[Poll][Rockets Season 2023-24] Jalen Green Unleashed... Will He Rise...or Wilt....

I'm sure opposing fans love it that the Rockets have a mindless chucker who plays no defense....you will often hear applause from your enemies when you are shooting yourself in the foot.

 

I think he is playing very well tonight, but I think our coach need to give him more helps, he is fast and playing hard, but he is not Harden and able to create shots in bad situation when our PG playing like an ass.

 

He really needs to get in control when he gets in the painted area. He's stumbling more than last season. It's weird. First week rust hopefully.

 

He had a good game and looked more engaged on the defensive side of the ball. We were in the last 2 games primarily because Jalen was providing pretty good offense and, in this game, ok defense. You will always be negative on Jalen no matter if he continues to improve or not.

 

+/- remains a silly stat to go off of. He was decent but 21 points on 20 shots is still objectively average at best.

I did think his defense was better than usual. He made a few nice passes. Decent game for him, but his lack of finishing will always kill his efficiency and therefor his overall effectiveness.

 

The team functions much better when Jalen is on the floor than off. The drop-off in offense is noticeable. His defense vs Steph was pretty good and he still had some silly blocks at the rim but you can see how much he unlocks offensively. The second unit is the bigger issue. Not sure I'd trust Stone at this point but this team does need a Tyler Herro type off the bench that doesn't beat women.

 

They need a sixth man scorer. Buddy Heild is probably the realistic level of player we are looking for to be the primary scorer off the bench until Cam develops.

Also Green's finishing has been sporadic but a lot of it a combo of bad decision making and him just having the most amount of defense loaded up in his side. @MystikArkitect mentioned how the offense is far worse when he's on the bench and it's because of gravity and how defenses load up on his side. The fear of his ability to blow by defenders causes help defenders to try to block his driving lines. Makes it more difficult for Green than others. Hopefully he passes off more often and realizes he did his job by breaking down the defense and a simple pass off is enough to get the offense moving for a good shot.

 

Tari coming back will make the bench a whole lot better on both ends. We're currently missing our best bench player.

I wish Cam were getting at least 10 minutes or so to show what he can do. He might be the offensive sparkplug we need off the bench. If they're not going to play him they should send him to RGV, or package him in a trade to get somebody they will play.

 

There is no possible way Cam be a bigger non factor than Reggie Bullock so far. Unless Udoka thinks the kid is going to like commit 4 turnovers in a minute I just don't see why he isn't getting minutes over Bullock.

 

"Pretty good offense"

47.3% TS%

If you think that's "pretty good" I'm just not sure there's any performance by this scrub you'd admit was bad.

When your offensive rating in a game is 88, that's flat out awful. When your offensive rating is that bad and you still decided to chuck 20 shots and dominate the team's usage, it's active sabotage of the team.

edit- My mistake, he had an 82 offensive rating, not 88....I was giving him too much credit.

 

Must be something they're seeing in practice, I guess. Bullock hasn't been as solid as I thought/hoped he would be. Would rather see Cam out there right now, I agree.

 

The Pacers are rolling, so I guess they keep Hield for as long as they can.

 

I don't disagree but that's a product of having an abysmal 2nd unit offense as opposed to Jalen really elevating the units he's playing in.

 

Hoping it's rust as well, but really need him to adjust quicker to the officiating and how teams are playing him. Saw him drive a couple of times into traffic and would have preferred him to pull up for the floater or mid-range jumper. Better game from him though, especially defensively (even with coach calling him and Jabari out)... 9 rebounds, a block.

The team is still trying to find their footing offensively, but will never be good when one of the two starting guards shoots 2-13 (FVV).

 

Just need a player who can knock down an open shot and pass the ball.

Jalen does neither at this stage.

 

He's not perfect by any means but the team was visually better both offensively and defensively with him on the floor. Jabari as well. The second unit was ultimately the issue and we can point to Jalen and Dillon not hitting a timely 3 to stretch the lead to 5 late but if it wasn't for the second unit once again collectively ******** the bed in the 2nd quarter we would've been up by 13 and not 3. I'm not sure Jalen is a starter caliber player yet. Right now, Sengun/Brooks/FVV are the three surefire starters. Jalen is there because he has to be and can handle the basketball a bit.

Jalen is averaging 17.7/5.0/1.7 on .400/.25/.833 splits on 3.3 TOV per game at 35.3 MPG.

Amen is at 7.0/3.3/1.7 on .421/.200/.500 on 1.7 TOV per game at 18 MPG.

Small sample size but I feel like Amen is one of those Sengun things. At times unorthodox but just makes things happen. Not sure if Ime has the wherewithall to start Amen over Jalen one of these games and have Jalen be a scoring punch off the bench. Bringing in Amen with either of Jaesean or Tari seems like suicide. We're clearly still experimenting. Jalen/Tari/Cam/Jaesean/Jock as a second unit maybe?

 

they don’t watch our players everyday that’s why they are positive about them. When have you ever heard an opposing team announcer **** on non vet players?

 

Setting aside usage argument...

Just looking at points per fga last year...

Jalen:
1.238

Players who played 500+ minutes with more points per fga:

Garrison Mathews
Usman Garuba
Kevin Porter Jr
Eric Gordon
Alperen Sengun
Kenyon Martin Jr

The gap between Green and Sengun is .15.

Let's say we take 10 shots from Jalen per game and give them to Sengun.

That would be a 1.5 point per game improvement on offense.

Rockets were 28th in scoring last season.

That 1.5 would move them up a few spots to about where Cleveland was.

Sengun being 3rd or 4th most nights in attempts is called bad basketball.

 

True, there's no one else on the team that could score 17 points on 47.9 TS% averaging nearly 3 turnovers to every assist.

That kind of talent has to start!