How bout we break it down to grading individual parts of his game ..... and not comparing him to anyone at all. Just his performance. Shooting - A++ He shot the lights out 50/50/90 is nuts. Rebounding a solid B. Pick and roll offense - I give him a D there. He was pretty bad , took poor angles to get around picks , made poor decisions with the ball. Attacking the double team - a C at best , he had multiple turnovers against double teams , often before getting into the offense. Made some very poor passes out of those double teams that led directly to buckets for the opponent. Individual defense - I give him a C here. He gave a lot of effort but wasn't terribly effective. Team defense - I give him a D. He looked lost more often than not ..... but so did the whole team for the most part. You can add that up however you want ....
I understand what you are saying about him having a more "off ball" role. The ball handling wouldn't come into play as much if that were the case, and maybe that's how things will start. I disagree though about his expectations as a player. He has been touted as a guy with the potential to have elite driving and finishing ability, not as a guy who moves off the ball and shoots on the catch. I am expecting him to be able to handle the ball and facilitate at some point, and I think it would be a massive disappointment if he was nothing but a catch and shooter or slasher. If he ends up as Klay Thompson however, obviously that would be fantastic, but it would be a big divergence from how he has been scouted up to this point.
A+ Can drive and finish or draw the foul. Willing to use the pick to spring him open and not just teen wolf the ball to death. Cuts to the basket. Doesn't take a nap on defense. What's not to like. He was the best rookie out of there. I don't really care about the play making abilities for a shooting guard. That will be experimented with KPjr and Wall.
Yeah I think that way of grading him is accurate. Grading him based purely on his shot and his splits is fine if you are comparing him to other summer league guys, but I think we are grading him more in terms of what he needs to improve on to thrive in the NBA and reach his potential. Maybe we are jumping the gun a bit on that, but that is what the discussion is going to be moving forward, anyway.
I actually think Green is more of a taller, more athletic Steph Curry. He gets his shot off similarly, slashes and finishes like Curry can and is pretty wirey. He has better elevation on his shot though. Jalen is unique and that's why the comparisons are usually outlandish. Jordan, Kobe, Steph, Drexler, Dr. J. Thats what he looks like.
People just love giving all time great comps because they really want Green to be an all time great. Everybody does that for all draft picks. People don’t want Green to be LaVine or Kmart, they want Kobe and Jordan
Well just to say, having elevation on your jumpshot doesnt make you a better shooter. Durant,Harden,Curry, Lillard,Middleton...etc a lot of the high level shooters dont really need to get insane lift off the ground. I guess elevation matters more for like mid range twos?
Well yes and no. Its ok to give comps to All Stars and Superstars. Mobley was comped as a Bosh/AD hybrid. Two HoFers. Cade is comped as Luka or Lebron. Suggs was comped to Brandon Roy. Green doesn't look at all like Lavine or Beal. Like...not even close.
Yeah I totally agree, I think I worded my post wrong. What I meant was personally, I would wait until a few regular season games before I actually grade him. But if I were to give him a preliminary score, it would be an A but not A+ (yet).
I think LaVine is by far the best comp for Green. And yeah people do it for all the picks, every draft, every year, it's a bit silly because drafts usually produce a HOF once every 2 or 3 drafts.
I hear you. My grade was A but articles like this one have me changing my mind: [from Rockets wire] https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...pressive-poise-of-rockets-rookie-jalen-green/ In the article it reminds me that Green's stats are lowered as he did not play a full 3rd game. He only played 2.5 games: In first two games: 29.9 Mins 24.0 Pts 2.5 Ast 5.0 Rebs 51.7% (FG%) 50.0% (3P%) As the article states, it's how Jalen did it against double teams, bum rushing our PnR's, and high degree of difficulty in shots. A+ S. A. Smith saying exceptional things about Green. Preferring Green over Cade. https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...smith-prefers-jalen-green-to-cade-cunningham/ Said he looked for 3 things: 1) size/athleticism 2) ability to shoot 3's (important in today's NBA) 3) Confidence in self, ability to play within the scope of the team scheme. Getting points in the flow of the offense without forcing the issue. S A Smith is correct......and Green showed out in Spades. To give Green a B would mean giving others like Durant a C in summer league
No matter how Jalen’s career shakes out this will be one of threads you look back on a get a chuckle out of it. But in the moment it’s definitely fun to chop it up. I agree with his shooting being spectacular and needing to work on other areas of his game however being bad in some areas IMO doesn’t mean you aren’t an A player. All these guys have holes in their games, even the best players. Look at Giannis. He can come out and have a few turnovers, a couple bad fouls miss the whole goal on a few shots, look like a broken robot at the free throw line, but because he is so dominant in specific areas you’d say he had an overall A game. Even Curry…he may light the scoreboard up, shoot from half court and run the offense beautifully but no one says he’s not an A players because on the other end he’s getting blown by like he’s not even there and being hidden in their scheme with other players picking up the slack due to his limitations. Not saying Green is on that level….yet….but in just 24.1 minutes a game: 20.3 ppg 51.4% FG 52.6% 3P 92.9% FT and 70.7% true shooting percentage mixed in with good rebounding, ok assist numbers, and ok defense + winning both games he started and finished in against the #1 and #3 prospects is pretty much superstar status as far as summer league is concerned, so since summer league is what’s being graded that’s an easy A (no pun intended) for my vote.
I think it depends how you grade. You are grading him vs NBA standards which is a fair assesment. But if you are grading on a curve like I do then he is easily A+++ cuz he was one of the if not the best player in SL. No one dude really dominated SL both on offense and defense so far. What we've seen though is Green's ability to score really carries a team thru, they beat teams when he was on fire and not tweaking his hamstring. In the NBA if you can do one thing dominantly well it kinda supercedes everything else. What's Steph Curry's grade on rebounding, pnr def, individual defense and turnovers? Nobody really gives a F. I think Green is gonna be the same at least for his rookie year. He got drafted for his ability to score and not because of his defense. So taking pts away and limiting him to a B because he has subpar def isnt really fair, its like if you gave Mobley an F cuz he missed 70% of his shots and almost all his 3 balls.
