1. Kobe was never 17 in the league. 2. Sengun doesn't play against the same players that Green does. Green mostly plays against starters and plays a lot more minutes on a shitty team.
https://theathletic.com/2942788/202...rockets-jalen-green-hollingers-week-that-was/ Picked second in the 2021 draft, Houston’s rookie guard is a good example of how we have to chill a bit when sizing up rookie performance. Green is 19 years old and has obvious athleticism in his favor; he’s already thrown down a couple of ridiculous dunks this year. Boom! Vid With the Rockets not exactly in win-now mode, he’s getting plenty of minutes and shots … and plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. Not surprisingly, he’s still making quite a few of them. Through 10 games, Green has had some electrifying moments, including a 30-point outburst with eight made 3s in his third NBA game, against Boston, and a 24-point night versus the Lakers. Those highlights may have convinced you that Green is emerging quickly, but look at the wider body of work and it will provide some pause: He has a 7.4 PER and 46.5 true shooting percentage. This shouldn’t come as some huge shock; he had solid but hardly amazing stats in the G League a year ago, and this is a big step up. Also, most teenaged rookies, even highly drafted ones, take their lumps early. The only thing we’ve learned about Green so far is he won’t be an exception. Green is a fast-twitch athlete with quickness, speed and leaping ability, but his skill level still needs to catch up. He doesn’t read the game at a high level yet — again, he’s 19! — and his handle isn’t very advanced. This is one reason he didn’t play on the ball much even in the G League a year ago; his game is mostly straight lines, and his left hand can get loose even in those situations. Like this: Vid When he does get his dribble under control and get toward the rim, opponents have a lot of trouble handling him. I’m not just talking about transition dunks either. Those moments are still relatively rare, however. More important, the development of Green’s shot is going to be a major factor to pen the threat of his drives. He has the footwork to get into stepback 3s and the stride length and hops to get those shots off relatively easily, even against defenses that try to crowd him. The underlying issue is just how many of those shots he’ll make. I’ve heard a lot of bullishness about Green’s shooting potential, and that seemed to bear out when he made 8 of 10 against Boston. But watching him, I’m not so sure. He pulls the ball to the left side of his body to shoot it with his right hand and pushes it through his guide hand a bit. It’s not just the percentages on his limited number of 3s thus far; it’s that some of the misses are brutal. Like, we’re totally sure he can shoot? Vid Between the last G League season, this year’s preseason and the regular season, Green has made 57 of his 179 NBA or NBA-ish 3s; that’s 31.8 percent. In the same time period, he’s made a more encouraging 79.5 percent of his free throws. Again, the ability to create shots is just as important as the ability to make them, other things being equal. Even at a young age, Green has shown the ability to do that at a relatively high level; he’s taking 10.2 3-point attempts per 100 possessions this season. Nonetheless, the story for Green going forward is going to be about skill development, and that road isn’t always a straight line for players. Nobody in this draft class can match Green’s explosive athleticism, but he may not be a fully formed scoring weapon for a while. Tightening his handle and straightening out the kinks in his shot will take him from a high-flying curiosity to the elite scorer Houston hopes it drafted.
yup, when Mobley was 5 years old I signed up here with the hopes that one day he would play for the Rockets. I've waited this long...and I won't stop now. I hope you catch the sarcasm, because i laid it on pretty thick.
Did you somehow think what you wrote was too intelligent for people to catch the sarcasm? That says a lot more about YOUR level of "intelligence" than anybody else's. I'm sure the other Cavs fans would be very interested.
Love the post, but I hate people saying "in the G league" like it is something special - it is not, they don't play defense, they just jack up 3s, and there are little to no fundamentals taught. The G league is crap for comparison to the NBA other than the 3pt line is the same. DD
According to Hashtag Basketball, Green ranks 9th amongst rookies so far. Behind of course Mobley/Barnes/Giddey, but also behind Duarte, Wagner, etc.
G-league is crap but somehow Green is a more fundamentally sound passer than KPJ who's been in the NBA for 3 years.
The one thing Green is already good at is creating his own shot. Don't have to worry about that apsect. I think only once so far has his jump shot been blocked and that was a catch and shoot attempt and not an off the dribble attempt. He creates a lot of separation with his footwork and stride. Ray Allen once said fans really underrate how difficult it is to get a clean shot attempt up in the NBA and how people undervalue someone like AI as being a mere chucker. Even chucking ain't easy in the NBA.
Is the experiment over? Green isn't without other faults that he needs to work on, but this thread doesn't exist if he can just shoot. Lol... which is a big if at this point. But we're all ok with Green if he makes 1 more two and 1 more three a game(5 points). If he makes 2 more two's and 1 more three a game (7 points) we're ecstatic. That might seem like a crazy reach... EXCEPT... the shots are there, mostly wide open, or in makeable layup form. Maybe the 2 extra twos is too much. He's 2.7/6.3 on twos. 3.7/6.3 = 58%, and doable. He's 2/7 on threes. 3/7 = 42% which is excessive. He's not going to get there on an average basis now cause he's behind 9 games on it. But just for math sake.... that would pump his average to 18.6 ppg and he'd be incredibly efficient than. Again, he's NOT going to get there to end the year, cause it would require him to be CRAZY efficient over 10 game stretch then average out to still being pretty efficient. But if he work towards that, it will be a great sign towards next year, and then ultimately we are getting what we want anyway, another high pick.
Re the post above, if I could make 7 more points per game in the NBA, then I would probably earn 2million per year playing basketball rather than the zero I do now.
It’s not special but it’s also not as bad as you make it out to be. NCAA one and done era isn’t known for development.
