Wrestle With This: Empty Calories

For young players, carrying the scoring load with efficiency is really difficult. Those with score-first traits might not be losing players, just guys who require more development and patience

This is an installment in the ‘Wrestle With This’ series, a collection of small articles on musings or questions I’ve gained when thinking about the ‘why’ behind draft strategy. While I may not have answers to these questions I pose, I at least want to breach the conversation and allow there to be a discussion on the topic.

Over the summer, Team USA invited dozens of players to come play in Las Vegas for the national or the select teams. It was a collection of the most talented young players that America has to offer, including Brandon Ingram, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson, and Jaren Jackson Jr.

One player participating for the Select Team was Jalen Green, going into his third season for the Houston Rockets. Green is uber-talented (as evidenced by being the former #2 overall pick) and can put the ball in the bucket with the best of them. Green had a particularly strong showing, as recognized by those superstars he was playing against.

Yet Green has been criticized (and critical of himself) for putting up gaudy numbers while not being well-rounded.

Last February, The Athletic’s Kelly Iko wrote about the blossoming relationship between Green and Anthony Edwards, another score-first combo guard. Edwards has only been in the league a year longer than Jalen, but has offered support to the youngster through his individual poor performances, the team struggles in Houston, and the labels that can be attached to a player this early in their career.

This one segment from Iko’s piece really resonated with me:

Even Cleveland Cavaliers superstar Donovan Mitchell got in on the fun:

Too often, I feel like players such as Green (or Edwards) get written off as inefficient chuckers too early in their careers because they are not balanced with their decision-making and performing on poor teams. It’s easy to look at those two factors and put them together to say the player is ‘not a winning player’ or is more concerned with their numbers and shots than with making the right play for the team.

Green is the latest to face this trend, but hardly the first. And what often doesn’t get brought up in the context is that, for players who are so gifted as scorers, it can be a multi-year process to really learn how to strike the appropriate balance and see the floor or the game differently. That doesn’t mean they aren’t willing; it just means a lot of work needs to be done to make their game more compact and efficient.

Green strikes me as one who is willing, even if he isn’t fully able yet. He recognizes where he has to improve and how early on that trajectory he is.

“I’m still in the learning process right now,” said Green to Iko last March. “I gotta be able to affect the game in other ways other than just being on the ball. Still learning how to be effective cutting, getting guys open. Sometimes, I’ll hit a kill cut here and there and guys will get an open layup. That’s all part of the process.”

I don’t really believe in this idea of ‘empty calories’. Every player is within their learning process and on a different trajectory. Some get there, and some don’t. But writing off a young player who hasn’t achieved that balance is not a business I want to get involved in. I’m a coach by trade — I’ll always believe that players can get better at anything and everything they set their mind to. It’s so hard to find a guy who is capable of even shouldering that load; I’d rather have one of them and try to refine him into a great decision-maker than have to teach someone how to put the ball in the bucket.

As for the player type of these high-upside scorers who don’t come into the league with playmaking polish, it’s a volatile group. For every Jalen Green or Devin Booker, there’s a Dion Waiters or Brandon Jennings who never fully finds that balance and reaches their potential. It’s worth noting that some of these players never get there. But does that mean it’s not a worthwhile player group to draft and invest in?

I still believe it’s a player type that, if elite traits as a scorer are flashed, is worth investing in. We’ve seen enough of these players adjust and become winners in the NBA by improving their playmaking and defense sufficiently that we know it can be done. Moreover, scoring is still the most important trait to have, and a guy who can go out there and score 20 to 30 points a night against the top individual defenders in the world does have value. I think we forget sometimes just how hard it is to put the ball in the bucket as a top option… efficiency doesn’t find young players very often.