Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green went on a historic scoring streak late in his rookie season, and his head coach, Stephen Silas, is quite convinced that Green belongs on the 2021-22 All-Rookie First Team.
Whether Green actually receives that honor, however, is an open question. Based on media ballots thus far, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, and Orlando’s Franz Wagner appear to be locks, with the fifth spot contested between Green, Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey, and Herb Jones of the Pelicans.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, who actually has an NBA awards vote, went with Jones and explicitly attacked Green on his podcast.
“F–k Jalen Green,” Simmons said on the episode. “I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19-60. Congratulations. Herb Jones is like guarding dudes in real games. Now, the Houston people are going to be mad at me. I’m sorry. I like winning players, I’m sorry. Jalen Green will get there, it’s just that team was 21-61 this year or whatever.”
There are a number of problems with this argument, of course. For starters, Green doesn’t have a veteran next to him in Houston anywhere near the caliber of Brandon Ingram (a recent All-Star) or CJ McCollum — and it’s not as though the Pelicans (36-46) were a “winning team,” either. Furthermore, Simmons doesn’t seem to be using that same “record” standard for rookies from the Pistons (23-59) or Magic (22-60).
As a result, Rockets fans on Twitter pushed back strongly against Simmons after Wednesday’s show went live. Scroll on for the best replies.
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Jalen Green wins Western Conference Rookie of the Month for March, April
Stephen Silas makes his case for Jalen Green earning All-Rookie honors
Sure, Jalen can give you an efficient 30 points a night, but Herb Jones plays with Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum so he’s the better player because his team finished 9th in the West 🤝🤝 https://t.co/WqaAJqpQTP
— ᵂᴵᴸᴸ (@BiasedHouston) April 13, 2022
If you are in the media and slam the fact Jalen Green is not on a “winning team” and at the same time overlook that exact aspect with respect to Cade Cunningham and Franz Wagner, then that tells you all you need to know about said media. #Rockets #BillSimmons
— Chris A. White 🐻 (@fyrebear) April 13, 2022
Got it, rookie drafted by the NBA’s worst team isn’t a “winning player” because said team lost games when he was 19 years old. You seem reasonable. https://t.co/i04NbZsMj7
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 13, 2022
I don’t want to clutch my pearls here, but what Bill Simmons said about Jalen Green seems to cross the line, especially when you’re given a postseason awards vote by the NBA. https://t.co/zLZViCPX1G via @chron
— Matt Young (@Chron_MattYoung) April 13, 2022
+/- and W/L should not be stats used in evaluating rookies for awards. They are inherently going to be bad because they are on poor teams. Save the +/- & W/L for All-NBA & MVP.
— Chris A. White 🐻 (@fyrebear) April 13, 2022
See, there’s this thing about the plus/minus stat — it reflects the 5 players on the court at a given time. If 4 of them aren’t good, the team’s total output isn’t likely to be good, regardless of the fifth player in that lineup. Thanks for playing. https://t.co/HptCLRTkAW
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 13, 2022
After the draft, Bill Simmons said every top 5 pick sounded like a “we, we, we, us guy”, except for Jalen Green who he said sounded like an “I, I, I, me guy”, so this has kind of been a year long thing.
— Adam Spolane (@AdamSpolane) April 13, 2022
On a positive note — at least @KevinOConnorNBA is on here saying what he “might regret most” about his ballot is not having Jalen Green on First Team.
But this must be said: anyone talking about wins for the All Rookie teams is shifting goalposts like a pro. https://t.co/RxnuCdzT4l
— Roosh (@RooshWilliams) April 13, 2022
I don’t disagree, but that’s why the NBA either needs to strip his vote or stop having contracts tied to these awards.
The institution shouldn’t allow someone to tie his awards voting to a play, if they want the awards to have credibility. https://t.co/OyqhdgLh5D
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 13, 2022
When has “winning” been the All-Rookie Team key factor — or any real factor? Cade’s team won 23 games this year. The All-Rookie First Team last year *averaged* 22 wins. Jalen Green being punished because his team only won 20? https://t.co/ncUboIvGUw
— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) April 13, 2022
Bill Simmons bringing up a team’s record when discussing a 20-year-old rookie makes no sense. He was the #2 pick. The majority of top picks in the NBA are on bad teams for a couple years before progress is made.
Also, flat out saying “f*** Jalen” when you have a vote is weird.
— Matthew Cardenas (@Matt__Card) April 13, 2022
If the NBA isn’t going to immediately strip his vote, for life (they won’t), we need to stop having actual contract finances tied to these awards.
If actual voters want to treat the process like Twitter trolls, I guess they can, but no one should pay any attention to the results https://t.co/htGeTNI2Jb
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 13, 2022
@BillSimmons 🤡
I would like to think you are joking but given your track record we know you are not…BTW…Jalen Green is a baller and he balled out this year, but you only watch Celtics games so how would you know? #Sarge https://t.co/rXq8q1Agc5— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) April 13, 2022
I’m sorry that 19 year old Jalen Green isn’t good enough to carry the 17 win Rockets to the playoffs in his first season in the NBA @BillSimmons. We’ll try again next year 🤝🤝
— ᵂᴵᴸᴸ (@BiasedHouston) April 13, 2022
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