So, where's everyone at with Jalen going into next year?

so, I’m sincerely asking this question: why is it a good thing to let Jalen become an RFA? a desperate team like Washington offers him the max or an overpay, and then we are forced to match that overpay or lose him for nothing? I don’t see that as a good move for us. Wouldn’t it be better to make a determination on Jalen and get value for him in a trade? I get that if we want to keep him it makes sense to let him go to RFA, because we can always match or negotiate an extension, but if we aren’t sold on him, why not just make a decision to recoup value and move on?

 

The NBA is about making bets. Do you risk the potential overpay from a franchise like the wizards desperately hunting for a young potential star?

Do you bet on Green deserving the max by improving on pretty much the only area he still needs improving in shooting while showing the work ethic to improve on everything else significantly?


Green has shown promise in primarily one thing this season: his ability to accept the criticism and pressure to improve his all around game. I think you make a bet on a player who is this coachable and this willing to improve with this much eye popping talent.

 

I think the reason we're talking about it is because he hasn't earned an extension of any kind as of now.

The hope.... just like at the end of every season thus far is that he finally makes the leap to being a quality player next season.

I don't think he has much trade value right now and I kind of doubt anyone offers him the max... but I think thr best plan is to give him one more chance at the start of next season. If he steps up and becomes a quality player, great, you match any offer. If he's still the same bench quality guy, you get whatever you can for him at the trade deadline.... even if it's just a 2nd, and make him someone else's problem.

 

This is just a sampler thread for what is going to be a very long offseason.

 

Of course but since when was Stone a good trader? He is mediocre at best and had to give up picks to get rid of players.

His strengths as a former lawyer lie in negotiation and contract terms ......

 

How can our front office, who gets paid to make these kinds of decisions, not know what they have in Jalen after 3 seasons? They are around him every day. They know what he looks like in practice. They know his strengths and weaknesses. They know who he is off the court. They know how hard he works. They know how much improvement he’s making. They have a ton of film on him in real games.

punting Jalen to RFA seems lazy to me unless we are sure we want to extend him. If they still don’t know what they want, then punting to RFA means taking a penalty of a lower return in trade value because they arent doing their job well, vs being decisive.

Shouldn’t we expect our front office to know what they should do with Jalen? (And maybe they already do; I guess we’ll see)

 

It's a very complicated issue.

What do you base your evaluation on? Do you base it on his performance overall? If so, you don't even consider offering him an extension.

Do you base it on the 8 game hit streak? If so, you immediately offer the max.

Do you look at both and say "I can fix him" thinking one day he'll stop being one of the worst shooters in the NBA despite all evidence to the contrary?

Also, consider what it would mean to the GM if he gives up on Jalen..... he'd be declaring his guy a bust.... does he keep his job after that?

Let's say he declares Jalen a bust and keeps his job.... what happens if in a few years Jalen finally learns how to shoot a basketball and is in contention to make all star games.... does he keep his job after that?

It's very much a complicated issue.

 

Might be one of the few times I agree with Bobbo, it's complicated.

I'm painfully pro Green but hesitant to offer any meaningful contract to him. There is obviously a lot of volatility in play. Would I offer a team friendly extension? Absolutely. But Green has way more incentives to holding out and going out for a great season to give him a great payday.

If you don't value Green then the conversation is going to be about trading him. But what are you going to trade him for if Nets already balked at picks + Green for Bridges? There is no prospect that'd we would get back that have as high as potential as Jalen and that is why I want to hold on.

 

You know what’s funny

Mavs saw Jalen for 4 seasons, between the ages of 22 - 25, got the close up valuation, didn’t extend him, and lost him in FA.

Brunson went from decent starter at 25 to top 5 NBA scorer leading his team to the playoffs by 27

What your not factoring in is player growth, the Rockets don’t know what they have in Green because he’s not a stable product.

Greens biggest problem is confidence and consistency, Jalen is different players during different portions of the season because of this

 

This is the "he's just 19, 20, 21, 22" excuse....

Let's pin down an actual target age, at what point can we expect Jalen to show some improvement when it comes to shooting to where he's no longer one of the worst shooters in the league? When will he crack the top 100 in things like 3 point%, FG%, or TS%?

Will those things ever happen or will the usual suspects be saying "he's only 27"?

 

Green's issue is not consistency. He is not a good shooter, yet. If you are having a streak of 8 games once in a year that doesn't make you a good shooter that is not consistent. The streaks are valuable, as, for example, it did not happen with KPJ. Or the scattered 40 pt games as well. But they still don't make him an inconsistent good shooter.

The conservative solution is to let him play the next season and see where he is at. As you said player growth is the most important factor here, and he has shown growth, which is very valuable when you think it together with the streaks, or a good number of 40+ games.

And fully agree with the confidence part.

 

Depends on how well Jalen himself and the team he goes to does, assuming the Rockets do the smart thing and let him leave.
What WILL make me angry is if the Rockets match.

 

No, it's not. That is not the point of my post. What am I excusing?

I was replying to the idea that a FO knows exactly who a player is after seeing them for 3 years. I gave an example of how it's not that simple with Brunson, clearly 3 or 4 years of intel isn't some magical marker that allows a franchise to know the future. I did not make any point on Jalen's value or talent, I'm just pointing out the difficulty in evaluating him due to his fluctuations as a player, and simply that.

 

I don't see anyone offering him a match based on his body of work up to this point. It's always about next year with Jalen. If he balls out in the beginning of next year then if worth a max? I don't know. We've never seen him be good in the fall as a whole, never really before the All-Star break with any consistency.

 

Fair enough, my point is that at some point a player has to perform or the team needs to go a different direction. They don't have the luxury of just continuing to extend him with the hopes that at some point in the next decade they'll learn how to shoot a basketball.

So essentially even if it's difficult to a point of being unfair to have to predict Jalen's entire future based on his first 3 seasons, it's kind of what they are tasked with doing and they have to be right no matter what they decide.

 

the lesson I take away is that Dallas should have traded or extended Brunson. Seems like the worst outcome is to lose an incredible player like Brunson for nothing. That’s what I want to avoid with Green. Parsons is another example.

 

He is and will be one of the most enigmatic players that have played the game.

 

Very well, Brunson was a deep playoff performer who actually took the chance at the first opportunity and not like Green needed tons of years to develop.

I think Dallas (Cuban) was arrogant and miscommunicated with him and his agent up to the last hour.

With Green it is more like a choce of style, just like with people saying they want to get rid of Alperen Sengün because he is too slow.....what gives.

 

I think the problem you have here is that you're assuming that the FO views Jalen the way CF views Jalen. Considering how much positive feedback Ime's given him recently, and the fact he was the best player in the NBA for an entire month of the season would (for me at least) suggest that all of those people holding on to "the organisation is done with Jalen and ready to move on" might want to re-evaluate their position...

 

Also with Jalen Brunson, he was a far better player his second season in the league than Jalen Green has ever been... if Jalen Green played that well, he'd be getting extended for sure.