There's a possibility he might have to get down to the point where he's fighting for a rotation spot, maybe even a roster spot, before he gets humble enough to accept a bench role and work his way back up to being a 6th man. That probably wouldn't be with the Rockets, though. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but the trajectory he's on, IMO, is that of a typical high-lottery bust who has to prove he deserves NBA minutes.
It’s definitely a possibility. I think it will depend a lot on where he gets traded to. I don’t see many busts making a case to start and - while carrying disappointing averages - peaking as high as anyone in their peer group. I don’t see that as a bust. For me a bust is someone who by year 3 has absolutely no case for starting on an NBA team that’s not tanking. A bust is a bust, they’re not looking like elite scorers 10-15% of the time while making defensive strides imo.
That’s ok, Kobe didn’t look like the next Kobe at this age either. In fact Kobe couldn’t earn a starting role for years and was only trusted with 10-12 shots off the bench and still not being much more efficient than current Green, didn’t show winning mentality, was more flash than substance, sucked at defense, very selfish. If 2nd year Kobe took 17-20 shots a game it would have been so so ugly too. I thought Kobe’s scoring prowess was reachable because he was actually not that efficient compared to all time greats. That’s looking out of reach now so I’ve adjusted my expectations there. The Kobe comparison is also common just because they were both flashy high schoolers who didn’t deserve to start their first two seasons. It’s hard to find other comps because Green would be much more developed if he had gone to college or Europe and same can be said for the other two. Kobe and T-Mac struggled their first two seasons because they lacked fundamentals and didn’t go to college/proleagues so it’s the closest comp you’ll find. Adjust downwards from it. I look at it as Kobe minus the elite work ethic basically. Or T-Mac minus the court vision. What Green ultimately needs - like Kobe - is not a disciplinarian rather he needs a zen master to fundamentally shift some of his mindset from inside the mind. For the time being though, it’s good that he gets to experience a hard nosed coach like Udoka. Hope we just see the guy grow to be honest. Not let these shot selection and shot mechanics issues get stagnant. Would be the best outcome for us.
Kobe was 3rd team all nba in his third season. I really think these comparisons are unfair to Jalen at this point. He’s not Kobe and he’s not gonna be Kobe. All posters considering making Kobe comparisons to Jalen should immediately cease and desist. I’m begging you all to just stop even mentioning the name Kobe in threads about Jalen. For the love of all that’s good and holy, let’s please stop. I promise great blessings and great esteem for all posters who, going forward, when they start to post some comparison of Jalen Green to Kobe freaking Bryant, reconsider and choose to abstain from such behavior.
I agree. Kobe became Kobe because of his work ethic. I don't know much about Green off the court but seeing as how his shot is still erratic game to game I don't think he practices it as much as say Can Whitmore. Whitmore entered from college shooting 34% and then bumped it to 39% in the NBA. Green entered the NBA shooting 38% from 3 and his % just seems to tank every year.
Right and I’m sure everyone on this board would have been really optimistic that a guy who couldn’t get off the bench his first two seasons and shot roughly the same efficiency as Jalen in half the attempts would just suddenly become an all nba player. If you were following at the time, you would remember that aside from ESPN people were laughing at the notion that this guy would be the new face of the league ala MJ. Two notes: - I very specifically said to adjust downwards from Kobe. By definition, that’s not Kobe. - I’m confident Jalen’s career would be very different right now if he were coached his first two seasons by Udoka or on a team like Kobe’s lakers. That was a win-seeking environment with experienced coaches and high level vets. He had to earn everything. I think that if Kobe were a Rocket his first two seasons would have also been 15-20 shots on terrible efficiency, not a lot of assists, would have ended with whatever record Stone wanted to get. At most he would have asked out. These are high schoolers, they’re not MJ. - It’s going to be really difficult to expect a rockets board to be devoid of optimistic projections of the players on their favorite team. Same for pessimistic views. I totally think he’ll have a career with similar scoring volume/efficiency to Kobe (before adjusting for how much easier it is to score now) if he stays with good coaching. Sorry not sorry. That’s my favorite player on the team at the moment. I don’t have any trouble supporting all our players and everyone else’s favorite players too.
The Kelly Iko piece kinda summed it up in the words of Udoka. Jalen pretty much had the biggest learning curve coming into this season. He had bad leaders and bad developmental coaching. He processes the game slow so it take him longer unfortunately to figure things out. Jalen will be aight eventually. He reminds me Malik monk trajectory. My friend who a hornets fan made that comparison to me. He said monk was similar to jalen. Jsut never could out it together . You knew he had the physical tool but he was also a low iq player. That game when Michael Jordan was smacking his head at the end of the game for his low iq play summed up his play in Charlotte. He had to take a minimum prove it contract with La and he finally figured it out, but that took 5 years.
The reports coming out was that he was a workaholic who lived/breathed basketball. What actually happened was his agents planted a lot of myths about his love for the game and fooled the Rockets into thinking they were getting the next generational SG. Though reports out of Detroit was that his workout blew away Cade's. Jalen and Kuminga are the reason Buzelis/Holland are towards the end of the lottery on most mock drafts right now.
More accurately I’m using Kobe as a barometer on offense. There’s no point being a fan of anything in life if you’re not optimistic about it.
I was literally voted most optimistic in high school. I’m all about optimism. I don’t see it as being pessimistic because I don’t think there’s any valid comparison between Jalen Green and Kobe Bryant. Most of my favorite players of all time were nowhere in the same vicinity of Kobe Bryant. I don’t need to pretend they’re that to love and root for them.
Optimism is one thing, wild delusions are another. Comparing a guy who in 3 years has never been a starting caliber player to a HOFer is wild delusion. That said, it was really nice seeing him hit some shots last night. If he could do that over the course of a season, he'd be a starting caliber player.
I think we’re really talking about two different things. You’re thinking what’s being said is Jalen could be Kobe and I’m not even arguing back about that. I’m just saying it’s very possible Jalen can achieve seasons of 25 points on 19.5 shots + 4.1 assists i.e. Kobe’s career averages on offense. There are lots of players who have had seasons like that since Kobe. I think it’s also important to note I’m not a big fan of Kobe, I don’t consider him even top 15 all time, I think a lot of his career was thanks to marketing.
the last month he's playing like we all thought he would coming into the season. I wanted to see 24-5-4 on better efficiency. It's taken a while but maybe we've finally turned a corner. Let's go Jalen!
This is misleading. The league has gotten infinitely more efficient since Kobe’s first two years. Year 1 Kobe was 54.4 TS% when league average was 53.6 TS% Year 2 Kobe was 54.8 TS% when league average was 52.4 TS% Both years above the league average. Jalen has been well below league average so far in his career.
With jalen it is going to come down to whether he matures and becomes a decision maker, he improves his shot, and he learns to finish at the rim(I think there is improvement here too). It is 'anything can happen jalen' now in my opinion and he is showing some sort of progress. At least I can see that he is trying and wants to be successful. His median outcome is much lower than initial draft position but it is what it is. That will only be a problem if he still thinks he should be treated as a number 2 pick. He still has this KPJ style, 'I made two shots, so I can shoot the next two no matter how bad the shots are' mentality. Or he still does 'I decided to go to the rim, oh i see 3 players there but whatever, I made my decision.' but there is light for change here. Last night I saw him move the ball better. On one instance he received a pass from a double alpi and passed to Amen without thinking for an easy dunk. This is not the jalen from last year. He is more engaged, learning to see the field better. He could still end up as a 6th man, especially if his shot doesn't come along, but I don't see any reason not to keep him and see what the results are.
