Hey! You know when Jalen was awful on 4/9/25, that wasn't his fault. It was Ime and spacing, etc. Hey! You know when Jalen was awful on 4/11/25, that wasn't his fault. It was Ime and spacing, etc. Hey! You know when Jalen was awful on 4/13/25, that wasn't his fault. It was Ime and spacing, etc. Hey! You know when Jalen was awful on 4/20/25, that wasn't his fault. It was Ime and spacing, etc.
Missing an open shot is standard, Curry missed 2 tonight. If you're coming into the game thinking every player makes every open shots, then you must not watch basketball. THREE PLAYERS at ALL THREE PERIMETER POSITIONS went 11 of 43. That's systemic. Every single perimeter player struggled to get the the rim as much as they have this season. Jalen's not going anywhere, tough luck.
That's the thing. Besides his basketball skills, I really don't think his mentality is capable of being a franchise player.
The starters had about 2 weeks off and it showed. When you have inconsistent shooters to begin with, but the coach insists on keeping the bricklaying guards in the game (FVV needs a re-structured contract with more of a backup role or needs to go out as an expiring contract in whatever megatrade I can't conjure right now), hoping that if you give coffee to a drunk he'll suddenly be sober, well........ My former coworker texted me and said he put $50 on the Rockets last night. I could have told him (a) betting sports is stupid and (b) the Rockets have been off for two weeks, practically, so you just lost money.
Jalen and Fred You can win with two guys taking 40% of the teams total shots while shooting at 20% efficiency. You just can’t. Blew a great Sengun game, if it wasn’t for him we don’t crack 75 points
Well I would frame this better: This first game's loss is helping to answer the question that Stone and Fertitta were wanting to get answered about the viability of Jalen, Sengun, and co. to be cornerstones of a perennial contender. I would say Jalen helped answer a question more than anything. They've got 3 more games to make that answer more or less definitive so we'll see. .... I will say though that there are young players who in their first big playoff run get humbled, and that really defines how hard they work to improve from that point on and become champs from that point on. I know he went to the finals, but the best example is Shaq getting owned by Hakeem, and that humbling experience really being what shaped him moving forward. There's a chance Jalen, Sengun, and Amen getting owned by Steph, and Jimmy Butler kick starts a new level of seriousness, and work effort from these guys that makes them achieve greatness in the future..... But should Stone bank on that??... hell no. Still 3 more games, but I think we are likely to see a pretty definitive answer to the question more than anything. Jalen probably is not the guy, but could still be a really good support 3rd guy type of option moving forward for us, or another team. He's not reliable though in the half-court crunch time playoff setting, and probably never will be.
Jalen and Fred were a combined 7-34. That's the game. Amen played probably the worst game I've seen him play all year, but at least he was still 4-9. Fred took two more shots than Sengun, when Sengun was clearly the hot hand. It's just nuts. Hope these guys rebound in the next game, but if not, we're learning what the front office needs to do this offseason. Find a way to strengthen our backcourt. And I doubt that's through the draft.
The issue isn't exactly Jalen Green, but rather the Rockets belief that Jalen Green can improve to the point where he can be the top perimeter scorer on a contending team. Or at least they were gambling that Jalen can be that guy. It's why they didn't bother trading for Jimmy or KD or Fox, and let Jalen perform a smaller role for now to bring him along more slowly. I didn't agree with the decision then, and I know it was an unpopular opinion at the time since people don't want changes to the team that was winning in the regular season. Anyways, for better or worse, Rafael Stone wanted to see if this current team will sink or swim. And at least through game 1, they are definitely sinking. And should they end up losing this series to an old, on their last legs Warriors team, it will be interesting if they want to roll it back and hope the youngsters improve enough next year. Or if they want to actually get someone who's known to be good.
