NBA player rankings give Jalen Green all the motivation he needs to make the leap

If you talk to Houston Rockets fans, you'll hear wildly disparate opinions about Jalen Green.

He's the best young guard in the NBA. Green is an unstoppable scoring machine who treats opponents' game plans as strictly optional. The Rockets will go as far as he takes them.

Green is trash. Sure, he can get 30 on any given night. He's also prone to shooting below 40% from the field. If the Rockets can't rely on him, what's the point?

The truth lies in the middle. Green's talent is undeniable. His inconsistency is undeniably maddening.

According to Fansided's ranking of the league's top 99 players, he's the 80th best player in the NBA.

Is that fair?

Green ranked fairly by recent list

It is. Don't shoot the messenger, but this is a perfectly fair ranking for Green.

He's nestled between Anfernee Simons (79) and PJ Washington (81). Comparing Green to Washington will yield an example of why comparing players across positions is an exercise in futility. By contrast, Simons is among the most comparable players to Green in the NBA. Who's having the better season?

It's a toss-up. Green is averaging 21.6 points per game with a 55.1 True Shooting percentage (TS%), while Simons is at 18.7 points per game and 55.8 TS%. There is a playmaking gap—Simons averages 5.0 assists per game with 2.1 turnovers per game, while Green averages just 3.1 assists per game with 2.6 turnovers.

Still, Green has a Box Plus/Minus (BPM) of 0.6, while Simons is at -0.5. It's worth noting that Green is the better defender, but the discrepancy between each of their team's performances also accounts for the gap in their aggregate metrics.

Let's take a step back. The point of this piece is not to compare Green and Simons. He happens to be a spot ahead of Green. It's a toss up, but if Fansided wants to give Simons the edge because of his past body of work, that's justifiable.

If Green wants to surpass players like Simons, he's got to put in the work.

Green should be motivated to improve

Let's circle back to that playmaking gap between Green and Simons.

That's low-hanging fruit for Green. If he could add a couple of passing reads to his repertoire, he'd be a more impactful player. That would allow Green to impact the game even when his shot isn't falling.

Otherwise, Green would ideally score more consistently. It's fair to say that he's shooting a suboptimally high volume of threes because he's forced to buoy the volume for a Rockets team that struggles in that area. Perhaps roster construction will fix that, but Green needs to prove that he's worthy of being part of that long-term construction.

Even if some Rockets fans feel differently.