Why do fans think they know more than the coach? The coach sees these guys every day. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that we do not see. Cam is only 20 years old and we have him under contract for two more years. I don’t have a problem with letting coach develop Cam the way he thinks is best. Ime has a record of success and the team has made tremendous progress. Sometimes we won’t understand some of the moves the coach makes, but that should be understandable because we don’t see everything he sees.
Ive been as critical of Jalen as anyone. He’s had more opportunities than any player I can remember. And this is honestly his first year where he’s actually starting to put everything together. But I have to give him credit, when things weren’t going his way, he played through adversity. Other than the unfortunate dust up with Roosh, Jalen never complained and continued to work hard. We saw the defensive progress in his first year with Ime and now we see more efficiency and consistency offensively. If he keeps playing well the rest of this season and the playoffs, he’s clearly a keeper. But that’s because we’ve seen real progress in almost every aspect of his game, and we’ve seen some mental toughness over adversity. Cam hasn’t shown any progress or mental toughness. And unfortunately life isn’t fair; he’s not gonna get the same unlimited opportunities Jalen got. He also wasn’t the #2 pick; he was a mid/late 1st rounder. So all I’m saying is, progress should be what we base decisions on when it come to player evaluation. Rookies take time; young rookies like Cam and Jalen take even more time. Cam had a good rookie yr but he hasn’t shown progress and if he won’t buy in to what Ime wants this makes the decision much easier for the organization. As you point out, we’ve got some tough consolidation decisions to make. Cam is certainly making those decisions easier with his attitude and playing like he did the other night.
I was one of the guys back then that wanted Rockets to select Cam at #4 because I really liked his talent, and also because I believed all his bad habits will be eventually erased under Ime's strict coaching. Now I'm shocked to find that those negative stuff is getting worse every day.
Definitely agree on Green and anyone could get in a dust up with Roosh, guy is very intense and feels himself a little too much and that’s an understatement. Guy speaks as if he invented basketball, not a fan. Anyway… Cam is a lost cause at this point, never seen a guy with that amount of talent just squander it like he does. He just doesn’t show anything that makes me believe he will ever sacrifice for his team, be totally with the guys through hard battles. He just shows you he’s all about him and I am not judging him as a human being, I’m sure there’s a reason he’s the way he is and it’s quite sad to see, but at the same time: man the **** up! You are getting paid to play sports, enjoy, take advantage of the opportuntiy to do well in life. Hope he turns it around, but I don’t see it happening here.
Cam is still hyper young. He's younger than Reed. I think he still has a lot of talent and ability but he is a far cry away from utilizing any of it. I'll give Jalen Green that at least. He was benched like crazy last year and still stuck it out and it has started to pay off a bit. I can't remember Jalen ever doing the sulking KPj thing that Cam did yesterday. Not sure where Ime is at with him at this point but might be better to find him a new home before he sinks his trade value any further. Him + Suns pick to move up for the Duke center might be something to look at.
I agree Amen is the only true sure thing star. Still questions about Jalen and Sengun. Assuming we don’t crater down the stretch I don’t see how anyone can disagree that Ime has been an incredible coach in his two seasons.
I am no longer concerned about this because Cam's upside isn't nearly as high as many here think. His very low bball IQ doesn't help either.
agreed about the Bball IQ, but I do buy Cam’s shooting long term despite the sophomore regression. I’m not sure he’ll keep his head on straight with Houston, but if not, he’ll get a chance somewhere else. I continue to believe he can be a 20 pt per game scorer in this league. But if he’s not gonna buy in I’m fine churning through; we’ve got a lot more draft picks
The Silas culture of coddling players vs Udoka holding each accountable is also very different so even top 3 picks will not have the same level of patience or entitlement. Udoka is equally demanding on Cam + Reed both, regardless of draft position. Same will happen to whoever Rockets draft in upcoming draft.
Not to mention Udoka said the Silas years are worthless experience. Not to mention that it clearly gave everyone bad habits. Let me know when Cam responds to Udoka with "Anything it takes to win" and he backs it up with hard work and mental resilience. Maybe then they'll be as "lucky" as Green. If Green had been developed like a Kobe where he came off the bench for 2 years and had to earn his minutes/shots, we wouldn't be waiting till year 4 for his rise. Would have happened end of year 2 or beginning of year 3. We know for a fact from his last 4 coaches, assistant coach and multiple players that he's a hard worker and coachable so the only logical possibility is that the work was misguided and the accountability was not there to help him navigate his development. Under the exact same coach with both of them being equally bad defenders to start last season, Jalen has climbed 250+ ranking spots (out of ~ 550) from among the worst defenders in the league to around average. Cam has been one of the worst defenders in the NBA for 1.5 years now. Is that because Jalen had Silas? lol I WISH Jalen Green was coached like Cam from his rookie season onwards. I would give anything to go back and have that. Who's the ONE GUY who came out of the Silas experience better? It's the one guy who came off the bench for most of Silas' tenure and then earned a starting spot towards the end - Alperen Sengun. It takes weeks and months to develop bad habits, longer than that to build good habits, while it it takes months and years to get rid of them. It's the sign of someone who has never developed another person to say that someone is lucky they were allowed to make whatever mistakes they want and run around like a headless chicken. With all due respect to Cam and his excellent talent which I still believe in, he has never in these past 1.5 years shown a shred of Jalen's mental strength and resilience. That's the only thing in his way.
If he's a 20 point scorer it's going to look like Antawn Jamison or something No passing, no defense Not exactly a high-impact-on-winning player
That said, Cam is still the youngest player on the Rockets and he struggled with maturity and attitude issues pre-draft which caused him to drop.
Cam played great tonight and just like I have been saying the more he plays, the more calm he becomes - doesn't force the action as much and is a high impact player. Double Double tonight for him. DD
