Jalen Green’s frustration clear in the building - Iko

I agree. That is why I think the "start Jalen no matter what" mandate is coming from the front office or owner.

 

Aww KPJ isn’t here to take the heat off his back from the fan base and now can’t handle the pressure

 

I think Dillon had Jalen in mind when he spoke about folks not watching film in their personal time.

 

that's pretty much it. benching your prized #2 pick out of the SL immediately just gives the optics of failure, bust, and mistake. and now the rockets are in year 4 of losing seasons. Tilman and Stone definitely are without a doubt going to mask this as much as possible, especially after this past offseason

Ime has no problem benching anyone on this team. We've seen that all year. Meaning he has no problem taking anyone out of the lineup.

 

There was a video that showed him talking when he was in high school. He was able to articulate much better than he is now. It's weird. He seems to get less mature when he gets older. He must have picked up some bad influence along the way.

 

I think Stone was mostly responsible for the accountability issues because he chose to have almost no vets on the roster. Silas didn't have the luxury to bench the backcourt because he didn't have players like Aaron Holiday or Cam Whitmore. He had players like Daishen Nix, TyTy Washington, and Josh Christopher. Also, it was mandated by the front office to play Green and KPJ heavy minutes in the spirit of development while tanking for a top lottery pick. John Wall said that Silas told him he couldn't start because it was what Stone wanted. This season I think Stone may be a major factor in Udoka's unwillingness to bench Green in the starting lineup.

 

With Jalen, I think its all mental...

Eventually it will come back, but I doubt its going to be with the Rockets..

 

To quote the legendary Kevin McHale: Play harder.

 

There is 1 singular issue with Jalen that matters. His shot doesn’t go in.

I have a ton of more nuanced critiques of his game. He’s weak. Poor at the rim. Terrible hands. No shot discipline. Slow processor. Doesn’t compete enough defensively.

Guess what? Anfernee Simons does many of those same things, but worse! Tyler Herro is tissue paper defensively, and has TWO kids with a much older IG model! Malik Monk had a cocaine problem! Cam Thomas is worse at all these things than Jalen!

But also guess what? Their shot goes in.

All that other stuff is distantly secondary. Poor 3 point shooter Jalen Green as a meaningful NBA player is a concept that doesn’t exist.

 

He needs to get over his frustration and get his head straight and put some ****ing work in tbh. Imagine pissing away all that natural ability by moping your way through probably the most important year of your life so far? Insanity.

 

I don't understand why this tweet - no subscription so cannot read the article - is triggering all these responses. Should he not be frustrated? Should he be happy? Does Iko insinuate he thinks he's playing good enough to finish games? I would hope Green is angry, but he has nobody but himself to blame and needs to take a good look in the mirror. The quoted part about cutting is so on point. You see Amen & Cam cut like crazy, even Holiday and Tate. Yet Green refuses to do it. It's so weird. He's either lost complete confidence and or just doesn't know how to play without the ball.

 

Here is the problem. Jalen needs space to get to the rim, but our starting center clogs up the paint & we're not a good shooting team. Replace the starting center with a stretch big and add some shooting then Jalen will flourish. Running the offense through Sengun is fools gold

 

I think the article behind the tweet suggests his frustration isn’t directed at himself.

 

How's going anywhere gonna help Green not lose the ball when he's dribbling. Doesn't matter what kinda spacing we have. Never seen anyone else get stripped as much as him drives to basket. The only place he could possible successful is going to the Lakers where the refs will just magically give him foul calls.

 

If you look at Jalen's body language as of late every game, even when he's not benched, he looks unhappy.

Even when his teammates are going on a run and everyone else is jumping off the bench in excitement, Jalen will be still sitting off in his own thoughts.

I think it's only a matter of time Jalen will release some toxic stuff to major media sources like Woj or Sham that he wants out.

 

I think its mental that hes been THIS bad, but imo overall hes just not good enough.

 

It’s not an article. It’s a mailbag question (going back to the whole Roosh thing).

“I saw Jalen on the bench during the Suns game. He didn’t appear happy.”

Wow! Fabulous reporting!

____________________________________________
There’s some buzz going around that Jalen (Green) is frustrated with how he’s being used and how he’s not a sixth man. Can you confirm this? — Isaac D.

This has become such a divisive topic among Rockets fans and honestly, some of the reactions have been unwarranted. But let’s try to unpack this.

Green’s frustrations this season have been clear. I was in the building last Friday for one of Houston’s more impressive home wins of the season over the Phoenix Suns. Green was glued to the bench for the entire fourth quarter. He didn’t look happy. This isn’t the first, second or third time that he’s not been on the floor in critical moments. It probably won’t be the last, either.

I’ve also seen him have several conversations with Şengün, VanVleet and Udoka about in-game schematics and know he wants to find a groove. He just hasn’t been able to do so consistently, which leads to Udoka going with other options to close games.

On the whole, Green’s decision-making has improved since last season. Of course, there are still instances where he drives into oncoming traffic and his handle still needs some tightening, but as far as making the right reads the third-year guard has gotten better. That’s a natural development playing with better players around you.

The easiest path to Green’s success is to simplify things.

For example, if you sit close enough to the scorer’s table during games, you can hear Udoka yelling at his players to cut when Şengün has the ball in his hands. Green also is scoring a better-than-average 1.35 points per possession on cuts, but he’s averaging less than one per game. That can’t happen, especially given how athletic Green is and how quickly he can move without the ball toward the rim. He somehow misses this dunk, losing the ball on the way up, but you get the point.

Green’s overall shooting numbers don’t wow you, but since the All-Star break, he’s taking more catch-and-shoot looks than pull-ups, which shows a deeper understanding of the game. On the season, Green is shooting 38 percent on “open” catch-and-shoot 3s, where the nearest defender is 4 to 6 feet away per NBA.com tracking data. But that only comprises about half of his 6.5 attempts a game. I see it as a two-way street; Green should do simple things like cutting more and his other teammates (and coaches) should try to generate more open 3s for him.

I don’t see the benefit of moving him to the bench. Maybe if this was a 50-win bunch, but not with how this team is set up. Udoka places far more importance on the five players who finish a game than the ones who are on the floor for tipoff. There are some in the fan base who want Thompson to supplant Green in the starting lineup and there are those who want Whitmore. The Rockets have a goal to take no fewer than 40 3s a game and want to improve their spacing. Thompson isn’t a good enough floor spacer to start games in that manner (despite his potential), and Whitmore is a better shooter but isn’t a better overall decision-maker.

I asked Udoka earlier in the season if he would ever consider moving Green to the bench and he shut the question down. I don’t see it happening with six weeks left in the regular season.

 

This may be true, but what if it is wrong? I wrote this before, Jalen Green played with Wood, Wood can shoot, nothing changed, Jalen was still inefficient, even if you bring in Chet Holgrem, Jalen Green will not be a superstar all of a sudden.