There’s been some moving and shaking.
Hello and welcome back to another Houston Rockets tier. This one might be the cause for some tears.
I’m so sorry, I know that was corny.
Since the last time I did one of these, the Rockets have played 38 additional games. Some important things to remember:
- This is all relative.
- ‘S’ is the highest tier and ‘D’ is the lowest.
- There’s also a ‘N/A’ tier for players who are either injured or haven’t been given many opportunities to work with.
- Lastly, if you’d like to fill out your own version of this tier, you can head over to TierMaker and put your personal touch on it.
In contrast to the previous version of this tier, Alperen Sengun and Dillon Brooks have swapped places amongst ‘S’ and ‘A’ tiers. My reasoning behind this is that Sengun has garnered the attention amongst the media as a legitimate All-Star candidate, even as he’s cooled down of late. Regardless, he’s arrived on the scene.
Brooks’ injury and the regression in the team’s defense bumped him down a level, but he’s still been a valued contributor through the majority of the season, a pleasant surprise in my book.
The veteran group of Fred VanVleet, Aaron Holiday and Jeff Green hold steady in ‘B’ tier as they did in the first edition. There’s been more Holiday and Green than I hope and expected, — in large part due to injury — but I can’t fault them for that. They’ve been solid which equals ‘B’ in my eyes.
Joining them in ‘B’ tier are the two rookies, Cam Whitmore and Amen Thompson. I’ve been real impressed by Whitmore and can’t believe he fell so far in the draft. The fact that any further talk of him going back to the G League has been eliminated is just a bigger endorsement of how high his ceiling is.
As the fourth pick in the draft, Amen could probably have stayed in ‘C’ tier given his production at a quick glance, but he’s had a rapid climb in terms of adjusting to the league as of late. He’s getting better by the minute, and plus I think we all expected it would take him some time to get acclimated, hence “meets expectations.”
Tari Eason rounds out ‘B’ tier as it’s really only been injuries that have slowed him down this season. He’d be making a case for ‘A’ if he could get a good bill of health in my opinion.
Jabari Smith Jr. leads off ‘C’ tier and while I think he’s getting better, I think he could be utilized better. I get it, they’re still figuring everything out. Jae’Sean Tate and Reggie Bullock could give us more, but I’m also not going to mope over Tate and Bullock.
Ready for some tears?
Jalen Green has sunk to ‘D’ tier, aka, not meeting expectations. I know the past couple games have looked more promising, but this is a full season assessment. He simply has to be better. I’m not asking him to be Michael Jordan, but he also can’t be Jordan Poole. If he strings together a good run against better competition I think we all will give a big sigh of relief.
He’s not alone, Jock Landale lives in ‘D’ tier as well. Again, we shouldn’t have to rely on a 37-year-old Jeff Green this much.
Everyone else plays pretty sparingly so they landed in ‘N/A’. Although…I’m tempted to put Boban in ‘S+’ for the sake of memes.
Let us know what you think!