I guess what I had I mind was their slight physical frames, offensive vs defensive value, and projected offensive role (bursty scorer, though not much of a playmaker). Granted, I am sure there are many better comparisons as far as style of play.
Since 72/73 ROY Out of HS (2 players) Amar'e Stoudamire LeBron James Foreign League (3 players) Pau Gasol Doncic LeMelo Ball 1 year of college (7 players) Durant D-Rose Tyreke Evans Kyrie Irving Wiggins KAT Ben Simmons 2 years of college (9 players) Chris Webber Jason Kidd Iverson Elton Brand Mike Miller CP3 Blake Griffin MCW Ja Morant 3 years of college (12 players) Bob McAdoo (72/73) Alvan Adams (75/76) Adrian Dantley Larry Bird Buck Williams Terry Cummings Michael Jordan Shaq Vince Carter Steve Francis Emeka Okafor Dame 4 years of college (18 players) Ernie DiGregio (73/74) Jamal Wilkes Walter Davis Phil Ford Darrell Griffith Ralph Sampson Patrick Ewing Church Person Mark Jackson Mitch Richmond David Robinson Derrick Coleman Larry Johnson Grant Hill Damon Stoudamire Tim Duncan Brandon Roy Malcom Brogdon We have to wait and see how good Jalen Green will be at age 21.
No one from Ignite was ready for NBA, it's not Green-related. The bubble gleague was useless for a guy trying to catch up on not having enough training in HS. We received a raw almost-high school player. Judge him from that point onwards. What did he do, how did he respond to coaching and training? Is he improving? The Rockets have seen his tape, reports and workout. They picked him. He showed up for work. He's worked hard everyday so far. You want a solid indicator stat to make you feel better? Jalen - at his weight and height - is 1st (maybe 2nd now) in FTA per game for all rookies. Here are the 1st and 2nd placed rookie finishers in FTA for the past 4 years: DeAron Fox & Donovan Mitchell Trae Young & Luka Doncic Ja Morant & RJ Barrett Anthony Edwards & Lamelo Ball Per minute, per game and per possession, Green and Sengun are kicking ass at FTA's. Wagner is in the same range, Mobley almost there. That's something that translates and raises the floor of an entire career. This is not a Jamal Crawford or Jordan Clarkson stat.
Green's ftr is especially surprising knowing that he is no where close to the mass he's going to be when he's fully developed and filled out. Dude is going to be averaging 9fta per night in his prime.
The scoring greats all go to the line very often. He's already getting 4-5 with a lot of difficulty. I think he'll do 5+ FTA per game comfortably next season and tons of easy buckets in transition always. Once his 3's get closer to 36%, the basket will open up for him a lot more. Let's hope we see an uptick in the coming weeks.
The most recent 12 RotY winners: Tyreke Evans, Blake Griffin, Kyrie, Lillard, MCW, Wiggins, KAT, Brogdon, Simmons, Doncic, Morant, Lamelo. Great: Doncic, Morant and Lamelo are all studs. Good: Simmons, KAT, Kyrie and Lillard are statline darlings, but they all have huge flaws in their game, either on or off the court, or both. Brogdon seems really solid and improves every year, but he's only going to be the 2nd/3rd best player on a championship team. Still really good though. Wiggins is coming on strong, and like Brogdon, 2nd/3rd best on a championship team, at best. Meh: Griffin's best trait was his athleticism, and he's a complete scrub now. Terrible: Tyreke's rookie season was probably his best, out of the 11 he played before getting banned(!) by the NBA. MCW's rookie season was also his best - now, he's a complete scrub.
with the awful development strategy and plan from FO and coach, this team is in a stage of nightmare, worst in the history of this team.
I challenge the OP to go down the list of the top 75 players list and figure out how many of them actually got ROTY. I bet there are a lot.
Crawford is one of the best scorers and ball handlers ever. Right now Jalen looks like Jr Smith or Deaaron Fox
