STONE is still the HEDGE HONCHO. Why a FEW MAJOR HITS greatly TRUMPS MANY MISTAKES.

Yeah - no, not that severe.... and if you want to go down that route, Kobe Bryant was a full two years younger than Green in his third season and still made All NBA Third team...... McGrady was 3rd in the 6th man of the year voting as a 20 year old, third year player and was 5th in the most improved player of the year voting....

Jalen Green so far is nothing like T-Mac or Kobe, as they played in a suppressed NBA scoring environment and were light years better by the time they were 22 years old, and even arguably when they were 20 years old and in their 3rd season. Can you see Green being All NBA Third Team this year?

Green could very well turn into an all star, but his path is vastly different than guys like Kobe, T-Mac, KG and others.

Green has to take a monster step, maybe it is next year with the Rockets - maybe it is with another team next year... or maybe it never happens.

However, at this point it really isn't fair to compare him to the guys like Kobe and T-Mac, he is more like D-Angelo Russell right now.

 

You question on a third year regression is a good one, and I don't have an answer.

As far as showing star flashes - don't complicate playing time with star flashes.... Green has had a lot more minutes and shot attempts that the other young players... and the older Green gets in age and seasons in the league, the more his potential diminishes.... so that is some of it as well.

This is a SINGLE season, so there is still hope for Green, and the physical ability is there. I don't think he will ever be as good as Sengun will be at this point, but he can still be an all star if he shoots better, gets more consistent and focuses better.

 

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Oh don't get me wrong, I'm nowhere near as sold on Green as I was this time last year. I just think outside of Sengun (who I love as a player and a human, one of the easiest people to support in my entire Rockets fandom) people need to realise most everybody else could bust worse than Green. Tari's the closest next I'd have to a "hit" but there's this weird injury **** so who knows? Amen, Cam, Bari? All of these guys are as flawed as Green, even Cam hasn't put up a transcendent star performance as a scorer yet (though I'd hazard he could, he's got the mentality and the shooting chops more than Green to my eye) and Amen and Bari haven't even sniffed at the alpha performances Jalen had, they haven't actually come as close as Jalen in year 1 stood in the corner begging for a pass did. People like to play this revisionist history that Jalen just had the ball the last 2 years and forget we complained he got no touches in year 1, in year 2 KPJ was the PG, not Jalen and of course he had more reigns but so do lots of players who don't put up the numbers he did in his peaks. If we can have a guy like that not pan out, why are we calling a PG who can't shoot "a future HOF level talent" exactly? Seems the perspective's off for me.

 

One more thing I think people are being too lenient on is the incredibly poor asset management and overdrafting done in years 1-2.

4 picks in round 1. Miscalculated that Garuba would stay overseas. Added 3 more 1st rd picks year 2.

There should have been at most 2 picks each year. The other assets should have been moved for future picks or tradeable assets. Even cashing out for future second round picks would have been better than staying put.

He hasn’t been a wonder boy with second round picks either.

Yeah, you could put me in the camp of wanting an improvement. But he’s been way less bad than I thought he would be. So there’s that, which is nice.

 

You have been posting that for years now - solely focusing on points, completely disregarding everything else and FG %.

Almost every NBA player can score a ton of points if they are being given the green light to shoot endlessly, no matter what.

 

I may not have agreed with all of Stone's moves, but he inherited a team in flux and focused on building through the draft long-term. I can at least agree with that strategy. Judging him at this moment, when our six draftees are all 22 years old or younger, is premature. The effects of his first major move as GM, the Harden to Brooklyn trade, are not yet even fully realized. It got us Tari Eason, a possible lottery pick this year, two more swaps in 25 and 27, and another pick outright in 26. How do you judge that trade when most of the assets acquired have not yet been conveyed to us?

If Stone were to be fired right now, it would be reminiscent of Sam Hinkie in Philadelphia. Hinkie was fired with a .194 record and the 76ers started competing shortly afterwards. Hinkie started with a mediocre team. His successor, Bryan Colangelo, started with a team that had Joel Embiid, the #1 pick in the 2016 draft, several future first round picks, and max cap space. Gee, I wonder why Colangelo was able to get that team to 50+ wins so quickly. He's such a genius.

