After missing a month due to injury, Rockets rookie Jalen Green makes his return against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday. It's incredible how much of the season has passed while Green was recovering. Houston has already finished 15 games of their season since Green went down with his hamstring injury on November 24th. The team Green played for almost feels completely different than the one he's returning to.
Nevertheless, his return does spice things up for a Rockets team that's lost 4 out of their last 5 games. This Rockets season was built around Jalen Green and every minute he's on the floor for Houston feels substantially more important than when he's off the floor. That's just how it is when a team selects you number two in a stacked draft class. The data Houston collects on Green is the most important they'll collect all season.
With that being said, let's take a look at what to watch for in Green's return.
Jalen Green Return Projections
1. Green's first step/burst
A few moments from Rockets practice. A lot more of this followed pic.twitter.com/eKmJMH18QM
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) December 21, 2021
We've all collectively gotten much smarter about injuries than where we were ten years ago, but in a lot of ways, it still feels like we have a long ways to go. For example, in 2018-19 when star guard Chris Paul was coming off a grade 2 hamstring strain, he came out of the gates slow for the Rockets. A large swath of people rushed to say that this was the beginning of a swift career decline. Few people even took the return from injury into consideration.
The following season when Paul returned looking like his old self, people were quicker to credit a new vegan diet than the obvious “Okay, he's healthy and has his normal burst back”. The same thing is happening with Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden now. Hamstring injuries are tough to recover from, but players who return are never given the proper benefit of the doubt. With Green, fans and media should keep that in mind when watching Jalen Green's burst.
It's his second hamstring injury in a six month time span. Then again, this latest one could have been a grade 1 strain and he looks completely fine. It's tough to tell until he's playing or gets in front of a microphone again.
2. Jalen Green with a spaced floor
If Jalen Green still has that explosive first step in his back pocket, watching him operate with a better spaced floor will be fascinating. The Rockets decided to abandon their Christian Wood and Daniel Theis starting lineup the very same game Green got hurt, so it remains to be seen how he fits in. It's presumably going to help Green to be out there with more shooting surrounding him. Houston is likely going to throw a lineup of Green, Eric Gordon, Garrison Mathews, Jae'Sean Tate, and Christian Wood out there until Kevin Porter Jr. comes back.
https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1473848057217310722?s=20
This means there will three good three-point shooters on the floor with him to start games as opposed to one. That's a lot more freedom to attack the basket and less leeway to get doubled on the perimeter. There's also going to be a ton more drive-and-kick opportunities for Green. He's been a surprisingly adept interior passer, but he hasn't really had the opportunity to do much drive-and-kick.
3. Green's chemistry with Alperen Sengun
With each passing game, rookie Alperen Sengun looks like a cornerstone talent for Houston. The Rockets also clearly view Green as a cornerstone talent – where they drafted him is enough to show that. So if these two are a part of their long-term future, they need to soak up as many minutes together as they possibly can to develop chemistry. Theoretically, the pairing makes a lot of sense.
Sengun is a much more well-rounded passer than Green and theoretically, he can be an offensive hub for more than just bench units one day. On the other side, Green is an awesome off-the-ball mover and the perfect kind of player to put next to Sengun. In the G League, he was always looking to set up for catch-and-shoot opportunities and easy layups off of cuts. There's also a ton of dribble hand off potential between the two. Sengun is already doing this with D.J. Augustin in second unit spurts.
So far, Jalen Green and Sengun have only played 122 minutes together and are a -29.7 which is obviously terrible. However, those lineups usually involved two big men and less than optimal floor spacing. Seeing them play off of each other with normal floor spacing would be a nice change of pace. It's important information to store in the bank for the Rockets as an organization.
Thursday night should be interesting.
Follow Us
Subscribe