Amen is a Pg, no matter how much you guys discount it. He is our future superstar and can play anywhere on the court other than Center. We would be instantly better with him starting for either Jalen or Dillon. I vote Jalen for now, because Jalen coming off the bench against bench players might actually jump start his confidence.
These past couple of weeks have shown Rockets no longer need ride or die with Jalen thankfully. Amen and Tari have both improved enough on offense to take over some of the load. Jalen unfortunately still needs minutes cause Cam plays like an idiotic headless chicken, so there's really no one to give minutes to even if you bench Jalen. But right now the Rockets need to treat Jalen like the Lou Will of this team rather than Harden like they were before.
Yeah even then moving Jalen to the bench in this scenario is still putting your team in a position of need for what Jalen does do... about half of the time. As a burst scorer he's still a needed player in the rotation, and minutes wise I don't see a huge decline. As frustrating as Jalen, we just don't have many other "burst" scorers that can rattle off 8 points in a row, and help your team take that jump in a game. If Amen can develop offensively then maybe, but even then, you still need the bench depth. The question about Jalen really comes down to Cam, Reed, or another acquisition thats made to add a scoring threat. Otherwise I just don't see a huge need to move him now. We aren't as deep as you might think... especially with scoring threats.
Maybe in the way Pippen was eventually, but Amen is doing alot of things that you'd traditionally see a SF or PF player do... and I mean that in a complement. Right now I see him contributing in that Shawn Marion type of super valuable role because that's what he can do now to help his team win. I think we shouldn't discount how well he is now at doing that job just because we think there is upside to eventually be Pippen. Take the win now, embrace it, and let's let the offensive game that would be needed to play PG come if and when it's natural to develop.
Im not a shooting coach I just play one on CF It’s his balance. He posted videos of him working on pre-shot balancing. Square feet, jumping straight up. Was an obvious key in his offseason and he started so hot, I believe he was focusing on shooting from a sound base more. I think his release and arc are usually pretty decent but it’s the drifting that kills his aim. Trying to fadeaway, trying to run into a shot but not using his core strength to deaden the momentum before lifting off is what I see. It’s crazy difficult to hit running shots, particularly if they’re like 25 foot running shots. Tired legs aren’t helping but imo if he’s too tired to shoot 10 threes then run into the free throw area and get some more shots you have an easier time getting up correctly. 4/10 from the key is worth more than 1/9 from three. Jalen’s superstardom is just consistency away and right now it’s not consistent effort, it’s not consistent approach, it’s not a consistent shot selection. It’s consistent mechanics.
He can be a micro ball 5 for all I care as long as he brings it on the court. I don't care a flying rats ass about calling him a PG or not.
If Amen takes the starting spot at SG, that opens up minutes for Tari at SF. On burst scorers, you don't need them if you are just crushing the other team because you don't have a guy just making a lot of bad decisions and mssing shots. If Holiday takes the starting spot, he can be a burst scorer as well as he is much more likely to nail a couple fo 3s back to back. Green is starting for development purposes and the Rockets don't want to overreact to a cold streak and hurt his confidence going forward. Though, this cold streak feels worse than the normal 1-3 month Green cold streak. Granted, that could be that Sengun and FVV started cold this seasons even though they have been a little better, but still not hot lately. I think Green playing well would be a huge help for the Rockets. Having a good handle only helps if you can use it to either create baskets for yourself or others. He's not doing either well enough to justify playing as much as he does except in the eyes of people that view the handle skill as at least 10 times more important than everything else.
His shots aren't going in, and he's not compensating for that. I assume if he had decreased his shot attempts to only 3s and layups after the initial terrible shooting, Udoka would keep him in more. But he was just bombing like he was a star on a cold streak. Can't imagine any coach be too happy with that kind of attitude from a role player.
Maybe he knows something we do not know and he is about to get traded. Might as well jack up shots going out. It does not seem like Udoka is high on him anyways, only Stone but Stone does not have ultimate power no more.
Now that fanspo has updated Jalen's contract try and trade him. They always fail it saying since he signed the extension he is not tradeable this year, I believe they are in error about that, but the poison pill aspect of his contract make it almost impossible without it being a multiple team trade. Every team in the league is currently over the cap. Utah by only a little bit. His outgoing salary of 30M and incoming of 13m makes trading him extremely unlikely until this summer. We can still replace Jalen in the starting lineup or replace 10 mins or so of his minutes to someone already on the team or through trade. We have plenty of other assets to trade, if something that makes sense becomes available.
We were talking about Cam.....lelz....Cam, Jalen, Tate, maybe Adams are in the same boat. Bari would be the next in a year or so. Jalen should have gone to RFA and forced to do so.
I agree about his mechanics being the biggest problem for him but I don't think it's just his balance - he misses in different ways all the time. I think he directs the shot too much with his wrist in addition to the fadeaway he is doing. In short, he tries to make every shot a masterclass in using his athleticism to evade a defender and he ends up making it too hard on himself. He has to find ways to simplify everything - he relies on his athleticism to the point where that beautiful stepback move was lost because you only hit the shot 25% of the time. He has to get back to basics of what goes in the hoop because the highlight reel plays are sometimes the only shots that fall for him and that's telling him something that he isn't listening to. Every shot can't be an amazing highlight reel shot over 3 guys with a behind the back step back hesi dribble. It's all just too much....too much.
I don't believe in "bust scoring". If he scores 8 points real quick and then bricks the next 10 shots early in the shot clock, it kind of takes away from the value of the burst in the first place. I would rather the team work harder for quality shots than have Jalen taking open pull ups off of high screens with 18 seconds on the shot clock that the defense is BEGGING him to take.
Detroit taking Tate (with last of their cap space) and Landale (with room MLE) and Jeff Green, Jalen Green, and Holiday go to Phoenix works by the numbers for Booker. Only difficult part would be paying Detroit or other teams to use their MLEs if that ends up be lucrative market.
Let's face it, as of now it's looking like there are some people who owe others an apology when it comes to their hot takes about Jalen Green being a competent player.
