Don't know how high you value Reed Shepard but bringing up Ant Edwards against a claim in regards to Reed Sheppard having a higher ceiling than Jalen Green is crazy. There are levels to this. Jalen deserves criticism. He doesn't deserve the label of "star" yet. These things can all be true and claiming Sheppard has a higher ceiling than Green is unhinged.
This team actually has a lot of good play finishers. This team has a lack of EXPERIENCED and well conditioned shot creators. Sengun is the best out of a group of young dudes who need experience and conditioning under Ime's hard nose defensive system with high usage offense. Green is by far the best guard/wing shot creator on this team while also still being 22 and still finding a rhythm in a high effort hard nosed defensive system that is elite enough to be top of western conference standings. Has he underperformed? Yes. Is it to an absurd level where there is no daylight for potential llong term stardom on this team? No. When it comes to Cam and Jalen, I see those two as compatible as both can occupy different roles. Cam can be an elite play finisher for guys like Sengun, Green, potentially Amen etc. But the reality is the dude has near the worst ball handling skills out of the core 7 only ahead of Jabari and Tari. He very well might be the top play finisher on the team with his combo of brute strength, explosion and shooting though streaky so still tbd on that front.
I brought up Ant Edwards because you are saying that certain analysts have a hate fixation on players who are flashy, athletic, and don't behave like proper white culture in interviews. That's definitely ANT and I've never seen a hate fixation from any analysts on him. I agree some polarizing players like Melo and Westbrook can fall along the lines of how someone sees the world generally. Jalen probably falls into that too. I don't think the Reed has a higher ceiling than Jalen comment was that crazy. When "ceiling" is used in this context you should think of it as semi-reasonable ceiling. We had three plus seasons of Jalen getting big minutes and while I know you and Mathloom disagree a lot of people see his semi-reasonable ceiling as a better version of Jordan Clarkson/Jamal Crawford/etc. It really comes down to whether you believe one month of playing like an all NBA player should be the ceiling. Reed had crazy advanced stats at Kentucky and was coming off looking like the best player at summer league. Not just Vecenie but a lot of NBA analysts and supposedly their sources in the league were in a "Whoa, Reed could be really, really good" phase after that. Mark Price said Reed looked like a more athletic version of himself. I think that's higher than Jalen's semi-reasonable ceiling.
As a Space City Home Network subscriber, I feel obligated to call Cam out. I understand the frustration, but be professional. I pay for thoughtful, engaging post-game interviews. No pouting. No sulking. No terseness.
I agree with you on the second part of your post. Cam is a finisher. He moves well off ball and he's a great cutter. He still has a long way to go as a player, but even at this stage he's a 18+ ppg player if given proper minutes. A couple of threes, a couple of drives and 2-3 layups/dunks from cuts/transition per game, and thats 14-16 points right there. He can get that without much trouble consistently, if he keeps up his effort and his head straight. We're rolling with Fred this season, for better or worse, but I would be willing to give some time to a Jalen Cam Amen Bari Alpi lineup. I think that with more pace Jalen and Amen can be more effective playmakers.
You've said this many many times and while I don't disagree with the fact that he isn't going to be attacking set / half court defenses like Jalen , he doesn't have to. There are other ways to attack those set defenses and Cam can continue in his role as finisher of possessions - playing off of FVV & Sengun or whoever is at the point.
green absolutely has to. Unless you think Sengun and Fred are MVP level offensive playmakers. Sengun can't man an elite offense like Luka or Harden. He's not that level of young offensive talent that 22 year old Luka was. Green is needed. If he can't do it then we need to find someone who can.
1) I haven't watched every video of his either, I just searched Rockets on his channel and found those videos. 2) Alpi 60% on 8 attempts, Jalen 65% on 5 attempts, Amen 70% on 4 attempts (less than 5 feet) https://www.nba.com/stats/players/shooting?TeamID=1610612745&dir=D&sort=Less Than 5 ft. FG PCT 3) These comments preceded the extension so that's not really relevant. As far as him having to get to the line, yes me and you agree. Sam doesn't. Sam's thought is that Green's finishing is a dead end and if he can't improve his shooting he's finished. He never brings up that Green averaged 6+ FTA already in his career with 0 coaching and poor spacing when he was a less skilled offensive player. 4) I'm sorry it does this to you when people use less common words and write longer things than you. It's not more important or intelligent, it's just more descriptive, detailed and requires more thoughtfulness. You want to compare me being optimistic about my favorite player with Sam - an analyst allegedly - intentionally or unintentionally f*cking up an assessment? Happy to leave it at your accusation, I'm sure people will expect more from Sam than from me.
I have a feeling there are a lot of stat nerds who just don't want to lose credibility by admitting they don't watch and that deep down they believe they totally can deduce the performance from the stats and highlights.
Really? I personally haven’t seen anyone call out Jalen for being ghetto. In fact, he’s extremely polished with media. If anything analysts have treated him with white gloves. Zach Lowe, the ultimate white blog-boy, even had a whole feature praising him before last season… The one guy that is probably - I wouldn’t say criticized, but dismissed by the white blog-boys is D.Fox
Cam is frustrated and he has every right to be. Ime just doesn’t like him and is picking on him. Hope he does not break his confidence which it doesn’t seem like he could. He can be a black hole but he is unstoppable. What the Rockets need. Ime needs to understand how to foster this young man as a star. He could be the final piece. Cam has handled it better than most. He just doesn’t like the kid, he’s completely alienated him from the team. He’ll move on and the Rockets may never reach their full potential because of it. He and Sengun need to be the alphas.
Easy for you to say. He could very well be the best player on the team and can see it. You’d be frustrated to if you had all-star level talent but you career is being stifled before it began.
Cam Whitmore missed 30 straight 3 pointers in the beginning of the season. Cam Whitmore needs to be held accountable and realize he needs to pay attention on defense, not slowly jog back like he was doing in the beginning of the season.
I don't think Jalen is what others would call "ghetto" but I definitely don't think he's polished either. It's not as simple as "black/white" or "progressive/conservative" but there probably is some correlation in aggregate between how the average Jalen fan feels about certain things and how the average Jalen skeptic feels about certain things that are unrelated to basketball. Like I was saying, if it stemmed from a bias against a "flashy, athletic" archetype then ANT meets that archetype way more than Jalen. But guys like Vecenie, Russillo, etc. who are more skeptical of Jalen love ANT. There's more to it than that.
Really dumb take. Without Ime we wouldn’t be close to where we are at. Defense is ranked second in the league.
Cam Whitmore started 1-21 from three and then was banished to the G League. For each missed three, brick bros Fred and Jalen are rewarded with an additional 5 minutes of playing time. Brick Bros must be held accountable! These acts of terror will not stand!
Well they can dribble and play high effort defense for 30-40 minutes a game. Hence why you think they aren't held accountable. Jalen Green knows what accountability looks like with Ime. That's why he busts his ass off on defense now. Ime doesn't bench based on shooting splits. He benches if you haven't bought in to his defensive system.
10 pages for a snippet of a post game interview .... that didn't tell the entire story. (I haven't read beyond the 10th page yet .... so it may continue for another 10).