When Jalen has a bad game: Jaters: “Told you so.” When Jalen strings multiple good games together: Jaters: … (silent but thinks to himself/herself: maybe give him a chance) —— Conclusion: frontrunners gonna be frontrunners
While I do believe Jalen played horribly he wasn’t alone in his crappy play the “veteran leader” who is being paid like a star played just as bad if not worse. Jalen can at least somewhat fall back on it’s his first playoff game ever. What’s Fred’s excuse? Equal blame between those 2 with a dose of Ime being stubborn in his rotation and not riding who was playing better there in the 4th.
If you are actually a Rockets fan who watches actual Rockets games, you'd know he has way more stinkers and ho-hum games than you're implying here. And also, if fans of a sports team want to watch that team win and dislike players preventing said team win are "frontrunners," then I'm guessing 99% of sports fans are frontrunners. The last 1% either are sickos who like losing, or they relatives of players themselves.
The problem is folks only look at 1 player to blame - it was a team loss Amen was missing bunnies and FTs and throwing the ball to GS JG was driving to avoid contact vs go through it FVV was being selfish and building a brick house Alpi was scoring but also turning it over (5) and being late to rotate on weak side Bari while shooting well, missed 4 chances at shots cause he had 4 TOs We are supposed to be able to depend on DB and Tari to keep Butler in check and they failed We can let Steph go off but we can’t let both Steph and Butler go off
Jalen fans say he's the best player but shouldn't be expected to shoulder the offensive load in the same breath. This series is a huge measuring point in his career, like it or not. Onwards and upwards.
Whether acknowledged or not there is still a confidence factor in high stakes situations, even for professionals. I think the moment got to some of the young guys to start and the unusually long bench for Jalen between 1st and 2nd quarter took his confidence/focus. I was surprised by the slow reaction time to adjusting some of the lineups that weren’t working well. All things considered, I’m not worried and believe we will bounce back offensively.
Theoretically every loss is a team loss, I am sure we all know that. What I am doing here is just pointing out that Jalen is the weakest link in this game, over Ime, over FVV. You can't solve all the problems at once but I do believe swap Jalen with a competent perimeter penetrator is the easiest and fastest way to be a contender.
Then thank goodness I know (more than you do) how many games I saw. Okay then. Whenever the team loses, haters and frontrunners unite! in their little corner to unleash their unconsutrctive complaining. Also, for good measure, please do me a favor and make suggestions to the front office about how to construct a team that will win every game or almost every game. I choose to use the "ignore" button.
He wasn’t the weakest link, FVV was the weakest link or you could say Amen because he missed 4 FTs 2 dunks 2 layups had 2 TOs and couldn’t attack the rim / baseline run with GS having the paint packed JG was playing exactly how he was supposed to play when we were up before he sit (his normal rest time ) Ime stubborn tail waited til we were down 10 before putting him back in - JG then started pressing where to start the game he was playing loose and letting the game come to him I would be more pissed at JG if he wasn’t attacking the rim and went 0-10 from 3 … that means he was settling … he wasn’t If you expect JG to go off vs a set GS defense .. your expectations are way too high - unlike Harden he has no floater, and no lob threat …so either his jumper got to fall or he got to finish tough layups in a packed paint
If you watch a lot of Rockets games and came to the conclusion that every Rockets fan who isn't high on Jalen must be due knee-jerk reaction from a single bad game here and there, then you clearly are smoking way better stuff than I have ever had in my life.
Regarding who is the weakest link we sure can have different opnions but you are wrong on some facts of this game: Ime did not put him inside when we were down by 10. Ime rested him when there was 3 mins left in the 1st quarter and put him in when there was 6 mins 40 secs left in the 2nd quarter. We were down by 6 at the time he subs in... and we even closed it to a 4 points gap when there was 4 miuntes left in the 2nd quarter. I listed his performance in the 2nd quarter, and I still stick to my conclusion that he is the main reason we started collapsing towards half-time break. I didn't expect JG to deliever a good game against GS defense, I just hope he can be at least not this inefficient. As you pointed out "unlike Harden he has no floater, and no lob threat", this is exactly what I am frustrating the most after four years. I don't see much developments on his offense arsenal. That's why I keep saying his improvements are way too slow.
