Who are some inexpensive Jalen Green replacements that can be had?

Yes

 

Just having another semi-decent shooting guard option off the bench to suppliment Green would help.
Can Cam be that guy?

 

No.

 

I agree to an extent, but if Grimes wants his choice... I think the Houston native wants to come home.

That being said, I think Ime has a man crush on Villain

 

He's a restricted free agent so it's ultimately Philly's call.

 

I would try to add these 3 players to this team

Giannis/Jayden Ivey/ Ty Jerome.

I would give up any player currently on the Rockets not named Thompson to add these 3 players and I love Sengun.

 

I like Grimes, and he had that crazy game against us last year.

Here are the 20254-25 regular season 3pt shooting percentages for Dillon Brooks and Grimes. Guess which is which:
.397
.373

 

You 're using Grimes numbers from his 28 games in Philly. He shot .385 for the entire season.

Now do efficiency

Grimes .595
Brooks .555

 

Would Giannis and Lavine be feasible if you let go of both Sengun and Green (along with other picks and players)? If Giannis came to Houston they’d need more shooters like Lavine on the floor.

 

At the price we are paying for Jalen, I don't see a better option. He's on a good contract. At least in terms of a scoring option with reliable defense. You'll be paying a TON more for elite production or getting a lesser player from a slightly lower price. Trading him only makes sense as part of a bigger package. Trading him for just a different scoring option doesn't make sense.

 

I want to drop a new name on the board- Christian Braun. I think he's a huge Jalen Green upgrade on a rookie contract. He'd be expensive in terms of assets required and his extension will probably be near the max.

I would like Christian Braun to be our starting SG. I've watched 14 Nuggets playoff games this year and I couldn't be more impressed with him. He is vastly superior to Jalen defensively. He's almost as athletic but stronger and plays smarter.

His 3-point shooting for the season was 39.7.%. His true shooting is 66.5 which is elite. He drives to the rim more often than Jalen and is more effective finishing at the rim He's also more efficient from 3-10 feet than Jalen. Also more efficient in mid-range. Similar to Jalen, he's a blur in transition.

I understand he is the 4th or 5th option of offense for the Nuggets and that skews things. However, he handled the ball a decent bit in the playoffs and I think his handles are pretty solid.

I would trade Cam Whitmore, the 10th pick in the 2025 draft and another prime pick (maybe 2027 Phoenix) for Christian Braun. He would upgrade our shooting, efficiency and defense. He's also just turned 24 so he's likely to get better. I don't know if the Nuggets would accept this deal. They might want to try the same starting lineup again in 25/26. Once he gets his extension though, their starting 5 will be absurdly expensive.

If we did trade for Braun, my follow-up trade to re-balance the roster would be in July. I'd trade Jalen to Brooklyn. I would also relinquish the 2027 swap rights we have with them. I'd want Cam Johnson back. Cam Johnson is just better than Jalen. Another elite shooter. Will also be making $13 million less this next year than Jalen.

Starting lineup would be FVV, Braun, Amen, Cam Johnson and Sengun. We'd have two elite shooters with Alpi and Amen. Cam Johnson can do more with the ball than Dillon. This is a better starting lineup offensively than we had this past year. The spacing would be much better. I think the defense would be roughly comparable.

Bench would still be elite- Dillon, Jabari and Tari. Jabari would get some minutes at the 5. Amen would get some minutes at the 2.

Reed or Holiday as the backup point depending on how much Reed improves.

Braun would get a big contract extension but we would save some money for the future with Jalen for Cam Johnson trade.

That's a top-3 roster in the NBA for next season with plenty of room for growth.

This solves a lot of problems. You're welcome, Rafael Stone.

 

We need more shooters even if Giannis doesn’t come here. Thats my biggest issue with a Giannis trade: we give up all these assets for an undeniably great player, yet we still have the same deficiencies. Why not address the shooting at a lower cost and see how the team fares before completely transforming the team and using all of our draft capital on Giannis?

I’d like to see something like something like Jalen+Landale+FRP+some seconds for Collin Sexton+John Collins. While Sexton may not be seen as a better player than Green he addresses the shooting and efficiency that this team needs. Collins is clearly an upgrade over Jabari at this point. You put him in and his higher usage % replaces the completely unaggressive JSJ, as well as siphoning off some of Dillon’s usage % and this team will look much better.

Ime will have some decisions to make on the starting lineup, but I’d see it as:

FVV
Sexton
Amen
Collins
Sengun

Bench:
Reed
Cam
Brooks
Jabari
Adams

 

In retrospect, I'm glad we haven't used any assets yet.
I still think Booker should be our target.
Ballhandler, closer, shooter....
FVV + all PHX assets

Sign Brogdon

And, procure a cheap shotblocker / rebounder.

We start the season with...

Booker/Reed
Green/Brogdon
Amen/Tari
Jabari
Sengun

Cam is there to play or be in a deal.

Now, I'm ready to move off Green and other assets if necessary, but considering it's the regular season...let that ferment. (JG will play even more value back)

Let Giannis go!

 

Cam isn't there to play. He's awful. If we're moving on from Green we certainly don't want Cam as a replacement

 

Yeah, Eli Witus saved Stone's a$$ with the Sengun pick

 

100% agree

 

I keep looking but I'm actually not that sure there are any "affordable" upgrades to Jalen. As inconsistent as he is, nobody else seems to be putting up his numbers on a much cheaper contract. We may actually have to look at something more lateral/an increase in cost in order to swap inconsistency with huge games to consistency with no huge games.

 

Raw numbers are a result of volume so you might as well ignore them.

Give most of the SG's in the league the same volume as Green and they produce more... hell give Cam Whitmore that volume and he produces more.

 

I think the numbers work if you’re also sending out Brooks and resigning FVV at $20m.

FVV/Reed
Lavine/Cam
Amen/Tari
Giannis
Bari/Adams