 

Recent history for high draft picks, Lauri Markkanen might be a decent example of a guy who was looking like a monster in his second year, then had three consecutive mediocre years before a second breakout in Utah. Andrew Wiggins signed his rookie max extension and immediately turned in one of the worst years of his career (his 4th in the league), before getting his act together due to Steph Curry.

Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans, and Michael Carter-Williams all sort of fell off linearly after their outstanding rookie years.

This is not a promising list for Green; the guys who broke out did so after they were traded, and there really isn't a success story where a guy who falls off as hard has he did this year manages to actually bring it back around for his original team.

Seems like it's for the best interest of both the team and Jalen to move on; if he does discover success, I'd wager it's likely it will be on a different team.

 

You can call majority of managers hedgers......

 

I agree with these points - but I would also add that Stone had no apparent philosophy for team building when he drafted these guys. The pieces don’t fit well… and out the gate he drafted a thin, smallish shooting guard that meant he needed a big point guard that could defend well… and play make… that made all future draft picks restricted in who they could take. Had he taken Mobley or Barnes, he would have gotten close to elite defenders that could guard multiple spots. No one bats a thousand but the Rockets look markedly different with Mobley or Barnes over Green now.

 

True and he was enamored with AAU guards like KPJ and Green for far too long.

 

The AAU-style mixtapes have more bling than Scottie or Mobley.

 

I've said this before and it bears repeating:

Be careful what you wish for in Stone being fired. once he's gone, Patrick is the next GM of this team and that could lead to a long cold winter.

I hope Stone sticks around a long time ....

 

Can they? Where are all of FVV's 40pt games with 50%fg and 40%3p this season then? He has the green light to jack it up endlessly, and is the primary ball handler that Green wasn't last year, and yet, none of those performances vs 4 of Green's in his second season. Seems a little like you're just making that up, and in fact, everybody can't just put up them numbers, because they don't.

 

If Patrick is gonna end up being GM, let’s just have it out now. It’s gonna be hard for me to stay a big rockets fan if the owner puts his kid in that role. It’s just what bad orgs do; frankly very rare now a days. I’m already very uncomfortable with Patrick having such a big role in the front office. I won’t support an organization that puts nepotism over what’s best for the team and its fans. Would rather just have that fight now than wait. If it’s coming it’s coming. Best to deal with douchebagerry head on.

 

Barnes, yes. But if we draft Mobley, we likely don’t also take Sengun, and we’d be worse now. Not to mention things seem to be clicking a bit for Green lately.

 

Why is Patrick hellbent on becoming GM, he can kick his legs back and be sort a Vice President of Bball operations and do precisely nothing.

 

another guy that only looks at 50% of the game. Amen has had incredible “alpha performances” on the defensive side of the ball and rebounding while still playing limited minutes. He and Sengun are our superstars going forward. If Green can’t find a consistent shot, his ceiling is 6-8 in the rotation. Hope he does mature, find his shot, and learn how to play team ball, but it seems to me it’s about 60-40 that he ends up as a good role player off the bench.

 

Agree with this, right now the foundations of the rebuild and building blocks are being set in place and growing.

Some fans, although not all, can be emotional and short-sighted. How good everyone they think are swings from game to game or season and not looking at the big picture over multiple seasons.

For an intentionally tanking season or seasons, they think everyone should be fired despite gaining top-four draft picks three years in a row all 19-21-year-olds with talent. Draft steals like Sengun a likely all-star, Tari and Cam with excellent potential.

The next phase with an improved win total and growth they think everything is mediocre and mixed feelings, despite having a top coaching talent brought in to help build and set the culture and those 19-21-year-olds improving for the most part.

Fans need to understand it really is a process, rebuilds in reality can take a decade if you're impatient and you can't microwave your typical rebuild to go from worst to first.

Don't be a treadmill team being hasty for the short term, the goal is to win a championship long-term. Even the Spurs with Wemby regarded as a generational talent, who we beat recently and Sengun dominated, are terrible overall with more years ahead.

Stone is doing a great job big picture and fans need to have patience to allow the team to develop over seasons and phases.