. We should be adding that big piece to push us into phase 3. Trading him for Giannis is such a gamble if we try a FVV/Amen backcourt
As why I keep calling Jalen an excellent #2 with #1 streaks in him. I’m not calling him Harden. Just showing that you don’t trade a player for dropping the ball in the spotlight their first time. Harden wasn’t even the #1 option still going 2-10 in the finals
I guess OKC traded away a decade long dynasty because he had a few bad games first time in the spotlight. Don’t wanna make that mistake
Jalen should never be in a sentence with Harden. You need to compare KPJ's 11 pts tonight to Jalen's performance.
Jalen Green does this **** in the regular season as well. We have enough of a sample size as to justify getting rid of him
Harden is way smarter than anything I've seen from Green so far. Not to discount Green's work ethic: He's put a lot more into improving his defense than Harden did. But Harden was quite shrewd at figuring out multiple ways to score on any play—including drawing fouls, which he did more effectively than just about anybody in the league—and forcing the defense to give him at least one of them. Maybe Jalen could bulk up a little. But at this point, I don't think his limits are physical. I think they're mental. And I'm not at all confident that more experience will overcome them.
Jalen pissed me off these last two games but to be honest Harden has folded many times in the Playoffs AND unlike Jalen he didn't play any defense. At least Jalen has been playing good defensively. Im mad because we had those two games if he had showed up. However I understand it's his first Playoff series and because of him we at least have one win.
If he improved over the past 2 yrs, he can improve more going forward. The last thing is a consistent shot and that comes over time. Dillon Brooks shot got much better since he's been here. He was horrible in Memphis. The shot is the last thing to develop, if you work at it.
Am I trippin or did Jalen not have multiple 15-20 games streaks playing great ball. I feel like he held it down when Fred was out. I understand him have a couple bad games in a row but I feel like this season was a little different. We were #2. I thought he had a great regular season lol
Jalen is still 23 projected to hit his stride in year 6-7 based on his profile and comps like Lavine, but that's an eternity for NBA fans. Of course he may not as well, so I can understand both viewpoints from fans. But we didn't max him out until he proves it which was fair for both sides.
