Lol that's still not "bust" lol. That's just "expected" for a player his age with his experience on the road. It's bad ya but bust is what players like Bennet was doing where it was a miracle if he got 10 pts.
I wouldn’t say it’s “expected”, he was 52 TS% on the road as a rookie. I think the expectation in year two would be at the least maintaining or improving. Still time. If Jalen were 19 a game on 49 TS% as his season average in all games of his second season, the analysis would be his potential to be a bust had risen significantly.
Out of curiosity, I looked at Harden's home/road splits in his 2nd season. The disparity between home and road games is clear, but not as big as Green's disparity. Although it's interesting to see the free throw trends exist here as well (likely from crowd pressure). Green's home games are actually better than Harden's home court stats in his 2nd season. Green scores more points more efficiently, isn't coming off the bench, and is often the opposing team's defensive focus. However, Green's road games are significantly worse than Harden's road games. Although there is case to be made that Green can't take a step back and play passively, letting two all-star ball handers/scorers take over (Westbrook and Durant) when he isn't playing well. Harden was also 21 in his 2nd year, so Green is still comparatively younger and less physically developed. However, Harden is an efficiency freak in general, so I don't expect many good scorers in NBA history to ever match his scoring output and efficiency, at least in the regular season. It's only 1/4 into the season, so sample sizes are still quite small. The Rockets have a long home stand so if homecourt Green is a real thing then we should expect a streak of good games from him.
I'm not really sure there's much to read into this. Our schedule has been really weird to start the season, with strings of road games in a row. With someone as streaky as Jalen, it's incredible easy for him to get into a shooting slumps on consecutive games. It just happens we played mostly road games to begin the season
I know a lot of the less nerdy folks may not have a good idea of what 49% ts means so here are some examples of 19 points on 49% ts, just to give some context. 7/18 shooting, 2/7 from 3, 3/3 on free throws is 49.2% 8/19 shooting, 2/6 from 3, 1/1 on free throws is 48.9% 6/15 shooting, 1/5 from 3, 6/10 free throws is 49.0% Anyway, if this was your average game that would probably be an indicator that your team should stop giving you the ball so much, it’s not good. Unless you’re trying to lose.
I am not really surprised that there is a difference in splits. Green has been inconsistent, and that will happen with a young player that is so dependent on his shot. It will even out over time. He is progressing well overall. I am more concerned with watching his ability to improve getting to the line, creating for others and defensively. He has improved to some degree in these areas so far this season.
