Using similar logic Mobley would have only brought defense to this team and would be one dimensional too. Their situations are not the same. To expect what Mobley is doing in CLE to be done HERE without the accompanying vets to hide his flaws and garner the attention is not realistic. Mobley is not an alpha he shines in the cleanup game and plays great team ball and Im sure it had something to do with him not even wanting to work out for this team prior to the draft. THIS team needed an alpha and someone who wasnt afraid of the spotlight and brought the STAR aspect to the game. To say that he's busted before he even begins is crazy. He could continue the very same poor play all year and it still wouldnt qualify him as a bust. Rookies take time to develop. When Green was hitting his 3's some of you guys were even saying that they wished that we would have drafted something better than a 3 point specialist! Its really a fascinating revolving door with this debate - doesnt seem that anything Green will be able to do will ever get some Rocket fans on his side. Credit though at least its based on basketball now and not on his looks, but that alone tells you where some perceptions are.
I completely understand what you mean, and I would agree that shooting guard wasn't especially a position of need on our team on draft night. However, my one rebuttal would be that I'm assuming the FO was planning on trading away EGO and might have overestimated KPJ's ability to pick up the point guard position quickly. I think Green would've started the season much stronger with more veterans around him and a system in place. Either way, here we are with Jalen Green, who in my eyes does have the potential to be a special player. Nothing to do now but to support him and our squad.
I think you are still in that fan mindset, and I am not faulting you. I think you have to move on from the star or bust situation, the average guy is turning out to be a good role player. I try to be in the mindset of someone who is not emotionally connected to the players. The Mobley vs Green vs Barnes vs Suggs situation is a thing of the past now. As such you have to ask yourself when or how is JG going to be considered a major asset or is at least not a negative asset for the 2nd overall Draft position. (immense trade and market value) - ) Reaching Allstar status or All NBA star status - ) Reaching perennial starter status averaging certain stats like 21-5-5 - ) Reaching Jamal Crawford 6th Man role - 17-4-4 shooting better than 34% from 3. I learn as I go along. (The 2nd and 3rd option seem to be more attainable at this point.) These are the type of expectations you have for your 2nd overall pick who plays a position which is not rare at all. He is rather a quiet guy who loves to dance and fool around with teammates, even more so than Harden who could back it up with dream stats. Being a star and being Alpha are 2 different things, CP3 is a natural born leader but there are better individual players than CP3, for example Booker, for example Harden, for example AD.
i really hope Green's been annoyed sitting on the bench whilst others beat him to ROY and comes back with a fire lit under him. Making all of the haters eat crow would be almost as sweet as just watching him ball out.
How can you be so certain that of the 3 options you mention that he will fall as one of the "worst" 2 so soon though? Plenty of players are late bloomers or AT THE VERY LEAST are given a full NBA season before the blame game begins - this fanbase gave this kid 18 games! LOL We were spoiled for too long in being perennial contenders with Harden that we forgot what a rebuild looks like. At pick #2 you most certainly want someone that is more than just a good role player. The NBA is a perimeter league now and finding the guys who are great in that aspect of the game is where your roll the dice - you reach contender status by taking risks not by playing it safe. You're berating a 19 year old for acting like a 19 year old and even myself who is in his mid 40s can give the kid a break in that regard - having a son in high school helps me I guess. Some guys are so out of touch by applying THEIR OWN experience as a youth and trying to force that on the kids of today - thats a losing battle. Then to compare him to James Harden in a slight of hand is just further proving my point. James Harden took a few years to reach his apex. Why do you expect Jalen Green to get there in 18 games?
I added that as we go along, we learn along the way hand in hand with the player's development. We learn more about him every year he is in the league. This franchise needed a cornerstone badly (thus the Urgency), and now we know it's probably Sengün rather sooner than later. Knowing this, and if you add any star player via draft or trade, that will actually benefit Green's development. This alleviates any extra pressure off Green to produce superstar numbers very early into his development. That actually plays into the hand of posters like yourself - to talk about other talented players and back off Green.
Sengun is a fine player but the BS about Green not being a cornerstone and Sengun is doesnt fly. Sengun does all the glue things at a high level, but he isnt a guy who can go win you a game. Not yet. Maybe not ever. This year started off as a bball philosophical nightmare for this team. Losing 17 in a row didnt help anyone. Suddenly the influence changes and all of a sudden EVERYONE is playing better and somehow that became the fault of Scoot and Jalen - who themselves where playing great prior to their injuries in the new approach, but that gets swept under the rug to keep lauding Sengun nonstop. Sengun had his best game of the year last night and we were down by 40 at times. Need to keep everything in perspective.
For anyone to claim Sengun isn’t capable of being the guy, but claiming Green can be. That’s some next level head in the sand stuff. Sengun was/is a literal MVP. Has proven he can be the guy in the league already when given minutes and has a huge upside. Green is all athlete, no skill right now. Yes he can turn into a great player but to assume he’s the only player on this team capable of eventually being the guy while ignoring Sengun is biased at best.
If you are trying to be truly objective then I think you should also consider that Green's foray into the G league was marred by Covid protocols that truncated the G league season down to 15 games (from 50ish) over a single month and 12 teams chose not to participate. The G-league obviously doesn't bring in the same volume of money that college sports do so while the college basketball season carried on to some extent, the league Green played in really didn't give him a lot of opportunity to develop like his peers who chose to play college basketball. I'm not going to put that on Green - he certainly couldn't have predicted a global pandemic let alone how it would have impacted college differently from the G league. ...which is just to say, I think it's worth considering that the reason Green doesn't look as great compared to his peers is that maybe he didn't get the development he was thinking he was going to get last year. Let's maybe give him a mulligan on being a little more raw compared to his peers and not overreact to him having to learn a lot of those fundamentals "on the fly" in the toughest league in the world. I don't think we are anywhere near counting him out of being an All NBA or All Star in the future...his development has just been delayed a bit.
The worst situation for the Front office is not knowing. (incl. not knowing ceilings and floors) Because at the end of the day you have to make tough decisions based on that knowledge. I think they have a clear plan or trajectory for things to happen.. I have no idea how they value Sengün and Green.
That is very tongue in cheek because Green was the one who actually went out on a limb and said he was readier than other rookies. I mean that is probably the dumbest thing to do if you cannot back it up, and it backfires on your IQ actually. I understand where he is coming from but that is way over the top. It will certainly stick with him. Folks do have a reason why they dislike Green, and I think that little stunt contributed to it. I find it actually very amusing that fans have to wipe his arse clean for the crap he pulled earlier. Begging to give him a chance. Of course I will in the end but I think he deserves the backlash. https://www.archysport.com/2021/07/jalen-green-im-the-best-player-in-the-draft-thats-for-sure-nba/
you raise a good point! Green talked a LOT of trash (most ready, snubbed @ #2, ROY), which I kinda liked in the summer: I don’t mind arrogance, if you can back it up. It is backfiring, though. It looks like he never thought it through, and whether or not he can back it up… Turns out it was just flippant, empty trash talk, which just adds to the disappointment
Form looks great on his step backs. But not form not always as smooth when receiving the pass. He almost always wants to dribble or turn his body first. Even when he gets a wide open look.
It will fade, breh, that is what I was getting at all along. He wanted to emulate Kobe's arrogance but lol Kobe wasn't that arrogant when he was a rookie, he was more innocent. You have to keep accumulating talent, that way everyone isn't focused on Green's performance alone. And life continues until he is ready. Now everything is either Sengün or Green, or Sengün vs Green.
Mobley's numbers and role would have been similar if not better. Green is not the alpha on this team yet. If anyone deserves alpha moniker right now, its Sengun. But I think Green breaks out with more reps with Sengun. Green is an excellent cutter and Sengun will make his cutters look great.
I'm loving the back and forth between the Sengun fans and JG fans but it feels like it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy to early to anoint either as the future alpha star of the team. Fun to watch how it unfolds though. Could be worse being in rebuild mode
